While the majority of New Zealand young people do not regularly experience violence, new data show that one in five Zealand secondary school students do not feel safe at school, and many are exposed to violence in their home and school lives which may lead to serious health problems.

A new report from the Youth2000 study, coordinated by The University of Auckland, was released today by the Ministry of Health. The report analyses violence that is witnessed, perpetrated or experienced by a random sample of nearly 10,000 secondary school students in Years 9 to 13 throughout New Zealand.

About half of students had been the victims of physical violence, with 16% of males and 10% of females physically hurt three or more times over the year. About half of male students and one third of females admitted to physically hurting someone else on purpose.

16% of students had witnessed adults physically hurting children in their home, and 6% had witnessed adults physically hurting other adults in their home.

About 20% of students do not feel safe at school. 30% of students surveyed had been bullied of whom about half had reported the bullying to an adult, mostly a parent or teacher. About 10% of male and 5% of female students stated that they were bullied weekly or more often. About 3% of students had missed at least one day of school in the last month because of bullying.

26% of females and 14% of male students have ever had an experience of unwanted sexual contact. Only 1 in 7 of these students told an adult.

Students who were victims of violence or witnessed violence were more likely to be hurt in other ways as well, and much more likely to hurt other people.

Students who witnessed family violence, were frequently bullied or had experienced unwanted sexual contact were 2 to 4 times more likely than those students who did not have these experiences to report having serious depressive symptoms, significant anxiety or having attempted suicide in the last year.

"Sadly, many teenagers are regularly exposed to violence, whether witnessing it at home, acting violently towards other teenagers or being victimised, and this can have an effect on their development," says Dr Peter Watson of the University’s Adolescent Health Research Group.

"Exposure to violence was associated with a greater likelihood of students having health problems such as substance use, depression, suicidal tendencies and other anti-social behaviour. Families, schools and health services need to be far more concerned and vigilant about children and teenagers experiencing violence. Making sure that young people live in violence-free environments and feel safe at home and at school will likely lead to healthier and happier young people."