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Using Participatory Video to Explore the Perceptions and Understandings of Health and Wellbeing Among Refugee Background Youth in Aotearoa New Zealand

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Date

2024

Authors

Supervisor

Charania, Nadia
Water, Tineke

Item type

Thesis

Degree name

Doctor of Health Science

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Publisher

Auckland University of Technology

Abstract

Young people from refugee backgrounds who have resettled in Aotearoa New Zealand represent a population with complex healthcare needs. In addition to navigating the developmental challenges of adolescence, young people from refugee backgrounds may have experienced multiple traumatic stressors that can lead to physical, mental, and behavioural health issues. The health behaviours young people acquire as they transition through adolescence into adulthood play a crucial role in the development of a healthy lifestyle that can affect lifelong health outcomes. Research to date is limited in engaging and presenting the perspectives of young people with refugee backgrounds living in Aotearoa New Zealand about how they perceive and understand health and well-being. Children and young people from refugee backgrounds are often seen as vulnerable and dependent on adult decisions about their health and well-being; but, as they transition through adolescence, their knowledge and understanding about health and well-being will play a crucial role in the development of a healthy lifestyle which can affect lifelong health outcomes. Engaging young people in research can support the development of appropriate health policies and interventions and involve them in decisions that look to improve health outcomes. This study used participatory video to engage eight young people from refugee backgrounds in co-producing videos that present their perceptions and understandings of health and well-being. The following questions guided the research: What are the perceptions and conceptual understandings of health and well-being among refugee background youth? How does participatory video engage refugee background youth in co-creating conceptual understandings of health and well-being? In April 2021, eight youth with a refugee background from Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, participated in a series of five participatory video workshops. During these workshops they engaged in group-based activities focused on learning to use video creatively. The purpose was to help them record and express their ideas, perceptions, and understanding about health and well-being. Through the analytical approach of critical framing, two central topics of communication and safety were constructed from the collaborative process of video production. Participants presented their ideas through two video narratives. Key ideas about communication that were conceptualised through the participatory video workshops included language proficiency, the use of interpreters, the importance of social media and being socially connected, intergenerational communication and the challenges young people face communicating with adults, and the significance of sport. Key ideas about safety included physical safety, road safety, gender, and cultural differences. The workshops were followed by focus group discussions in order to understand the participants’ experiences of the participatory video workshops and to critically reflect on and analyse their video artefacts to ensure they accurately represented their perspectives. There is growing demand for research with children and young people that explores their views about health and well-being, and increased requirements for their participation in research that can inform policy and service delivery. While the two videos were an important outcome of the project, it is the potential of participatory video as an empowering and transformative process that bears significance in this study. To ensure health services and government health policies meet the needs of refugee youth in Aotearoa New Zealand, research must include their knowledge and perspectives about health and well-being. While participatory video demonstrated congruence as a research approach with young people, there were challenges; therefore, it is recommended that practitioners maintain a reflexive and open approach when using this research methodology with young people. Greater engagement of refugee young people, whether as consumers of health services or recipients of preventive intervention programmes, will help to ensure that interventions that set out to target this diverse population are relevant and culturally appropriate, and contribute to future research and community impact by influencing policy and practice to improve health outcomes.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10292/18329

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Doctoral Theses