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    Adolescents’ next-day perceptions of their sleep quality, quantity, sleepiness and sleepiness-related symptoms relative to actigraphy metrics
    (Elsevier B V, 2025-09-01) Tang C; Meredith-Jones K; Haszard JJ; Signal TL; Wickham S-R; Muller D; Taylor R; Galland BC
    Background: Next-day perceptions of sleep and related symptoms are frequently collected in research and clinical practice, but how they correlate with objective sleep measures in adolescents has received little attention. Methods: Participants were aged 16–17 years and without a sleep disorder, anxiety or depression diagnosis. Seven-day wrist actigraphy was collected alongside daily survey ratings of sleep quality, sufficiency, morning and daytime sleepiness, and sleepiness-related mood and concentration. Within-person associations between daily actigraphic sleep metrics (6 variables representing quantity, quality and timing) and subjective ratings were estimated using mixed effects regression models with participant included as a random effect. Results: The sample comprised 71 adolescents (49 % female, 51 % male). No actigraphy metrics linked to sleep sufficiency ratings. Sleep onset was the strongest correlate of sleep quality and morning sleepiness in the expected direction e.g. every 10 min later onset led to a −1.4 point (95 % CI: −2.1, −0.7) drop in the sleep quality score (5-point scale, higher worse), but significant relationships were only in females. While actigraphic sleep quantity metrics were linked to several ratings, all effect sizes were marginal. Sleep quality metrics in the overall sample were not correlated to any ratings. Unexpectedly, timing and quantity metrics linked to sleepiness-related mood ratings, but in the opposite direction hypothesized. Conclusions: The lack of correlation between objective and subjective sleep quality add to the complexity of defining sleep quality accurately. Sleep onset timing, rarely explored in these types of studies emerged as an important correlate of sleep quality perception and other subjective ratings.
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    Whose paradise is New Zealand, female or male? : an investigation into the different perspectives of the immigration experience between professional Chinese females and males : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Policy at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2003) Wei, Vivien Hong
    This thesis presents a different investigation for the study of professional Chinese immigrants in New Zealand. The significant difference is that it focuses on the impact of gender differences on immigration experiences since the new wave of immigrants from Mainland China in the early 1990s. In terms of the research objective, this thesis provides a critical review of the theoretical perspective of relationships between gender and immigration, and highlights the major studies of Chinese immigrants in New Zealand. This research employs phenomenological methodology and biographical life story to narrate the participants' immigration experiences. Based on in-depth interviews with six professional Chinese immigrants, this thesis critically discusses their immigration experiences in depth, focusing on key themes: the participants' background, transition, settlement, and identity. Utilising a thematic analysis, this thesis illustrates that, apart from social and cultural factors, gendered perspectives have affected the diverse immigration experiences of Chinese females and males. The study also explores the fact that both societies, China and New Zealand, have shaped immigrants' cultural and gender identities. Implications for policy and directions in future research arising from this study for improving Chinese immigrants' settlement and integration are briefly suggested.
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    The effect of estrogen and progesterone on sex differences in susceptibility to noise[-]induced hearing loss : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Occupational Health and Safety at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Hislop, Renee Adele
    There is some evidence suggesting that males and females differ in susceptibility to noise induced hearing loss (NIHL): that is, they differ in NIHL magnitude even when exposed to the exact same noise exposure (1, 2), and that this may be related to the effects of circulating levels of the female sex hormones estrogen and progesterone on the cochlear response to noise (3-8). The main objective of this research was to determine what effect estrogen and progesterone levels had on sex differences in susceptibility to human temporary threshold shift (TTS) and otoacoustic emission (OAE) shift. A secondary objective was to determine whether estrogen and progesterone levels impacted on the prediction of susceptibility to NIHL using measures of auditory physiology: OAE amplitude, efferent suppression magnitude and 4 kHz pure tone audiometry thresholds. Additionally, it was determined whether the female sex hormones acted to influence susceptibility to NIHL via their effect on these measures of auditory physiology or whether hormones acted independently of these effects to influence susceptibility to NIHL. 25 female and 21 male participants aged 18-35 were exposed to a 3 kHz, continuous, pure-tone noise exposure at 100 dB LAeq for 15 minutes in their right ear. This exposure provided the equivalent energy to an eight-hour continuous A-weighted sound pressure level, LAeq,8h of 85 dB. To address the main objective TTS, OAE shift and recovery from TTS and OAE shift were compared in males and females. Serum levels of estrogen and progesterone were measured in female participants and correlations were made between these levels and TTS and OAE shift data. To address the second objective correlations were calculated between auditory physiology measures, TTS and OAE shift for males and females as well as between the sex hormones and auditory physiology measures. Additionally, linear regression models were produced to assess the mediating role of the auditory physiology measures on the relationship between hormones TTS and OAE shift. This research found no difference between males and the entire group of females in susceptibility to TTS, OAE shift or recovery from OAE shift, although females had a slower recovery from TTS. However, when circulating levels of estrogen and progesterone levels were accounted for a sex difference in TTS was apparent. This difference was driven by a large, significant, negative correlation between progesterone levels and TTS, whereas estrogen had no significant correlation with TTS or OAE shift. However, estrogen mediated different aspects of auditory physiology, whereas progesterone did not. There was no interaction between the effects of estrogen and progesterone on TTS or OAE shift. Additionally, there was a mediating role of some aspects of auditory function on the effects of estrogen on TTS and to a greater degree on OAE shift. However, estrogen itself only had a small non-significant impact on TTS and OAE shift so this suggests that the impact of auditory function and hormones on TTS and OAE shift are independent.
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    Psychological and socioeconomic factors influencing men and women's planning for retirement : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Turitea, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Noone, John Hamilton
    Concerns for the future well-being of the Post World War II “Baby Boom” generation continue to increase as many approach retirement age. These concerns stem from the expected strain on social security and health systems when this generation leaves the paid workforce. Retirement planning has been identified by social science researchers as one way of protecting pre-retirees’ future well-being, but there are many problems within this research. For example, the long-term benefits of retirement planning are yet to be confirmed, the causal relationships between socioeconomic, psychological, and demographic variables have been under-theorised, and existing conceptualisations of retirement planning have not adequately captured the construct. This has had implications for the resultant measures and for the development of new retirement planning knowledge. A programme comprising four studies was designed to address these limitations in the retirement planning research. For Study One, longitudinal data from the American Health and Retirement Survey were used to illustrate the prospective benefits of retirement planning on well-being in later life. For Study Two, a sub-sample of 2,277 working men and women from the New Zealand Health, Work, and Retirement survey, was used to theorise and model the causal effects of SES, work involvement, and retirement perceptions on retirement planning from a gendered perspective. Study Three described the development and validation of a comprehensive and theoretically driven measure of retirement planning using a population sample of 1,449 New Zealand pre-retirees. Fifty two items were developed to assess each stage of the retirement planning process for financial, health, lifestyle, and psychosocial planning. The final study used the same data to examine the relationships between certain psychological, socioeconomic, and demographic variables and the process of retirement planning. The results indicated that these variables were inconsistently correlated with the different stages III of the planning process. These inconsistencies were theorised as barriers to completing the retirement planning process. Overall, the results of the four studies indicate that retirement planning predicts well-being and that certain groups are less prepared than others. Conceptualising retirement planning as a process has the potential to build on our current understandings by generating research questions that have not previously been considered. These new understandings will have implications for future research and for retirement policy aimed at promoting retirement planning for the next generation of retirees.