KEY POINTS:
One in every ten children has been sexually abused, according to national survey which confirms New Zealand's high levels of violence.
Six in ten had experienced physical violence and eight in ten emotional violence, the survey of more than 2000 children aged 9 to 13 found.
Massey University eduction lecturer Dr Janis Carroll-Lind publicised her PhD findings last night following growing public outrage at the violence inflicted on some New Zealand children, including 3-year-old Nia Glassie. Nia died last Friday after allegedly being subjected to months of abuse, including being spun in a tumble clothes dryer.
At 63 per cent, the Massey figure on physical violence was higher than in the Youth 2000 survey of nearly 10,000 high school students. The latter found around 46 per cent reported being hit or physically harmed by another person, but this was restricted to the preceding 12 months whereas the Massey figure is of abuse at any preceding time.
Unicef stated in a report released this year that in most Western countries surveyed, about 40 per cent of young people reported involvement in at least one physical fight in the previous year.
However, the Massey figure on sexual abuse may be lower than other studies have found in New Zealand and Australia.
The Australian Medical Journal, citing seven Australian studies, put the figure for children who were ever abused at 5.1 per cent for boys and 27.5 per cent for girls.
In New Zealand's Youth 2000 survey, 11.3 per cent of boys and 22.2 per cent of girls reported experiencing unwanted sexual behaviour from others.
Dr Carroll-Lind's study found no relationship between children's exposure to violence and the socio-economic status of their school.
She said the majority of physical and emotional violence reported in the survey was perpetrated by children and the minority, 27 per cent, by adults. But sexual violence was overwhelmingly perpetrated by adults.
"Any violence involving adults had a much higher impact on the children."
Her study found that the younger the child, the greater the reported impact on them of physical or emotional violence. Age made no difference, however, to the impact of sexual violence.
The survey, completed in class at 28 schools in 1998, defined physical violence as being punched, kicked, beaten or hit, or getting into a physical fight; sexual violence as having unwanted sexual touching or being asked to do unwanted sexual things; and emotional violence as being threatened, called names, ganged up on, left out, not spoken to, "narked on", gossiped about, and "having tales told about me".
Abuse rates
A national survey of 2077 children aged 9 to 13 found:
* 11 per cent said they had been sexually abused.
* 63 per cent said they had been physically abused.
* 80 per cent said they had been emotionally abused.
Source: Massey University
