A large number of young New Zealanders from multiple parts of Asia report they are experiencing significant mental health challenges, a study finds .
The findings come from the Youth19 survey, the latest in the Youth2000 series, which captures wide-ranging data about teenagers’ lives.
Of the 7700 surveyed across Auckland, Northland and Waikato in 2019, about a quarter identified as being “Asian”, made up of people of East Asian, South Asian, Chinese or Indian descent.
The recently-released report found 29 per cent of East Asian students reported experiencing significant depressive symptoms. This figure is four to six percentage points higher than other Asian sub-groups and Europeans.
In the past 12 months, 22 per cent of East Asian boys and 26 per cent of East Asian girls had thought about suicide, which was between three to five percentage points higher than other groups. South Asian students were also more likely to report having attempted suicide in the past year.
The data also revealed South Asian survey respondents, including people from India and the Middle East, reported experiencing higher rates of poverty.
University of Auckland associate professor Dr Roshini Peiris-John, the report’s lead author, said the study “raised more questions than answers”.
“The first thing is to recognise that Asian young people are having different experiences,” Peiris-John said.
“The other thing is to work with our young people to understand the reason for those differences, and then to work with them to understand how to reduce that.”
This meant going beyond “tick-box consultation”, because, often, solutions came from within the communities themselves, she said.
While the full reasons behind why young people had reported high levels of mental health challenges weren’t clear, respondents did report experiencing discrimination and a pressure to maintain appearances, Peiris-John said.
More than 50 per cent of survey participants in each Asian sub-group reported they felt they belonged in New Zealand. However, a quarter of survey participants in each of the four sub-groups reported they had been treated unfairly at some point by a teacher because of their ethnicity.
“We know from previous studies, racism and discrimination does impact mental health … and also feeds into a reduced access to healthcare because of the fear of having to face racism,” Peiris-John said.
She said there was also pressure, especially among first-generation migrants, to appear successful, accomplished and resilient.
Additionally, there was stigma in some Asian communities surrounding mental health, which “wasn’t helpful” and contributed to how much young people felt they could reach out for help, Peiris-John said.
“Some of the young people in the survey have told us they just don’t have anybody to talk to because they couldn’t talk to their family. Because they’re upholding high expectations, they can't talk about it to their teachers.”
Peiris-John said the survey also revealed some positives, too. Each Asian sub-group was more likely to have a plan after leaving school than other ethnicities and were more likely to feel like they belonged in school.
She said the findings highlighted that the use of the umbrella term “Asian” in many health and Government reports masked the true needs of each community and prevented the effective targeting of interventions.
“We come from vastly different backgrounds, have vastly different migration experiences … grouping people from such a vast geographical area into one group doesn’t really make sense,” she said.
“When we disaggregate data for young people, we see the real differences and the needs in those population groups.”
She said the aggregation of people from Asia reflected a “Euro-centric view” of people from the continent and the lack of understanding of their diversity. The report notes, too, that even within smaller categories, there existed a large degree of difference.
While she hadn’t studied the topic herself, Peiris-John said disaggregating the data for other groups, like Pasifika and Europeans, would also be beneficial.
Like Asians, each of these groups also had different migration experiences and come from different socio-economic backgrounds, she said.
The report recommends specific strategies be created for young Asian Kiwis in Government plans for health and mental health.
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