Research published today by Growing Up in New Zealand provides a contemporary longitudinal view of material hardship for children in Aotearoa New Zealand, finding that one fifth of today’s young people have experienced material hardship by the time they are 12-years old.

“When we take a longitudinal view of children’s experiences across their childhood, our findings show much greater numbers of New Zealand children have experienced hardship than what prior research suggests,” said Dr Kate Prickett, a lead researcher for Growing Up in New Zealand and Director of Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families and Children at Victoria University of Wellington.

”We were also able to see how some families move in and out of hardship at different time points. We found our families were far more likely to experience hardship during the infancy and pre-school years. However, one in ten twelve-year-olds were also experiencing hardship.”

The findings are from thousands of young people in the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal study. This study is funded by the New Zealand Government and administered by the Ministry of Social Development to look at the development and wellbeing of children and young people in Aotearoa New Zealand over time with the latest information gathered at the age of 12-years.

Material hardship is a direct measure of families’ access to everyday essential items, such as food, housing, and medical care. Our respondents identified with a number of the measures for material hardship. For example, putting off dental (20 percent) or doctor’s visits (5 percent), families not having contents insurance (18 percent) and buying cheaper or less meat (15 percent) and going without fruit and vegetables (5 percent).

“This research found significant numbers of children and families going without. It highlights a real opportunity for government to target interventions at times where families are more likely to fall into hardship.”

“Experiences of material hardship are linked with children’s health and wellbeing—effects that can been shown to be associated with longer term consequences for later health and educational attainment.” said Dr Prickett.

Key findings

• One in five had lived in material hardship at some point by the time they were 12 years old, with most experiencing hardship in the early childhood years.
• At age 12, one in 10 were living in households reporting material hardship.
• Those living in material hardship at age 12 were more likely to be from sole parent homes, lower-income households, and identify as Māori and/or Pacific.
• Longitudinal modelling identified four common trajectories of material circumstances across childhood: Material Wellbeing (78.1% of children), Mostly in Wellbeing (15%), Increasing Hardship (3.5%), and Persistent Hardship (3.3%).

“Understanding what helps children to thrive is so important and longitudinal studies like Growing Up in New Zealand are essential for creating well-informed policies.”

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