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Research on obesity and its implications for health and well‐being has been a global focus. However, this examination has often overlooked the unique perspective of intracultural Pasifika communities. In New Zealand, Pacific Islanders are one such community. For Pasifika diaspora communities, obesity is a common precursor to poor health outcomes. As a result, my research has honed in on the social, cultural, and economic factors contributing to obesity in these cohorts. The practical implications of this study underscore the urgent need for culturally sensitive intervention programs that respect and work within the cultural norms of these communities aimed at alleviating this condition. This emphasis on cultural sensitivity is crucial for understanding and addressing the issue. My research delves into the emic perceptions of what “Big” entails, particularly within intracultural Pasifika communities. I explore contemporary conceptions and their implications for health and well‐being. I argue that Pasifika churches, as socio‐cultural villages, have the potential to transform into safe, healthy spaces for their people. This transformation could significantly reduce the prevalence of an obesogenic environment and contribute to improved mental and physical health for the population. This optimistic perspective, which highlights the potential for positive change, guides my exploration of a relevant recommendation for the issue at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a qualitative-based study on the life-course of people in Aotearoa-New Zealand who formerly used methamphetamine, this paper utilises Ronel's criminal spin theory to provide a phenomenological and situational understanding of self-control over methamphetamine use. The initial motivation for using methamphetamine for the 42 former users was typically to adhere to social norms and fit into conventional roles and expectations. While one-third lost a moderate level of control and almost two-thirds lost a lot, almost half thought they had control while using and only seven wanted to stop but could not. Despite diminished choice and narrowed interests, people who frequently use methamphetamine can control, constrain, reduce or even stop methamphetamine use when they have good reasons for doing so. Financial considerations, family commitments, work responsibilities, and recognition of the negative impacts on one's health or functioning show those who have a stake in conventional life have the capacity to exert self-control over methamphetamine use. Self-control can be achieved by engaging in 'self-policing' strategies, such as implementing social and/or geographic avoidance, or by placing a financial, temporal, geographic, technological, informational or access 'barrier' between themselves and methamphetamine, or by exercising willpower. Self-control may be better understood as a situational concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although swearing is often perceived as intrinsically offensive language, it is how swearing use is indexed against a person's understanding of local social norms that constructs swearing as offensive. This paper presents an analysis of swearing within a social context where high frequency swearing is a norm: a male rugby team in New Zealand. Drawing upon a dataset collected from ethnographically collected authentic interactions, an analysis of the frequency of swear words and a comparison with other English corpora is presented, followed by an interactional sociolinguistic analysis of how swearing is used in interactions. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate not only how swearing can be used to engender solidarity, but that a range of socio-pragmatic functions of swearing such as intensifying and indexing a vernacular identity, can be used in performing leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the ways in which discourses operate when parents talk about their children's participation in rugby league in New Zealand. The primary interest was in the recruitment and reinforcement of sport and physical activity discourses. The paper uses a critical discursive psychological approach to identify regularities in the ways a sample of parents spoke about their children's sport and links these patterned ways of speaking to the dominant discourses that they both comprise and are composed of. The navigation of discourses, chiefly those around masculinity, revealed that children's sport and physical activity are regarded in gendered ways. The parents' engagement with dominant discourses enabled them to position themselves as both knowledgeable of social norms and acting in the best interest of their child(ren). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil Aviation Rules (CARs) are aviation safety regulations to ensure a safe and efficient aviation system. Many countries have introduced or modified such regulations as the number and complexity of unmanned aircraft operations increases. Despite this, the literature on compliance with these regulations is limited and tends to focus on conceptual issues or only specific regulations (e.g., registration). This study is the first to examine compliance among unmanned aircraft users with a full set of CARs, incorporating all the nuance associated with each CAR to determine compliance. The total number of CARs being broken can then be tallied for each participant to create an overall compliance score. The sample consisted of 879 New Zealand unmanned aircraft users. These users were asked about what sorts of operations they undertook and under what conditions, which was then used to determine compliance with each CAR. Participants were also categorised based upon user type, whether they had undertook training or completed a flight examination, membership to Model Flying New Zealand (MFNZ) or UAVNZ, and whether they had operated for a certificated organisation. The findings reveal that 83.52% of users are fully compliant with the CARs, while 11.64% are non-compliant with a single CAR, 3.52% with two CARs, and 1.33% with three or more CARs. The biggest difference between compliance levels was between MFNZ members who were more compliant than all other users. This highlights that the model flying club environment introduces social norms that regulate compliance. Other users more broadly follow ordinary attitudes towards compliance with speed limits when driving, which tend to be driven by social norms and legitimacy rather than instrumentalist approaches. This study recommends education around the consequences of non-compliance, a re-examination of the rules for legitimacy, and further enforcement action for non-compliance as potential policy initiatives to improve compliance among users. • This study examines unmanned aircraft user compliance with Civil Aviation Rules. • Most users are fully compliant, but a significant number are breaking some rules. • Model flying club members are more compliant due to internal rules and social norms. • Education around the effects of non-compliance may improve compliance. • Rules should be examined for legitimacy to improve compliance alongside enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have recently begun to consider the role of bystander intervention training in countering workplace incivility and bullying. Given the scarce empirical evidence of bystander training outcomes in occupational settings, this study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of a bystander intervention training in a large healthcare organisation, by assessing changes to levels of psychological safety, bystander efficacy, intent and behaviours over time. One hundred and forty employees in a large healthcare organisation in New Zealand attended the training and were asked to complete three surveys, one conducted at baseline, one carried out 2 weeks following the training and the last survey conducted 2 months later. The qualitative and qualitative findings of this study show that the bystander intervention training resulted in significant improvements to bystander attitudes and beliefs, which were ascribed to the quality of training materials, the facilitator and opportunities to role-play bystander intervention strategies. However, the positive bystander beliefs, attitudes and intent to intervene declined in the months following the training. The qualitative findings shed a light on these results and suggest that the participants required support for training transfer in the form of updated and accessible information about negative acts and bystander intervention strategies, leadership support and role modelling of bystander behaviours and civility, and the implementation of accountability systems that ensure the ongoing development of a civility culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This opinion piece discusses three aspects that can cause tensions for Christian social service practitioners who work in secular employment. We bring our observations as educators of social service practitioners in the vocational setting. Our specific geographic and historical context of Aotearoa New Zealand adds to the aspects presented. The training of social service workers necessitates covering values and ethical decisions that may be faced in practice. Codes of practice and societal norms may at times, be in conflict with the values held by the practitioner. There is growing awareness that the state in some Western democracies is less secular today and may be entering a post-secular age in which religious pluralism is the norm. How this impacts the Christian practitioner and their training is still under-researched. We add to the discourse by providing a unique context to issues already expressed by others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Military spouses are situated at the junction of the military and civilian worlds. They provide necessary support to military strategic and operational objectives and are also expected to perform a traditional spousal role of the 'good' military wife. This article demonstrates the existence of strong military partner archetypes which guide military community norms and expectations of spousal behaviour. In 14 qualitative interviews and five focus groups with Australian military partners, participants revealed many different, yet firm, sentiments related to identity, including fierce independence; a sense of belonging; self-reliance; a desire to help others; belief in fairness and pragmatism. The archetypes outlined in this article shape how partners see their role, and how they interact with other non-military partners and the military organization. This research delivers insights into optimizing military partner services to better support spouses through deployment, relocation and other military experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second wave feminist dream of smashing the patriarchy remains a task yet to be completed on a complex to do list. Women, particularly able-bodied cis-gendered white women however do enjoy the privilege of living longer than men. But our longer lives take place within patriarchal-capitalist systems where many women's social and cultural rights continue to be compromised. How do we ensure that all women can exercise our right to health and wellbeing? In this paper, the authors examine, critique, review and re-vision the dynamics of power and patriarchy over three distinct time periods – 1999, 2019 and 2039. We look to the past to track progress; we look to the present to see what we have achieved and look to the future for what might be. This conceptual paper is informed by the authors' expert knowledge, a review of the literature and the novel use of speculative ethnography. The authors conclude that patriarchy remains not only a negative determinant of women's health that needs to be smashed, but is also a threat to all people and to planetary health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how university students in Pacific Island contexts coped with the shift to remote learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers aimed to investigate the social capital of a group of Pasifika university students in Fiji, New Zealand and Solomon Islands universities during COVID-19 and how they coped with the rapid shift to remote learning. Social capital refers to building relationships and networks to deal with collective issues in the present and future. The researchers used tokstori to collect data from Solomon Islands students and talanoa in New Zealand. Sixteen Solomon Islanders participated in tokstoris and ongoing Pasifika students' talanoa and faikava (kava consumption) to share concerns and challenges to their academic studies and lives. Deductive in nature, the analysis found that communication with fellow students, often via digital media, and interaction with supportive staff helped their success. Furthermore, getting in touch with the family and following COVID-19 protective practices helped students adjust positively. Being able to 'tap' the social resources within these spaces helped build perseverance, resilience and strong social capital. The research findings show the importance of individuals, student communities and institutions consciously strengthening social networks among students during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthcare systems can be considered moral economies in which moral capital in the form of expectations toward norms, values, and virtues are exchanged and traded. Moral capital, as a concept, is an extension of Bourdieu's forms of symbolic, and in particular, cultural capital. This research set out to identify forms of moral capital evident in the accounts of health professionals and patients within the distinctive healthcare systems of Germany, New Zealand, and the Unites States. Here, we provide an overview of 15 forms of moral capital that were identified. An important form of moral capital is equality. The global coronavirus pandemic has illuminated inequalities in healthcare systems across the world. We suggest considering moral capital as a useful tool to reform healthcare systems and make the provision of healthcare a more equitable enterprise. • Healthcare systems can be considered moral economies in which moral capital is traded. • The authors identified 15 forms of moral capital in Germany, New Zealand, and the Unites States. • Forms of moral capital include equality, trust, and solidarity, among others. • Moral capital can be a useful tool to reform healthcare systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The figure of the emigrant and the process of migratory return raise questions about the coherence of nations and generate anxiety about the disruption of social and cultural norms. We explore these tensions through a focus on filmic representations of emigrant return and the manner these articulate a gendered moral politics of migration. Our analysis focuses on the settler colonial context of New Zealand and two films, In My Fathers Den and Jinx Sister, that narrate the return of emigrants, their encounters with local populations and the cultural discrepancies that surface in return. Situated in relation to discourses that valorise emigrants as additions to globally connected nations, these films reveal anxiety as a resonant affect of diasporic return that emerges in behaviour, space and distance and the gendering of returnees. Rather than embracing the return of successful kin, the films reveal moral politics wherein differences must be erased to reinstate belonging in the nation and expectations for change are more pronounced for women than men. The paper demonstrates the importance of popular imaginations to understanding the meanings associated with migration, particularly examining how women and men are situated differently in relation to emigration and the social expectations of return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a study that examined the experiences of four high-achieving Pasifika physiotherapy degree level students to identify factors contributing to their success. As peer students, they identified five approaches that assisted them to become high achievers within the tertiary environment. This paper refers specifically to these approaches as peer-based Pasifika pedagogies (PbPP) and broadly as culturally responsive practices. The aim of this paper is to examine how Pasifika pedagogies, such as PbPP provide culturally responsive practices that can address the 'culture of silence' while promoting the vā relationality, the cultural nuances and norms of their worldview as well as aligning it with modern pedagogies or tools to enhance success among Pasifika students in the New Zealand tertiary education context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research into waste has moved beyond focusing on individual behaviour change to the wider practices, systems, and social norms that construct and perpetuate waste. Running alongside this work on waste, community economy scholars have been exploring how communities form around and care for commons. In this paper we draw on social practice theory and community economy thinking to illustrate how a food rescue organisation, Kaibosh, based in Wellington, New Zealand, has created practices and mobilised meanings that enable people to collectively manage surplus food, address food poverty, and reduce waste. We show how these food rescue and distribution practices push back against individualised despair, moralism, or guilt, and connect people across food systems. Recent critiques of food rescue and wider food philanthropy argue that such practices can be used to justify further welfare retreat, or distract from the need for genuine agri‐food sector reform. While we are sympathetic to these critiques, our findings suggest something different: people get involved in food rescue as a practical way to address food injustice and waste. We show how social practice theory can be used to understand how communities form around a commons that responds to pressing socio‐environmental issues in the here and now. Recent research into waste has moved beyond focusing on individual behaviour change to the wider practices, systems, and social norms that construct and perpetuate waste. Running alongside this work on waste, community economy scholars have been exploring how communities form around and care for commons. In this paper we draw on social practice theory and community economy thinking to illustrate how a food rescue organisation, Kaibosh, based in Wellington, New Zealand, has created practices and mobilised meanings that enable people to collectively manage surplus food, address food poverty, and reduce waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate propagation of source uncertainty due to non-uniform distribution of slip with the tsunami wave field to the coast and consequences of this uncertainty for regional and local tsunami forecasts. This study uses New Zealand (target) and the Tonga Kermadec Subduction Zone (source region) as an example. We simulated 1632 non-uniform slip ensembles with an ensemble size of 51 scenarios each for 8 different source locations and 4 different magnitudes (8.1, 8.4, 8.7, 9.0) along the source region. We investigate the behaviour of ensemble standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of variation (CoV = SD/mean) as a function of magnitude, bathymetry, azimuth and distance. CoV spatial distribution is controlled by the bathymetry and is found to show no discernible trend with distance or azimuth and does not decay with distance. CoV also only shows weak dependence on the magnitude of the event. SD is a function of azimuth and distance as it depends on the tsunami amplitude. SD spatial distribution is controlled by the bathymetry like the CoV but shows more systematic behaviour. Because it is a function of tsunami amplitudes, it decreases with distance in the open ocean and increases in coastal waters as tsunami amplitude builds. In coastal locations we observe exponential decay of SD with distance to the source. Beyond roughly 1500 km SD does not decay any further and does not exceed 1 m even for magnitudes Mw 9. These effects cause New Zealand coastal forecasting threat levels to change in a considerable number of zones for all magnitudes and distances investigated here, when the worst case of uncertainty is considered for an ensemble-based threat level assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores European (Pākehā) settlers' perceptions of smells and why certain smells were labelled as threatening and transgressive, whereas others were deemed desirable and health-inducing. Whether it was the stench of dried fish, the musky odours of wetlands or the scent of flowers, representations of smell pervade the writings of Pākehā in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this paper, we draw attention to the critical role smells played in Pākehā settlers' perceptions of and efforts to radically remake terrestrial and freshwater systems of the Waipā and Waikato Rivers (located in the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Smells, scents, and aromas were all-powerful aides connected to Pākehā settlers' understandings of health and disease. They influenced individual settlers and settler colonial government actions to remake landscapes and waterscapes. Nevertheless, smellscapes are largely overlooked by scholars when discussing environmental change and management regimes. • Smells informed how people experience environments, foods, biota, and other people. • Colonial New Zealand comprised of landscapes, waterscapes, and smellscapes. • Gender norms and race-based thinking influenced settler colonial smellscapes. • Settler colonial project in New Zealand involved to remake deodourise wetlands. • Indigenous Māori occupied ambiguous positioning settler colonial smellscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has forced us to think critically about alternative global and local response strategies to the unprecedented devastation. Some of the most infected groups are Pacific communities and this has raised concern about the need to seriously address the issue of health and socio-economic inequality. One way of doing this is through social protection. The paper critically examines some of the conventional notions of social protection, especially those predicated on market-imperatives and assumptions and argues for new and community-relevant innovative social protection strategies to effectively mitigate the effects of COVID-19. It then discusses the integrated social protection approach (ISPA). The paper argues that while ISPA is an attempt to create an alternative, inclusive and participatory social protection strategy, the issues of equity in terms of distribution of resources and power still need to be fully addressed because of their potential to cause tension within the community. The meaningful participation and empowerment of the Pacific communities and the strategic use of their cultural norms in social protection framing and implementation are important in building up resilience and sustainability to mitigate effectively against the sudden onset of pandemics such as COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Filial piety is a highly relevant cultural mechanism that mediates the impacts of caregiving experiences on Chinese adult children, worldwide but perhaps especially in rural China. We undertook qualitative research with 24 migrant workers who were caring for an elderly parent diagnosed with terminal cancer. Research aims included building a comprehensive explanatory theoretical model for filial piety's mediating role in caregivers' lived experiences. We undertook a culturally sensitive Foucauldian discourse analysis of data, which showed that filial piety can not only function as a positive resource but also (mainly) translate to a requirement for secrecy, including about an ill parent's prognosis and the need for support for caregivers. The findings challenge the extent of this secrecy and the burdens it places on caregivers. Policy makers should take account of the importance of filial piety and its mediating role both as a resource and hindrance to providing support to caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of countries have, or are moving towards, reforming cannabis policies. New Zealand is also moving in this direction and the government will hold a referendum on the legalization of recreational cannabis in September 2020. To inform imminent public and political discussions it is important to understand how current cannabis use is controlled. Research suggests that cannabis law has been ineffective in NZ. Internationally, informal controls, rather than the law, have been found to shape cannabis use by creating a threshold for normalization, but the attitudes shaping this threshold are unknown. This study aimed to examine drug acceptability attitudes, specifically students' attitudes towards the illegal use of cannabis and their attitudes towards peers who abstain, sometimes use, or are heavy users of cannabis, to identify the factors that control cannabis use. Using a mixed methods approach, university students recruited their peers (N = 535) to complete a pen and paper survey investigating perceptions towards 3 cannabis user prototypes (abstainers, moderate users, heavy users), concern for legality of cannabis use, and the integration of cannabis into the student culture (perceptions of peers' use, ease of acquisition, and availability). Perceptions of peers' lifetime and regular use were 82% and 38.5%, respectively. Participants rated cannabis as easy to acquire and likely to be available at a typical student social occasion. The majority stated that the law does not deter use (92.7%); participants perceived the law to be soft and that they are unlikely to get caught. Participants' descriptions of the 3 cannabis user prototypes revealed a threshold for normalization. For instance, abstaining was perceived to be associated with positive attributes (such as being studious), linked to being less sociable, and linked to being less likely to be judged. Moderate use of cannabis was perceived to be normal and sociable. Heavy use was perceived to be associated with having negative attributes, such as being addicted, unhealthy, and an underachiever, and negative drug labels. Our findings revealed that cannabis use is not controlled by the law, but by informal thresholds of control. Moderate cannabis use is accepted whereas heavy cannabis use is not. We extended research by identifying the attitudes shaping these thresholds, in particular that negative outcomes associated with heavy use deters the normalization of this behavior. We argue that policy must be informed by, and build on, these informal controls. The negative perceptions associated with heavy use also raise concerns regarding the well-being of heavy users, and coupled with the ineffectiveness of cannabis law, lend support towards a health model for regulating cannabis. Furthermore, insights into the negative perceptions associated with heavy use could inform health interventions on the types of concerns that will resonate with users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social learning is a process suited to developing understanding and concerted action to tackle complex resource dilemmas, such as freshwater management. Research has begun to recognise that in practice social learning encounters a variety of institutional challenges from the shared habits and routines of stakeholders (organised by rules, norms and strategies) that are embedded in organisational structures and norms of professional behaviour. These institutional habits and routines influence the degree of willingness to engage with stakeholders, and expectations of behaviours in social learning processes. Considering this, there has been a call to understand how institutions influence social learning and emergent outcomes. We addresses this by presenting a heuristic for implementing social learning cognisant of institutional context to answer three questions: (i) How institutional influences impact implementation of social learning design; (ii) how implementation of social learning design modifies institutions influencing social learning; and (iii) how these changes in design and institutions together shape social learning outcomes? To answer these questions a freshwater planning exercise was designed, implemented and evaluated as a social learning process with community groups in two New Zealand catchments. Incorporating participatory reflection enabled the project team to modify social learning design to manage institutional influences hindering progress toward outcomes. Findings emphasise that social learning is underpinned by participants' changing assumptions about what constitutes the institution of learning itself—from instruction to a dynamic, collective and emergent process. Reflecting on these assumptions also challenged participants' expectations about their own and others' behaviours and roles in freshwater planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unpredictability of earthquakes poses a significant challenge to examining and understanding the effects of these events on risk-related perceptions and behaviour. Natural experiments, a type of quasi-experimental method, allow for close approximations of treatment- control designs when data collection and earthquake events coincide. This study reports one such natural experiment, testing the effect of the November 2016 Kaikōura earthquake on risk perception, perceived norms, and preparation among residents of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Additionally, this research tested whether previously demonstrated effects of social norm messaging on support for recent legislation for strengthening earthquake-prone buildings was weaker following the event. As expected, earthquake preparation and concern were higher after the earthquake. Social norm effects were weaker after the earthquake but did not disappear entirely; these effects therefore appear to be relatively robust even to significant events, supporting the use of social norms in earthquake-related messaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that preparation for natural hazard events reflects several factors including risk judgments and the cost of the actions. Research has also shown the effects of norms in other domains but very little research regarding natural hazards. This study examined risk judgments and preparedness norms following the recent Kaikōura earthquake. Wellington citizens judged the risk of earthquakes in Wellington, Kaikōura, and other parts of New Zealand ("elsewhere") before and after the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake. They also reported their preparation and perception of norms for different categories of actions. Judgments of the risk of a further earthquake occurring following the Kaikōura earthquake rose more for Kaikōura than for Wellington and elsewhere, but participants still judged an earthquake more likely in Wellington and elsewhere than in Kaikōura. Preparation was positively related to risk judgment and to the judgment that preparing was normative, particularly for survival actions. These findings suggest that normative information adds to the effect of risk perceptions about the probability of an earthquake to enhance preparation for these hazards. This finding can be applied in risk communications for earthquakes and other hazards by referencing norms for adaptive behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1952, Māori forms of customary marriage were made legally invalid. This article investigates the application of a state marriage registration system to Māori in the early decades of the twentieth century that was designed to encourage Māori to conform to European marital models. It focuses, in particular, on how Christianity and English law were deployed as modernising forces by a new generation of Māori intellectuals who emerged in the 1890s under the banner of the Te Aute College Students' Association (TACSA), later known as the Young Māori Party. United by their Anglican faith, TACSA favoured a process of adaptive acculturation in certain areas of social life, where select customs were to be retained and protected, so as to secure demographic and cultural survival. Marriage was highly valued because it was linked to the collective interests of whānau (family) and iwi (tribe) in matters of land and inheritance. As marriage was linked to collective futures, the article argues that maintaining and protecting marriage customs was one strategy for holding on to culture, land and autonomy in the face of increasing state efforts to require Māori to conform to European norms and traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on findings from an ethnographic study with six young refugee background learners from Syria resettling in New Zealand. The focus is on their everyday language practices and making sense of what they do in relation to learning English, and why they do it. Bourdieu's (1991) theory of practice is the main theoretical lens used to focus on how learners reposition themselves and are positioned (habitus) within their local school, New Zealand society and transnational online world (field) as well as the importance of different resources (capital) in their language practices. Photo-voice was utilised as a key method to elicit participants' voices as well as to capture their everyday language practices. There are three main findings that relate to language learning that emerge: 1) the role of 'doxa', 2) the field that includes the social structure, particularly the gendered norms and expectations, and 3) the role of capital and more "durable" social position that influence participants' language learning and resettlement experiences. I conclude by noting how the narratives and photo images from participants illustrate the complexity involved in language learning and learners' motivation/investment and signal the importance of individual narratives to understand language learning alongside wider social processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The (older) single woman has evoked numerous negative sociocultural stereotypes in recent (Western) history, with “being single” a fraught position for (heterosexual) women. Have shifts toward gendered equality changed this stereotype? We interviewed 21 young heterosexual women in Aotearoa (New Zealand) about their experiences of being single. We focused on young adulthood (ages 25-35), a time when having children might be a particularly salient concern. Women’s experiences of being single were inextricable from their wider experiences of heterosexuality and pressures to enact a “desirable” femininity. A thematic analysis identified four patterned sets of pressures, which we conceptualised as rules that govern hetero-relating: (a) pressures and expectations surrounding beauty standards, (b) (allowing for) aspects of male control and superiority, (c) acceptable/unacceptable gendered standards of sexuality, and (d) eventual and mandatory (heterosexual) coupling (by a “certain” age). Participants remained largely subject to traditional ideas around heterosexual gender roles, with identifiable punishments for “unfeminine” behaviour. Many women did articulate resistance and critique, even as most also expressed complicity. In this context, singledom was constructed as a “defective’ state,” even if desired, suggesting it remains a complex and precarious position to occupy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the trends in adolescent risk-taking behaviours among high school students in New Zealand, as of 2018. Topics include possible reasons for trends in risk-taking behaviours, policies and programmes targeting specific risk behaviours, and societal influences on multiple risk behaviours.

Abortion is an under-researched, sensitive and politicised topic, but in the New Zealand context, there is a conspicuous dearth of exploratory research on Indigenous (Māori) perspectives on abortion, despite some indication that Māori seek abortion services. International research that attends to the socio-cultural context of abortion evidences a fascinating variability of perspectives and attitudes about abortion, with some commonalities and patterns of resistance. Within accounts of Māori historical practice of abortion, there is some evidence of variability, and we sought to better understand the contemporary socio-cultural context surrounding Māori perspectives on abortion. As part of an Indigenous feminist (Mana Wāhine) interview study with 43 participants (26 women, 17 men), thematic analysis of participants’ talk about abortion identified notions regarding “protection of a new life”, “woman’s individual choice”, and “extended family investment and support” as foregrounded themes. We describe a rich and nuanced account of Māori perspectives on abortion, describing how these are structurally embedded within particular socio-historical and socio-cultural contexts, including Māori ideologies and theories, colonisation and Christianity, and women’s rights activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research indicates that women are the primary family caregivers for others at life’s end and, because of ageing populations, will keep fulfilling this role as they age. Yet, little is known about how the gendered nature of caregiving contributes to older women’s understandings of providing care. Aim: To explore how gender norms constructed older women’s views about the appropriate roles of women and men in providing palliative and end-of-life care for family members. Design: Six focus groups were conducted with 39 community dwelling older adults (36 women and 3 men) using two vignettes to prompt discussion about experience of end of life caring and attitudes towards Advance Care Planning. This article reports on data gathered from female participants’ reactions to Vignette 1 which prompted significant discussion regarding the intersection of gender and older women’s caregiving experience. Setting/participants: A total of 36 women in the age ranges of ‘50–59 years’ through to ‘90–99 years’ from New Zealand. Results: Three themes regarding gender and caregiving were identified: the expectation women will care, women’s duty to care and women’s construction of men in relation to caregiving and illness. The women adhered to stereotypical gender norms that regard women as primary caregivers. There was little connection between the burden they associated with caregiving and this gender construction. Conclusion: The expectation that older women will provide end-of-life care even when experiencing considerable burden is an unacknowledged outcome of gender norms that construct women as caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper reports the quantitative outcomes of a mixed-methods pilot study of the characteristics and demographics of chiropractic practices and patients in Western Australia. Methods: This was a mixed-methods data transformation model (qualitative to quantitative) pilot study. A non-random sample of chiropractic practices across Western Australia was recruited and data collected anonymously from consecutive new patients using an online platform. Data covered practice and patient demographics and characteristics, alongside quality of life measures. A descriptive quantitative analysis characterised the sample, and the patient population was stratified by main reason for presentation to compare characteristics according to the presence of secondary complaints. Odds ratios were calculated to estimate the odds of a secondary complaint for various combinations of main complaints, from univariate logistic regression models. Results: Of the 539 registered practitioners in WA in July 2014, 33 agreed to participate, from 20 different practices. Ten participating practices provided data on 325 adult new patients. The recruited practices (metropolitan n = 8, regional n = 2) had a positive response rate of 79.7% (n = 301 metropolitan and = 24 regional patients), mean age 36.3 years (range 18-74) (53.2 % female). Spinal problems were reported as the main reason for consultation by 67 % and as secondary reasons by 77.2 % of patients. People presented primarily for health maintenance or a general health check in 11.4 %, and as a secondary reason 14.8 %. There were 30 % of people below societal norms for the SF-12 Physical Component Score (mean 47.19, 95 % CI; 46.27-48.19) and 86 % for the Mental Component Score (mean 36.64, 95 % CI; 35.93-37.65), Pain Impact Questionnaire mean scores were 54.60 (95 % CI; 53.32-55.88). Conclusions: Patients presented to chiropractors in Western Australia with a fairly wide range of conditions, but primarily spinal and musculoskeletal-related problems. A significant proportion of patients had associated, or found to be at risk of, depression. Consequently, there are responsibilities and opportunities for chiropractors with respect to providing care services that include health promotion and well-being education related to musculoskeletal/spinal and mental health. This pilot study supports the feasibility of a future confirmatory study where the potential role of chiropractors in spinal/musculoskeletal health management may be explored. Trial registration: ACTRN12616000434493: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR), Registered 5 April 2016, First participant enrolled 01 July 2014 Retrospectively Registered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: The rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) amongst midlife and older heterosexual women in New Zealand is rising. Popular culture celebrates a heightened sexuality for this population group. However, depictions of sexually savvy 'cougars' are at odds with reality for many women. International literature highlights that these women are often ill-equipped to negotiate safer sex and condom use, instead focusing on pleasing men and attributing their silence to spontaneity. The study aimed to explore barriers to safer heterosexual sex as perceived by midlife and older New Zealand women who are re-partnering or in casual relationships. METHODS: This qualitative study utilised Interpretive Phenomenology Analysis, supported by the theory of gender and power, to examine the gender-normative assumptions and behaviours in women's accounts of unprotected sex. Eight single women aged 40-69 participated in individual, in-depth interviews. This exploration included eliciting women's accounts of potential information resources, such as clinical consultations. FINDINGS: Analysis indicated that these women held misconceptions about STI transmission but had not sought educational material, nor discussed their sexual health with health professionals. Results highlighted women's ambivalence about prioritising safer sex, preferring to comply with partners' wishes, particularly when under the influence of alcohol. Women described valuing their own pleasure and their distaste for condom use, but data emphasised that women predominantly aligned their choices with men's preferences. CONCLUSION: This study highlights that the women were both ill-informed and vulnerable with regards to sexual health. General practitioners are well placed to provide education and sexual health advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women’s and men’s bodies and sexuality can be understood as socially situated and socially produced. This means they are affected by, and developed in relation to, patterned sociocultural meanings and representations. We aim here to understand a recently emergent, and potentially gendered, body practice—pubic hair removal—by examining the meanings people ascribe to pubic hair and its removal. Extending the widespread hairless bodily norm for Anglo/Western women, pubic hair removal is an apparently rapidly growing phenomenon. Men, too, are seemingly practicing pubic hair removal in significant numbers, raising the question of to what extent pubic hair removal should be understood as a gendered phenomenon. What we do not yet know is what people’s understandings and perceptions of pubic hair are, and how they make sense of its removal. Using a qualitative survey, the current study asked a series of questions about pubic hair and its removal, both in general and related to men’s and women’s bodies. In total, 67 participants (100% response rate; 50 female; mean age 29, diverse ethnically, predominantly heterosexual) completed the survey. Thematic analysis identified five key themes in the way people made sense of pubic hair and pubic hair removal that related to choice, privacy, physical attractiveness, sexual impacts, and cleanliness. Meanings around pubic hair and its removal were not consistently gendered, but it was still situated as more of an issue for women. With potential impacts on sexual and psychological well-being, sexuality education provides an important venue for discussing, and questioning, normative ideas about pubic hair. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is widely agreed that current institutions are insufficient to meet global water challenges, and extensive institutional reforms are needed. To achieve effective local water management, institutional rules should be congruent with local cultural norms. Conversely, a major potential challenge is posed by tensions between institutional rules and local cultural norms for justice. We propose and demonstrate a new approach to cross-cultural analysis designed to investigate this tension, which can assess when local cultural norms are likely to facilitate or impede the acceptance of specific institutional rules. Using data from 238 respondents in five global sites (in Fiji, Ecuador, Paraguay, New Zealand, and the U.S.) analyzed using cultural consensus analysis, we find evidence of culturally-shared norms of justice in water institutions in at least six domains: a human right to water, water governance, water access, environmental stewardship, aspects of water markets, and aspects of water quality and health. Additionally, local cultural models across sites differed on only two topics: (1) ownership and allocation and (2) restrictions and enforcement. Indigenous heritage is the best single predictor of views on controversial institutional rules dealing with water restrictions/enforcement and ownership/allocation. This approach can help build effective water management solutions by identifying cases in which specific institutional reforms are congruent with local cultural norms (or not), and when those will matter most. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Disagreement is an important socio-pragmatic skill for the workplace context, and newcomers risk causing offence if they fail to adhere to community norms. Applying a Community of Practice framework, embedded in broader societal constraints, I argue the relevance of group norms and shared practices for establishing how and whether disagreement occurs. Focussing on skilled migrant interns entering the New Zealand workplace, the analysis illustrates ways in which these newcomers are unintentionally hindered in their ability to learn and contribute to community norms. Their interlocutors’ failure to endorse their attempts to disagree serves to thwart their socio-pragmatic development. In the examples, the role of co-construction in disagreement, and the interactive nature of these events, is thus highlighted. Because all participants play a part in the ongoing (re)negotiation of the norms of a Community of Practice, a hypothesised ‘tolerance’ by in-group members in the interactions (whereby disagreements are reinterpreted as unintentional errors) means that these skilled migrants are restricted in their access to their new communities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article examines the attitudes of Māori and Pasifika towards employment and the unemployed in New Zealand. It analyzes the New Zealand Election Study data in 1990-2011 which shows the strong similarities in the attitudes of Māori and Pasifika on jobs, unions and wages and the difference in their opinions on the unemployed. It also emphasizes the need to consider the differing cultural norms and socioeconomic status of both Māori and Pasifika when considering public opinion.

A brief to think of the past, present and future of early childhood education in the Pacific and Asia is taken in this paper to think of the nature of early childhood education in relation to perspectives on difference. The problem of difference arises often in early childhood education discourse as a negative condition to be resolved, as an escapable given, and/or as a challenge to perceived inequity. This paper engages with educational themes in the work of humanism and post-humanism that speak to the problem of difference. The work of Albert Camus is explored in order to make sense of difference in relation to the challenges put upon being human that he encountered during the 20th century. Camus' relationships to his world are engaged because they present a careful approach to debates that reveal the plurality of approaches to early childhood education in a region with many cultural traditions of caring and educating. The writing of this paper is guided by a belief that it is appropriate to be suspicious of any kind of talk of education that embeds norms and limits possibilities. The paper concludes with some thoughts about being that play out in the common space of the sandpit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper examines the philosophy of justice embodied in tikanga Mãori, the Mãori traditional mechanism and approach to doing justice. Based on several months of fieldwork in New Zealand, this study contends that the Mãori approach to justice adopts a holistic and relational lens, which requires that justice be seen in the context of relationships and crimes dealt with in terms of the relationships they have affected. As a result, justice must be carried out within the community and the process owned by community members. Further discussion draws attention to the response of Mãori communities to the New Zealand government's attempt to accommodate their traditions and warns against the global tendency to render traditional Indigenous approaches to justice ahistorical through their representation as restorative justice mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three experiments tested whether the subliminal presentation of national symbols automatically elicited societally prescribed normative values in the New Zealand (NZ) context using a lexical decision task. Consistent with research in the United States, the presentation of the NZ flag (Study 1), but not another consensually validated NZ national symbol (The Silver Fern, Study 2), increased the cognitive accessibility of egalitarian value concepts. The NZ flag did not, however, activate values in a comparable sample of foreign nationals (Study 3). National flags, it seems, automatically activate normative values for ingroup members, and this effect is not limited to nations with a high frequency of flag-display behavior such as the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although youth smokefree campaigns have featured several themes, recent evidence suggests a norms-based approach that demonstrates the negative social consequences of smoking is most effective. The “Smoking – Not Our Future” campaign drew on both social identity theory and stereotype priming theory, and used youth role models to promote smokefree attitudes and behaviours among adolescent and young adult New Zealanders. Findings from the campaign evaluation suggest it strongly reinforced non-smokers, though had less effect on current smokers. We suggest future youth-oriented campaigns could employ stronger negative social consequences to target committed youth smokers, whose smoking-related attitudes and behaviour are more intractable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

From 1995 to 2000, transnationally active, New Zealand non-governmental organisations and individuals influenced New Zealand nuclear disarmament policy in significant and sometimes pivotal ways. During this period, New Zealand emerged as a global norm leader, experiencing the zenith of its influence on international nuclear disarmament diplomacy. As such, the NGO activity examined here also had significant downstream effects on international political, legal and normative developments. This article broadens the body of empirical data on the work of transnational disarmament advocacy. Its findings reinforce and deepen constructivist understandings about the importance of non-traditional actors and ideational factors such as norms, identity, and ethics in the conduct of international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

itudes towards public transport (PT) in New Zealand's three largest cities (Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch) were examined in a cross-sectional survey of drivers. A measure of prejudice to PT was developed to assess the strength and nature of attitudinal differences. Auckland residents had the highest levels of PT prejudice while Wellington residents had the lowest, and these differences were not related to demographic differences between the samples. Direct contact with PT was associated with reduced levels of PT prejudice, but measures of indirect contact, beliefs about using PT, and environmental attitudes were stronger predictors of PT prejudice scores. Controlling for these variables resulted in the difference in PT prejudice levels between Wellington and Christchurch becoming non-significant, while the differences between Auckland and the other two cities remained. This suggests that the difference between Wellington and Christchurch was primarily based on social norms regarding PT prejudice, while quality of service was a factor in the difference between Auckland and the other two cities. It is suggested that campaigns promoting PT ridership should focus both on the quality of service and on presenting PT usage as socially normal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mastering the pragmatic norms of another language is a great challenge to non-native speakers. One aspect of the pragmatic norms of a language is the appropriate use of general extenders. These are items such as and stuff and or something like that, which have been ascribed a number of important textual and interactive functions in discourse. This paper explores the uses of the English extender or so by native speakers of New Zealand English and by German non-native speakers of English (GNNSE) plus the use of its German word-for-word equivalent oder so in German in a corpus of 18.5 hours of dyadic conversations between non-familiars. The quantitative and qualitative investigations reveal non-standard uses by the non-native speakers with regard to frequency and functions of use. The analysis shows that GNNSE use or so for functions other than numerical approximation, and suggests that its high frequency use is related to a preference for German oder so, which has a wider semantic scope in German. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]