Information for Parents and WhÂnau

 
 

What is the Youth19 Survey for?

The aim of Youth19 is to get reliable, up-to-date information about the health and wellbeing of young people in Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to find out what young people here are really like and how they are doing. This information will help to improve education, health & social services, and programmes for young people.

More than 60 secondary schools throughout the Auckland, Northland & Waikato regions were invited to take part. Students in Alternative Education and young people not in education, training or employment were also invited. In total, around 7,900 young people took part.

What did the Youth19 Survey involve?

The survey took up to 45 minutes to complete.

Each young person was free to choose whether or not they took part. Young people consented to take part in the survey on internet tablets that we provided.

Those who agreed to take part completed a questionnaire about themselves and about issues affecting their health & wellbeing. The survey covered: ethnic identity & culture, family relationships, school, injuries & violence, health & healthcare, emotional health, food & eating, leisure activities, sexual health, alcohol, smoking & other drugs, and community involvement.

The survey was designed so that young people were not asked about sensitive topics (such as sexual health or drug use) that did not apply to them. For example, all young people were asked if they had ever smoked a cigarette, but only those who answered ‘yes’ received further questions about smoking. Those who answered ‘no’ moved straight to the next topic.

The survey was set up to be private. Young people answered the questions on small hand-held internet tablets. Each person had their own tablet and could read the questions off the computer screen and hear them read aloud through headphones. They answered questions by touching the appropriate box on the screen and could complete the survey in te reo Māori or in English.

What if my young person didn’t want to do the survey or answer the questions?

Taking part in the survey was voluntary (young people were free to choose if they want to take part or not). Young people who took part could decline to answer any question, or withdraw from the survey at any time.

Is the survey private? Will anyone know what said by any one person?

No names were recorded and the results have been combined so that no-one – not even the researchers – knows how any particular young person answered any of the questions. This means that we cannot withdraw the data of any particular young people once they have answered the questions, even if they ask us to do so.

What will happen to the information from the Youth19 Survey?

The answers from each young person were transferred automatically to a central computer database. No names or addresses were recorded with this information.

The combined results from all of the surveys will be summarised in reports and papers and we will ensure that no individual can be identified or even guessed at from the results. Reports about particular aspects will be available on our website www.youth19.ac.nz

The information young people gave us is very valuable. It is stored in a password protected computer database and will be kept so that we can compare the results from Youth19 with those from earlier surveys and surveys that we plan to do in the future.

Who is running the Youth19 Survey?

The Youth19 survey was organised by a team of researchers from The University of Auckland, Victoria University, the University of Otago and AUT, with ethical approval from The University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee.

The lead researchers are Dr Terryann Clark and Dr Terry Fleming.

How is Youth19 funded?

The survey was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand

Where can I find more information?

If you want to find out more about the Youth19 Survey and how it was organised at your young person’s school, ask at their school office to speak with a staff member who is working with us, or contact one of our research team on 0800 YOUTH19 or at youth19@auckland.ac.nz