‘Alarming' rates of bullying, depression among Asian New Zealanders reported

RNZ News

19 hours ago

Kelly Feng, chief executive of Asian Family Services, says the report points to "a silent crisis".
Photo:
123RF
Almost half of Asian parents say their children have been bullied at school in the past 12 months, with Indian households most affected followed by Chinese families, according to the results of a health survey unveiled on Wednesday.
The New Zealand Asian Well-being and Mental Health Report also revealed that more than half of Asian adults showed signs of depression, with young adults particularly affected.
Commissioned by Asian Family Services, the report is the third of its kind, with earlier iterations published in
2020
and
2021
, respectively.
The report showed 46.3 percent of Asian parents believed their child had experienced bullying at school in the past 12 months.
Among those who reported bullying, Indian households comprised 39.5 percent, while Chinese families made up 32.6 percent, the report said.
The most common types of bullying were verbal (71.8 percent), which included name-calling, teasing, threats and racial slurs, and social (36.9 percent), which included exclusion and spreading rumours.
The 2025 Asian Well-being and Mental Health Report shows Indian families are most affected by bullying.
Photo:
Supplied / Asian Family Services
The report also highlighted physical bullying (34.6 percent) and cyberbullying (14.1 percent) such as harassment and mean messages.
Primary and intermediate school students were most affected, indicating an early onset of bullying behaviour, the report said.
Anxiety, social withdrawal, heightened emotional reactivity, low self-esteem, depression and self-harm were among parents' reported outcomes.
The report showed just over a third of Asian parents were satisfied with their school's response to bullying.
Kelly Feng, chief executive at Asian Family Services.
Photo:
RNZ / Yiting Lin
Kelly Feng, chief executive at Asian Family Services, described the results as "alarming".
Feng was surprised to see a gap between Indian and Chinese families' experiences with bullying but noted it might be due to a higher rate of reporting among Indian parents.
"I think [Asian] parents' confidence in responding to bullying [is] very low," Feng said.
"As parents, all of them are very good at ... providing emotional support, but less confident to access professional help.
"Most of the parents also have no idea where to seek support ... and [they don't] know the system or how to navigate if the school doesn't respond."
People attend the inaugural Asian Mental Health and Wellbeing Summit last year.
Photo:
RNZ / Liu Chen
Feng said many Asian parents wouldn't want to "make a big fuss about it" and would end up moving school or even cities if they failed to get support from the school.
The report recommended establishing a national anti-bullying strategy with ethnic sensitivity, and funding Asian-led community navigators in schools to help parents access support.
Training teachers in bullying prevention, improving accessibility to mental health services, and developing parent toolkits and peer support networks were also key recommendations in the report.
More than half of the respondents - 57.2 percent - were at risk of depression, an increase from the results reported in 2021 (44.4 percent).
Koreans (69.1 percent) and Indians (63.5 percent) were most affected, with Chinese individuals showing the lowest high-risk rate (16.3 percent), the report found.
The risk of depression among Asian New Zealanders as shown in the 2025 Asian Well-being and Mental Health Report.
Photo:
Supplied / Asian Family Services
Depression rates peaked among young adults aged between 18 and 29 (72 percent) and were also higher among females (60.3 percent) than males (53.9 percent).
Between 2021 and 2025, the proportion of Asians with no significant depressive symptoms declined from 55.7 percent to 42.8 percent, while those at high risk rose from 14.8 percent to 20.8 percent.
Discrimination remained a significant issue, with more than one in five people (22.2 percent) experiencing race-based bias, the report found.
Life satisfaction among Asian communities had notably declined by 11.4 percent since 2021, particularly among younger adults and those living in urban centres, the report said.
"These findings point to a silent crisis," Feng said. "Asian communities are navigating mental health challenges, discrimination and disconnection - often without adequate support.
"We urgently need culturally responsive interventions in schools, workplaces and healthcare settings."
The report was funded by the Ethnic Communities Development Fund, which is administered by the Ministry for Ethnic Communities.
The survey was conducted online from 2-21 May, gathering responses from 1016 Asian adults nationwide.
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.