Ten Going On Sixteen: A profile of young New Zealanders in the transition years
From data collected by Victoria University's Youth Connectedness Project 2006-2008
Over the three years between 2006 and 2008, researchers at Victoria University followed three cohorts (ages 10,12 and 14 in 2006) of 1800 New Zealand young people, surveying their relationships with families, friends, schools and communities, and assessing their responses to various measures of health and wellbeing.
The Youth Connectedness Project was the first research project to include the 10 to 12 age group in a comprehensive survey. The inclusion of this younger group along with their older counterparts enables us to see more clearly the differences in attitudes and experiences between younger and older adolescents as well as between the sexes.
The Ministry of Youth Development has taken a closer look at some of the data from the original survey and the findings are the subject of this current report.
