media release
15 October 2009

Policy -Makers Must Heed Research Evidence

“In the region of five to ten percent of New Zealand children will develop significant conduct problems involving aggressive, antisocial, difficult or oppositional behaviours,” says Professor David Fergusson. “These children are at increased risk of a wide range of adverse outcomes in adolescence and adulthood, including crime, imprisonment, substance abuse and suicidal behaviours.”

 “In the last two decades there has been a rapid expansion in knowledge about the effective treatment and management of conduct problems. Yet most of the programmes listed as effective are not being widely implemented in New Zealand. Typically the government’s programme selection has been driven by the advocacy of influential groups, rather than proper research and evaluation,” says David Fergusson.

Professor David Fergusson will deliver a lecture tonight, hosted by Maxim Institute, looking at these challenges and examining the portfolio of intervention programmes available. He will argue that we need careful and thorough implementation and evaluation of these interventions, with programme selection based on the research evidence.

The lecture coincides with the recent release of Maxim Institute’s research report, Broken Boughs: The role of effective family interventions, which addresses a similar subject. The report looks at two particular intervention types, and according to one of the report’s authors, Alex Penk, “The Government is currently spending around $37.448 million on home visitation and parent management training programmes that have never been shown to be effective.”

“Intervention programmes can, if effective, make a real difference to family dysfunction, poor parenting, and resulting problems of child abuse, neglect, and severe anti-social behaviour. But while money is being poured into unproven programmes, too many New Zealand children continue to suffer in dysfunctional homes,” says Alex Penk.

Professor Fergusson’s lecture will be held at the Parenting Place in Greenlane, Auckland and is titled, Stepping In and Stepping Up: Effective interventions for conduct problems in childhood. For the last 30 years, Professor David Fergusson has been the Principal Investigator and Executive Director of the internationally renowned Christchurch Health and Development Study. He is the author of over 300 scientific articles and books and he is also actively involved in the development and evaluation of the Christchurch based intervention programme, Early Start. Professor Fergusson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, an Honorary Fellow of the New Zealand Psychological Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

ENDS

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