# Rosalina Richards

Rosalina Richards is a Samoan New Zealand behavioural psychologist, and is a full professor at the University of Otago, specialising in Pacific public health.

## Academic career

Richards was born and grew up in the South Island of New Zealand, and is of Samoan and English ancestry. She completed a PhD titled Factors influencing physical activity participation during adolescence and young adulthood at the University of Otago, supervised by Anthony Reeder. The thesis was listed as an exceptional PhD thesis in the Division of Health Sciences for 2007. Richards then joined the faculty at Otago, rising to associate professor in 2019 and full professor in 2023.
Richards was the inaugural Director of the Va'a o Tautai – Centre for Pacific Health at Otago, which was launched in 2018. She is also Co-Director, with Anne-Marie Jackson, of the Coastal People: Southern Skies Centre of Research Excellence, where she is responsible for capacity development and Pacific strategy.
Richards is a behavioural psychologist working in public health, and her research has covered topics such as healthy sleep practices, restoration of marine environments, and their importance in Pacific culture, and cancer prevention. Richards and colleagues surveyed screentime in teenagers, and found that the more hours teens reported watching television or playing games online, the less close their relationship to their parents. She was part of a team who found Pacific communities in New Zealand call the National Poison Centre less often than expected, and part of another team that found rates of Chronic Kidney Disease were five times higher than expected in Samoan people in New Zealand.

## Selected works

* Rosalina Richards; Rob McGee; Sheila M Williams; David Welch; Robert J Hancox (1 March 2010). "Adolescent screen time and attachment to parents and peers". JAMA Pediatrics. 164 (3): 258–262. doi:10.1001/ARCHPEDIATRICS.2009.280. ISSN 1072-4710. PMID 20194259. Wikidata Q43653773.
* Lindsay Robertson; Janet Hoek; Mei-Ling Blank; Rosalina Richards; Pamela Ling; Lucy Popova (1 February 2018). "Dual use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and smoked tobacco: a qualitative analysis". Tobacco Control. 28 (1): 13–19. doi:10.1136/TOBACCOCONTROL-2017-054070. ISSN 0964-4563. PMC 6317506. PMID 29419488. Wikidata Q50118659.
* Ewa A Szymlek-Gay; Rosalina Richards; Richard Egan (24 June 2011). "Physical activity among cancer survivors: a literature review". The New Zealand Medical Journal. 124 (1337): 77–89. ISSN 0028-8446. PMID 21946880. Wikidata Q37938654.
* Rosalina Richards; Sheila Williams; Richie Poulton; Anthony I Reeder (1 December 2007). "Tracking club sport participation from childhood to early adulthood". Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. 78 (5): 413–419. doi:10.1080/02701367.2007.10599441. ISSN 0270-1367. PMID 18274213. Wikidata Q48888410.
* Rosalina Richards; Darling H; Reeder AI (1 August 2005). "Sponsorship and fund-raising in New Zealand schools: implications for health". Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. 29 (4): 331–336. doi:10.1111/J.1467-842X.2005.TB00203.X. ISSN 1326-0200. PMID 16222930. Wikidata Q46750980.
* Rosalina Richards; Linda Murdoch; Anthony I Reeder; Marieah Rosenby (24 January 2010). "Advocacy for active transport: advocate and city council perspectives". International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 7: 5. doi:10.1186/1479-5868-7-5. ISSN 1479-5868. PMC 2830166. PMID 20181003. Wikidata Q33694752.