Abstract
Professor Richie Poulton’s recent death brings into sharp focus the extraordinary achievements, significant findings, and policy relevance of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study which he led for over 20 years. Crucially, the Dunedin Study has highlighted the enduring and often profound impact of individuals’ early life experiences and environment on their subsequent life-course. This robust evidence shows that childhood poverty, especially when severe and/or prolonged, has significant negative long-term impacts (e.g. for health, educational achievement, employment, and income). It points to the vital need to achieve low rates of childhood poverty.
Although recent governments in Aotearoa New Zealand have implemented, with some success, a range of anti-poverty measures, the issue of child poverty has barely figured during the 2023 election campaign. Worse, there is a risk that many low-income families will end up poorer, at least in relative terms, if they help fund tax cuts for middle-income earners. This change in policy direction would dishonour Professor Poulton’s remarkable legacy.
One of the country’s most distinguished social scientists, Professor Richie Poulton, died very recently of cancer. For several decades, Professor Poulton directed the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (https://dunedinstudy.otago.ac.nz/) (commonly known as the ‘Dunedin Study’), based at the University of Otago.