Cure Kids Professorial Chair in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Terryann Clark. Photo: Supplied / University of Auckland
A University of Auckland study has found that more than 10 percent of secondary school students have had unwanted sexual experiences, with rates highest among Māori and Pacific teens, gender-diverse youth, and those in the poorest schools.
The research, which has been published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, reviewed answers about unwanted sexual experiences from a representative sample of 7374 students aged 12 to 19 years from the Youth19 survey.
It found sexual violence remained widespread among teenagers in New Zealand with one in eight (12.4 percent) reporting unwanted sexual experiences.
Nineteen percent of girls, compared with 5.7 percent of boys, agreed with the question, "Have you ever been touched in a sexual way or made to do sexual things you didn't want to do (including sexual abuse or rape)?".
The survey found teenagers in the poorest schools were about 60 percent more likely to experience sexual violence than those in the wealthiest schools, with 15.3 percent compared with 9.4 percent.
Around 15 percent of Māori and Pacific students reported experiencing sexual violence, compared with about 11 percent of European students and around 10 percent of Asian and other ethnicities.
Meanwhile 31.9 percent of nonbinary and transgender students reported experiencing sexual violence compared with 18.6 percent for cisgender females and 5.5 percent for cisgender males.
"It is incredibly concerning that 12.4 percent of our secondary school students are reporting some type of sexual violence, and we know there are some groups who are more vulnerable," said School of Nursing professor and Cure Kids Professorial Chair in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Terryann Clark.
The overall figure of 12.4 percent in 2019 is up from 9.5 percent in 2012 and 10.8 percent in 2007, but down from 17 percent in 2001.
Clark said addressing sexual violence was going to take a whole range of solutions including both at the family and school levels.
"This is going to take all of us," she said.
"We need to make sure that young people are well equipped, they've got the right information, and we're having explicit conversations."
Clark said sexual violence was often difficult to talk about and disclose, and people who did needed to be believed.
"We know that, from our research, Māori, Pacific and sexually diverse young people, and poor young people, have the hardest time getting the services they need. They are also less likely to be believed or feel like people will do something.
"So, the combination of those factors means those young people are often not disclosing what has happened to them and they aren't getting the support, treatment and care they need."
Lead researcher Dr Rachel Roskvist, who is also a specialist GP and forensic medical examiner for people who have experienced sexual violence, said the increase between the 2012 and 2019 surveys may indicate a real rise or greater willingness to disclose.
More granular and up-to-date information was urgently needed, she said.
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