Almost 20 percent of young people in New Zealand live in poverty, according to a new study.
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The University of Auckland study also brought to light major ethnic differences, with Māori and Pacific students more likely to report poverty than students from New Zealand European, Asian and other ethnic groups. Half of all Pacific people and one-third of young Māori live in households experiencing poverty.
The study, just published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, used data from the Youth 2012 study of 8500 secondary school students.
Researchers grouped students based on nine indicators of deprivation, including no car, no phone, no computer, parental worry about not having enough money for food, more than two people sharing a bedroom, no holiday with their families, moving home more than twice that year, garages or living rooms used as bedrooms, and no parent at home with employment.
Students needed to report two or more indicators before they were classified as experiencing poverty.
The most common indicator of household deprivation was “no family holiday in the last 12 months,” followed by “living room or garage used as bedroom”.
The least common indicator was households having “no car” or “no computer”.
“One of the findings was that young people from households experiencing socioeconomic hardship and living in rich neighbourhoods, did worse than young people from households experiencing socioeconomic hardship and living in poor neighbourhoods,” says researcher Associate Professor Simon Denny, from the University’s Adolescent Health Research Group.
Depressive symptoms and cigarette smoking were two to three times higher in the poverty groups compared to those students not experiencing poverty.
There were also higher rates of overweight and obesity among students experiencing poverty.
“Policies are needed that address household poverty alongside efforts to reduce socio-economic inequalities in neighbourhoods,” Denny says.