Canterbury Child Development Research Group

I have been working as a Māori/public health researcher since completing my Masters degree in public health in 2000. I have been involved in research across a wide range of areas relating to Māori advancement, including traditional Māori healing, Māori-focused service, programme and organisational evaluation, and Māori community, iwi and hapū development. I recently completed a PhD in Health Sciences, investigating the concept of identity as it features in the lives and experiences of Māori adoptees.

My background as a nurse in ICU and mental health led to my initial research around families / whanau and their experiences following a death in ICU. I am a qualitative researcher interested in practice based and educational research. Using a phenomenological approach to explore how people create meaning and purpose in their lives is an ongoing theme in my research and practice.

I have many years of experience in nursing and health educational leadership and management. My interest in health workforce planning and development has contributed to leading numerous collaborative projects between education and practice including curriculum development, evaluation and innovation in educational delivery.

My career has spanned New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the South Pacific. I have served on advisory groups, panels and committees for groups such as Health Quality and Safety, Nursing Council of NZ, Vanuatu Qualifications Authority, NZ Qualification Authority and the National Nurse Leaders group.

Dr. Gath's research interests are centred in developmental psychology, with a focus on parenting, family dynamics, and children's social, emotional, and moral development. Recent projects include a focus on child and youth screen media use in relation to developmental outcomes including language, educational skills, social functioning, and mental health.

Dr. Gath specialises in secondary analysis of large-scale datasets, including work with the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), the Growing Up in New Zealand study, the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, and the national assessment dataset from the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA).

 

Between Sept 2024 and Aug 2026, Dr. Gath has an Emerging Researcher Fellowship with the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation (CMRF) to examine the developmental impacts of screen media use in childhood.

Research interests include developmental psychopathology, paediatric psychology, developmental neuropsychology, teenage pregnancy and parenthood, parenting and family relationships, and the intergenerational transmission of parenting.