Pathways to WellbeingPathways to Wellbeing

Young people in Aotearoa New Zealand, like their peers around the world, are experiencing declining mental health and wellbeing. Mental health is widely considered a critical issue to New Zealand society, drawing focus in successive elections, the media and from communities across the country. Yet our understanding of why mental health is declining has been limited to date, with limited exploration of how the changing social, cultural and political landscapes surrounding young people impact their wellbeing. In this project, we worked with 176 young people from Auckland and Northland to explore what they think impacts youth mental health – for better and for worse – and how these issues can be addressed. We identified four key issues: The world we live in, including significant anxiety and stress around the economy, existential threats like climate change, and day-to-day challenges coping in a world we see as polarised, unequal and unfair; The pressures we experience, including feeling exhausted and overwhelmed by pressure to succeed academically, make families proud, build on intergenerational progress, and support our families financially and in other ways; The connections we need, including our need for supportive connections with peers, friends, family and communities, and the impact of isolation on our wellbeing; and Finding our path, the complex process of learning to navigate this world as young people figuring out who we are, what matters to us, and what it all means. While many point to social media as the sole cause of increased rates of mental health challenges amongst young people, our research suggests that social media has complex interactions with these four factors. Social media works as an amplifier, on both negative and positive influences playing a role in mental health. Through this work with young people, we have identified key targets for change. Addressing these with evidence-based and sustainable approaches is likely to have a profound impact on young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Many of these targets can be addressed in schools, community groups and whānau, while others will require regional and national decision-making. It is essential that decision-makers prioritise developing long-term strategic policy and investment agendas to meaningfully and sustainably improve mental health for current and future generations of young people in New Zealand."--Executive summary, page 4.