“LET US BE HEARD”: An Exploration of Youth Voices on the Fostering of Mental Wellbeing in New Zealand Secondary Schools

This thesis aims to explore youth voices on the fostering and support of youth mental wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand secondary schools. This focus stems from a local context of immensely poor – and worsening – youth mental health and wellbeing statistics and local and international literature that argues for the potential of schools to promote youth mental wellbeing. Applying a pragmatic research approach and mixed methods methodology, the methods employed by this study included a self-administered web-based questionnaire with 3398 respondents, followed by semi-structured interviews and a focus group with a total of 12 participants. The young people involved in the research were eager to have their voices heard, and they reported on both their experiences in schools and their ideas for change. Discussing a range of impacting factors, they described a strong and reciprocal relationship between the school context and their experiences of mental wellbeing. Impacting factors included perceptions of their school’s attitudes and approaches to mental wellbeing, their relationships and experiences with teachers and counsellors, mental wellbeing in the curriculum and taught content, teaching approaches, and wider school support systems and practices. The voices of young people through this project highlight gaps between current policy and practice and provide fresh insights into how mental wellbeing could be better supported and fostered in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand secondary schools. This project also highlights the immense importance of including youth voice in such discussions and the eagerness of young people to share theirs.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Health Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Penno, Jamie Louise Te Koeti

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Hetrick, Sarah
• Fitzpatrick, Katie

• Education
• Health
• Population health
• Mental health
• Mental wellbeing
• Wellbeing
• Psychological wellbeing
• Youth
• Youth voice

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/74773

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/74773