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This descriptive study examined text and traditional bullying in New Zealand (NZ), and the relationship between text bullying and traditional bullying, and feeling unsafe at school. A self-report online survey assessed the frequency of bullying among 1169 15 year old secondary students, for five categories of bullying: text messages, rumors, exclusion, teasing, and physical bullying. Results show that in the school year assessed 47% reported having been bullied sometimes or often and 37% reported bullying others; 11% reported being text bullied, while 7% reported text bullying others. Students involved in text bullying were significantly more likely to be involved in traditional forms of bullying and were less likely to feel safe at school. (Contains 2 tables.)

Previous research has found differences between adults' and students' perceptions of adolescents' aggressive behaviour. This study examines teachers' perceptions of physical aggression among New Zealand secondary school students. A survey assessed teachers' perceptions of problematic behaviour, and physical aggression by students towards teachers. An online survey assessed students' self-reports of physical fighting and weapon carrying. The findings show that, while teachers did not consider physical aggression a major problem in their schools, they did report frequent occurrences of physical fighting. Some teachers also reported experiencing significant physical aggression towards them by students. Student aggression was not significantly associated with teachers' perceptions of physical aggression in their schools. Teachers are facing physical aggression in their workplace, making schools a stressful working and learning environment. (Contains 6 tables and 3 figures.)

Aim: To examine the associations between connectedness to family and friends, and school engagement, and selected health compromising and health promoting behaviours in a sample of New Zealand adolescents. Methods: A web-based survey was designed and administered to a random sample of 652 Year 11 students aged 16 years from all Dunedin (NZ) high schools between 30th July and 31st October 2001. Connectedness to family and friends, and school engagement were assessed, together with reports of various health compromising and health promoting behaviours. Logistic regression was used to determine the extent to which these family, friends and school variables were related to health compromising and health promoting behaviours. Results: School engagement was strongly related to both low levels of health compromising and high levels of health promoting behaviours. Connectedness to family was associated primarily with fewer reports of suicidal ideation and increased reports of physical activity. Connectedness to friends was associated in the main with increased reports of health compromising behaviours. Conclusion: This study reinforces the importance of school and family as support networks for young people. School may well play an especially important role in health promotion among young people. The mechanisms by which engagement with school operates need to be explored further.

We describe self-reported sources of income and expenditure, and the association between part-time employment and spending on fast food, alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling for a sample of 3434 New Zealand (NZ) secondary school students (mean age 15.0 years). Disposable income was usually received from parents and guardians, but nearly 40% of students also reported receiving money from part-time employment. The proportion of students employed increased as socioeconomic rating increased, and was associated with increased purchasing of fast food and alcohol, and increased spending on cigarettes and gambling. Spending by youth has obvious public health implications, particularly when it is concentrated on products that have a negative health impact.

To comply with workplace legislation, New Zealand schools are required to have policies regarding tobacco smoking. Many schools also have policies to prevent tobacco use by students, including education programmes, cessation support and punishment for students found smoking. This paper investigated the associations between school policies and the prevalence of students' cigarette smoking. Furthermore, we investigated the association between school policy and students' tobacco purchasing behavior, knowledge of health effects from tobacco use and likelihood of influencing others not to smoke. Data were obtained from a self-report survey administered to 2658 New Zealand secondary school students and staff from 63 schools selected using a multi-stage sampling procedure. Components of school policy were not significantly associated with smoking outcomes, health knowledge or health behavior, and weakly related to a punishment emphasis and students advising others to not smoke. Similarly, weak associations were found between not advising others to not smoke and policies with a punishment emphasis as well as smoke-free environments. The results suggest that having a school tobacco policy was unrelated to the prevalence of tobacco use among students, tobacco purchasing behavior and knowledge of the negative health effects of tobacco.

We examined social participation in organized clubs and groups from childhood to adolescence in a sample of young people from Dunedin, New Zealand. Groups were broadly categorized as ''sports'' and ''cultural/youth'' groups. While the results indicated high levels of participation in childhood with a decline over the ensuing adolescent years, path analyses suggested strong continuities in participation over time. Both family ''active-recreational'' orientation (ARO) and ''intellectual-cultural'' orientation (ICO) predicted participation, and mediated the effects of disadvantage on participation. Participation was significantly related to adolescent attachment to parents, friends and school/workplace, as well as self-perceived strengths, after controlling for early family disadvantage and social support, peer attachment and literacy. The effect of participation in adolescence is to widen the ''social convoy'' to which young people are exposed as well as strengthening relationships within that convoy.