Examining the 'Growing up in New Zealand' data

19 July 2023

Growing up in New Zealand (GUinZ) external URL is a longitudinal study of child health and wellbeing with more than 6,000 participants, run by the University of Auckland and funded by the Ministry of Youth Development.

Several reports have been produced in 2023 on life in early adolescence (12 years of age), including a report on disability. Information presented relates to Outcomes 1, 2 and 3 of the New Zealand Disability Strategy (education, economic security and housing, and health and wellbeing). Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People participated in a workshop with the research team, and provided feedback on a draft paper.

You can request accessible formats of this article by emailing contact@whaikaha.govt.nz.

Characteristics of disabled young people in GUiNZ

Disability is more prevalent among:

Māori and Pacific youth (13 percent and 15 percent) compared with European youth (eight percent)

Rainbow youth (transgender, non-binary or ‘unsure’ of gender) – 19 percent compared with 10 percent overall.

More disabled young people:

lived in areas of high deprivation – 15 percent lived in quintile 5 vs 8 percent in quintile 1 (Quintile 5 is the highest level of deprivation).
access learning support services (20.5 percent vs 6.3 percent of non disabled young people). 57 percent of disabled young people received the support they needed, while 34 percent received some of what they needed, and five percent did not receive what they needed at all. Reasons for not receiving some or all needed services included COVID/lockdown, eligibility criteria and availability of appointments.
want to participate in an extra-curricular activity but are unable to (34 percent vs 28 percent of non-disabled young people), due to lack of time, not being good at the activity/availability/cost, and others making fun of them (six percent vs three percent for non-disabled young people).

Lower wellbeing among disabled young people

Compared to non-disabled participants, disabled young people reported lower:

health-related quality of life (54 percent reported low quality of life vs 28 percent of young people with no disability)
school engagement (cognitive, behavioural and emotional engagement ratings of 3.76 vs 3.84 for young people with no disability)
quality relationships with peers (18 vs 16, where a higher score indicates a less trusting and communicative relationship)
quality relationships with parents (14 vs 12), and interestingly, disabled youth were more likely to want their parents to be less involved in their lives (eight percent vs six percent non-disabled youth) and more involved in their lives (31 percent vs 24 percent)
safety in their neighbourhood (28 percent of disabled young people strongly agree their neighbourhood is safe to walk around in during the day vs 36 percent of non-disabled young people).

Depression was measured using the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES[1]DC-10) All ten items are summed to create a depression score ranging from 0 to 30, where higher scores indicate greater depression.

Anxiety was using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Paediatric Anxiety - Short Form 8a questionnaire. The items are added and scores converted into T-scores according to the PROMIS Health Organization (2016) guide, ranging from 33.5 to 83.3. Higher scores indicate greater anxiety.

Compared to non-disabled participants, disabled young people reported higher scores for:

depression (11.5 vs 7.9)
anxiety (50 vs 45).

Lower economic security among disabled young people

Compared to families without a disabled young person or parent, disabled young people were more likely to:

live in a single-parent home (22 percent vs 16 percent)
live in a rental home (32 percent vs 22 percent) that is of poor quality
live in a crowded home (14 percent vs 10 percent)
move residence (in the last four years 14 percent moved twice and five percent moved four or more times)
have lower income levels (disabled families received $53,629 and families with a disabled young person received $55,611 vs $62,658 annual equivalised household income where there is no disability)
face material hardship (six percent have experienced persistent hardship vs two percent of young people with no disability)
have unmet need for healthcare – 9.3 percent needed to see their GP in the past 12 months but could not, compared to 5.5 percent of young people with no disability.

Methodology

Disability of the young person was measured using a range of measures, including:

the Washington Group Short Set (WGSS) that was self-reported by the participants (437 young people out of 4447 participants; note, this measure has not been validated for completion by 12 year-olds)
questions based on the Washington Group/UNICEF Child Functioning Module (CFM) that was completed by parents and caregivers.
The total sample using both measures was 868 disabled young people (19.4 percent of participants).