First results from Youth '12 survey released

The Adolescent Health Research Group has released the first wave of results from the Youth '12 survey. Youth '12 is the third national survey of the health and wellbeing of New Zealand secondary school students, following Youth2000 and Youth '07. An overview report and prevalance tables report are available.

8500 New Zealand secondary school students participated in Youth '12. The report also includes findings from the 2001 and 2007 surveys to identify trends over time.

Key results relating to young people's experience of or exposure to violence are taken from the 2012 report below:

• 14% of students had witnessed adults hitting or physically hurting another child in their home in the last 12 months. 7% had witnessed adults hitting or physically hurting other adults. Witnessing violence in the home was more common among students from neighbourhoods with high levels of deprivation.

• 33% of students report being hit or physically harmed by anyone in the last 12 months.

• 14% reported being physically harmed on purpose by an adult in their home.

• 20% of female and 9% of male students had ever been touched in a sexual way or been made to do unwanted sexual things. Among students who had experienced this, 37% reported it was severe (pretty bad, really bad or terrible) and 57% had told no-one about it.

• There have been significant reductions in the proportions of students who report being hit or physically harmed by someone on purpose in the last 12 months from 45% in 2001, to 41% in 2007 and down still further to 29% in 2012.

• There have been changes in the percentages of students who had seen adults hitting or physically harming another adult at home in the last 12 months: 6% in 2001, 10% in 2007 and 7% in 2012.

• The proportion of male students who reported sexual abuse and coercion fell from 12% in 2001 to 5% in 2007, and remained at 5% in 2012. The proportion of females reporting sexual abuse and coercion has reduced across the three time periods (24% in 2001, 19% in 2007 and 15% in 2012).

Future analyses will investigate the results for different groups of students such as taitamariki Māori, Pacific youth and for other groups. They will be published on the Adolescent Health Research Group website as they become available.

The survey results provide information for schools, health and social services and communities to develop appropriate and accessible services, programmes and policies for New Zealand youth.

Media:

'Latest study on teenagers both good and bad news - CPAG', Voxy, 1.08.2012