Strengthening Family Relationships Conference

Our Strengthening Family Relationships conference, held on December 4th, was a great success. Jointly hosted by the McKenzie Centre and Ministry of Social Development, with funding from SPEaR, the conference brought together a diverse range of researchers, policy makers, practitioners and advocates working with and for families.

The Vice Chancellor, Stuart McCutcheon, opened the day and Hon. Steve Maharey presented recent NZ statistics on families and his thoughts on future policy for NZ families. The three keynote speakers were thought-provoking in their presentation of research results and the possible implications for policy.

Professor Paul Amato, from Pennsylvania State University, spoke on parenting through transitions. He argued that parental separation frequently disrupts quality of parenting for a variety of reasons. He encourages a co-parental relationship or at least a parallel parenting structure post-separation.
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Professor Thomas Bradbury, from the University of California, addressed parenting partnerships. He showed how relationship satisfaction often declines over time, but a combination of ongoing stress and an acute stressful event is particularly detrimental. Couple interventions are useful so long as they have follow-up activities.
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Associate Professor Graeme Russell, from Macquarie University in Australia, spoke about fathering in families. He began with the assumption that fathers and fathering are critical, but are often rendered invisible. A key site where men can be encouraged in their role as fathers is in the workplace, in line with gender equity and work/life balance programmes.
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Each of the three keynote speakers were followed by a diverse panel of New Zealand experts, who added a depth of local knowledge and a range of perspectives to the international research presented.

The sessions were chaired by Charles Waldegrave, director of the Family Centre.

The following day research and policy staff from the Ministry of Social Development and the Roy McKenzie Centre participated in a small workshop with the three keynote speakers, considering the implications that international research has for the New Zealand context.