Community influences on rural youth wellbeing: Young people's perspectives

Simcock, Gillian Clare

Community influences on rural youth wellbeing: Young people's perspectives

dc.contributor.advisor	Curtis, Cate
dc.contributor.advisor	Cochrane, Bill
dc.contributor.author	Simcock, Gillian Clare
dc.date.accessioned	2016-08-25T01:00:27Z
dc.date.available	2016-08-25T01:00:27Z
dc.date.issued	2016
dc.date.updated	2016-03-18T01:43:45Z
dc.description.abstract	This study considered rural young people’s perceptions of community factors involved in their wellbeing. Two regional Waikato towns, Te Aroha and Otorohanga were used as the sites for the research project. Four focus groups were conducted with students in their final year of senior school to obtain qualitative data. The focus group participants were recruited via flyers placed in the two schools and there were two groups (one male and one female) from each college. Five further in-depth interviews and two less formal discussions with community members from these towns were used as additional information. The data was considered from a social constructivist perspective. Both towns provide opportunities for the members of the communities to come together which may engender a sense of community. Te Aroha and Otorohanga’s students find that community-level events and, in particular, sport provides a good chance to meet with other sectors of the community. These social processes provide opportunities where there may be some implicit endorsement of the adolescents which may enhance self-esteem and, in turn, sense of wellbeing. The key findings are that sense of community cannot be the factor that directly determines wellbeing. The study provided evidence to suggest that sense of community can encourage social capital which is likely to have a positive correlation with wellbeing. Social capital is the “commodity” which can be accumulated by these community driven opportunities for interaction.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.citation	Simcock, G. C. (2016). Community influences on rural youth wellbeing: Young people’s perspectives (Thesis, Master of Applied Psychology (MAppPsy)). University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10289/10609	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10289/10609
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	University of Waikato
dc.rights	All items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
dc.subject	Youth, community, wellbeing
dc.title	Community influences on rural youth wellbeing: Young people's perspectives
dc.type	Thesis
pubs.place-of-publication	Hamilton, New Zealand
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Waikato
thesis.degree.level	Masters
thesis.degree.name	Master of Applied Psychology (MAppPsy)