A new study shows Pasifika living in Aotearoa may have higher psychological distress rates Photo: 123RF
A new study has shown Pasifika living in Aotearoa may have higher psychological distress rates compared to those living in their homelands.
Lead author Joanna Ataera-Minster, who is completing her PhD in the University of Otago Department of Psychological Medicine, said mental health varies within the Pacific population.
"When we compared different groups of Pacific adults, the rates of diagnosed mood and anxiety disorders were higher among those born in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ-born) than overseas-born Pacific, with rates appearing to increase as time spent in Aotearoa New Zealand increased," she said.
The research team examined five consecutive years of data from the annual New Zealand Health Survey (NZHS), spanning 2014/15 - 2018/19.
"In this circumstance, a lot of Pacific researchers talk about the impact of acculturation, which is how our culture changes as Pacific people when we've migrated from our Pacific ancestral homeland to Aotearoa, New Zealand.
"The things that come along with that ...when population groups migrate to another country is the weakening or the loss of our social structures and also it disrupts the way we transmit our cultures.
"And we have to take on a new language, and so our language declines as well."
Ataera-Minster referred to a phenomonen known as the "healthy immigrant effect".
"So we come and our health outcomes are slightly better than people that are already living here. And then over time, you see this decline, and again to do with the stresses associated with that acculturation process.
Lead author Joanna Ataera-Minster, who is completing her PhD in the University of Otago Department of Psychological Medicine, said mental health varies within the Pacific population. Photo: Supplied
"But also, we have to remember that before we migrated here, we were also colonized populations. So there's also the trauma of that."
Data from 4335 Pacific adults and more than 50,000 non-Māori, non-Pacific (nMnP) adults was compared.
The study found Pacific adults experience disproportionately higher rates of psychological distress than non-Māori, non-Pacific adults in Aotearoa New Zealand.
It found high rates of psychological distress but lower rates of diagnosed mood and anxiety disorders in Pacific adults. The researchrs said this is consistent with literature on mental health service use in Pacific adults, and suggests ongoing barriers to mental health care need to be addressed for Pacific peoples.
It also found the mental health inequities and within-Pacific differences persisted, even after the researchers accounted for various different factors such as socioeconomic and demographic.
"It isn't clear from our research why these differences exist, but we can surmise from related studies that the social and cultural determinants of mental health are likely contributing factors," Ataera-Minster said.
"These socio-cultural determinants include things such as exposure to racism, challenges surrounding one's cultural and ethnic identity, stressors associated with migration and acculturation, and the ongoing impacts of colonisation."
The study has been published in Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online.
