Researcher Summary
I am a Pākehā/Māori (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa) researcher and my primary research interests involve youth development and relational approaches to working with youth. Inspired by my experience as a youth mentor, my research focuses on the relational processes that contribute to developing high quality helping relationships between adults and young people. This has included research about communication in youth mentoring relationships, particularly the use of self-disclosure for relationship development. In 2021 I was awarded a Rutherford Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship to undertake a two-year project exploring youth perspectives on disclosure in youth-adult helping relationships (www.mentoringstudy.nz).
My mahi is guided by an interdisciplinary strengths-based approach, with an emphasis on qualitative and mixed-methods research. I am also experienced in laboratory-based observational methodologies and community-based programme evaluation.