Blue skies latest allocations
Studies focusing on the young, old, rural communities and Māori feature in the Families Commission's latest Blue Skies funding round.
This fund allocates a total of $100,000 each year for work on topical family issues. Researchers are granted up to $15,000 per study and new studies are approved in April and September each year. Five studies were approved in the September 2006 round, from just over 40 applications. The studies are:
A feasibility study of the family partnership model in the New Zealand context. Associate Professor Annette Huntington and Helen Wilson, School of Health Sciences, Massey University, Wellington. This is a feasibility study to assess the support and willingness of various family support agencies across the sector to provide the British-developed Family Partnership Model training module for their front-line workers. The model provides for integration of front-line services, including police, within a tiered system of mental health service delivery.
Strengthening rural families: An exploration of industry transformation, community and social capital. Colin Goodrich and Kaylene Sampson, School of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Canterbury. The researchers will look at rural communities and families to explore shared social capital, in particular the degree to which social networks, civic participation, voluntary engagements and various other formal and informal arrangements contribute to the wellbeing of rural families. The analysis will include looking at how rural families have balanced paid work, family and community commitments in the context of local industry change.
Family life and support in older age. Mary Breheny and Christine Stephens, School of Psychology, Massey University, Palmerston North. The aim of this project is to talk to a range of people over 60 to find out how they experience family life, including their view of the contributions they make and the support they are given by their families.
Life lines: Young New Zealanders imagine family, friends and intimacy across their life course. Dr Lesley Patterson, Dr Robin Peace and Christy Parker, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Massey University. The researchers will ask 90 Year 13 secondary students to write about how they imagine their futures to be, with a particular emphasis on family, friends and intimate relationships. The results will be analysed to find out how young people are making sense of the changing nature of contemporary social life, including their relationship ideals and the importance they place on their family and other relationships.
Whānau/family socialisation through everyday talk. Associate Professor Huia Tomlins-Jahnke and Professor Arohia Durie, Te Uru Maraurau School of Māori and Multicultural Studies in Education, Massey University. This study is a test of a new way of carrying out research, using adult members of a family to record family conversations. The tape recordings will be analysed by the whānau and researcher together and the process videotaped. The information gathered through the interviews will be used to improve understanding of how whānau conversations contribute to whānau identity.
