Growing Up in New Zealand: Life at 15 for disabled young people

01 August 2026

Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) is a study that follows the lives of more than 6,000 children and their families. The study collects information every 3 years about what it is like to be a child growing up in New Zealand.

The study has been following the lives of these children since 2009 and 2010.

The University of Auckland released 3 reports as part of the 15-Year Checkpoint findings. The reports are available as PDFs on the Growing Up in New Zealand website:

Now We Are 15 – Education Snapshot external URL (PDF 4MB)
Now We Are 15 – Mental Health and Wellbeing Snapshot external URL (PDF 2.8MB)
Now We Are 15 – Self-Harm and Suicide Snapshot external URL (PDF 2.3MB)

Around 1 in 6 young people (16.6%) in the cohort were identified as disabled. Disabled young people reported lower levels of school satisfaction, higher levels of discrimination, and poorer mental wellbeing than their non-disabled peers.

More information about how the study identified disabled young people is available in About the data.

Sensitive content warning

This content includes information about mental health, self-harm, and thoughts of suicide. If you or your whānau are struggling with any of these issues, please consider whether reading this section is right for you. If you need support, call or text 1737 to speak with a trained counsellor or peer support worker.

Lower levels of school satisfaction for disabled young people

The education snapshot provided insights on school satisfaction for both students and primary caregivers.

Only a quarter (26%) of disabled young people reported high levels of school satisfaction, compared with 43% of non-disabled peers.

Caregivers of disabled young people also reported lower satisfaction with school support for their child’s needs.

Disabled young people often experienced discrimination at school

The snapshot also included data about young people’s experiences with discrimination. Disabled young people were around twice as likely to experience any form of discrimination as non-disabled young people.

Of disabled young people who experienced discrimination, 88.5% reported that it happened at school. More than a quarter (26.9%) said their experience was due to their disability or health issue.

Information about the methods used to measure discrimination is available in About the data.

Mental health scores lower for disabled young people

The study looked at 4 aspects of mental health:

anxiety
depression
peer relationships
wellbeing.

Disabled young people experienced poorer outcomes across all 4 measures. They reported higher levels of anxiety and depression. They also reported lower levels of wellbeing and positive peer relationships compared with non-disabled young people.

Information about the methods used to measure each aspect of mental health is available in About the data.

Disabled young people overrepresented in statistics for self-harm and suicidal thoughts

Disabled young people were more likely to report self-harm and suicidal thoughts across multiple ethnic groups.

Rates of self-harm among disabled young people were highest for rangatahi Māori, followed by European/MELAA/Other, Asian, and Pacific peoples:

of rangatahi Māori who reported self-harm, 39.6% were disabled
of European/MELAA/Other young people who reported self-harm, 35.6% were disabled
of Asian young people who reported self-harm, 31.6% were disabled
of Pacific young people who reported self-harm, 19.6% were disabled.

For Māori and European/MELAA/Other young people who reported serious thoughts of suicide, nearly half were disabled (45.7% and 45.6%, respectively).

A quarter of Pacific young people who reported serious thoughts of suicide were disabled (25.6%).

Insufficient data was available to report on serious thoughts of suicide for disabled Asian young people.

Rates of self-harm and serious thoughts of suicide for the whole disabled population were also not available.

Note: MELAA refers to people from Middle Eastern, Latin American and African ethnic groups.

About the data

Identifying disabled people in the study

The study used the Washington Group Short Set (WGSS) of questions on functioning to identify disabled young people. Primary caregivers were also asked questions from the Washington Group/UNICEF Child Functioning Module (CFM).

The WGSS identifies a young person as disabled if they reported “a lot of difficulty” or “cannot do at all” in at least 1 of the following activities:

seeing
hearing
walking or climbing stairs
remembering or concentrating
self-care
communication.

Measuring mental health metrics

The study used internationally recognised questionnaires to measure anxiety and depression:

The study also used internally developed scales to measure mental wellbeing and peer relationships.

Discrimination

Discrimination was measured using questions adapted from Stats NZ's General Social Survey. Young people were asked whether they had experienced discrimination in the previous 12 months. Those who said yes were then asked about why they think they were discriminated against, including:

age
skin colour
way of dress or appearance
race or ethnic group
accent or language spoken
gender
sexual orientation
religious beliefs
disability or health issues
another reason.

Participants were also asked about the situations in which discrimination occurred, including:

in a shop or restaurant
on the street or in a public place
seeking medical care
dealing with the police
trying to get a job
at work
trying to rent housing
at school
other (specify).

Next data collection will focus on late adolescents

The 17-Year Data Collection Wave is the next chapter in the GUiNZ study. It focuses on the lives, experiences, and wellbeing of young people as they move through their late teens.

17-Year Data Collection Wave - Growing Up in New Zealand external URL