Counting
Diversity
Kia ora, mālō e lelei, talofa lava, namaste, kia orana, nisa bula vinaka, nĭ hăo, welcome!
Thank you for your interest in taking the Identify survey. Please read this information carefully, to help you decide if you’d like to take part in this survey.
Who are we?
We are a research team of people working with and for rainbow young people and communities across Aotearoa New Zealand. We are: Drs John Fenaughty, Elizabeth Kerekere (Whānau a Kai, Ngāti Oneone, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri), Jaimie Veale, Patrick Thomsen, Peter Saxton, Mohamed Alansari, as well as Alex Ker, Tabby Besley (InsideOUT) and Frances Arns (RainbowYOUTH).
Amongst us, we identify as queer, takatāpui, trans, cis, gay, lesbian, Māori, Pākehā, German, Asian, Pasifika, bisexual, and asexual.
John Fenaughty is the Principal Investigator, and you can contact him if you have questions at any time about this study. His email is j.fenaughty@auckland.ac.nz and the study phone number is 096238899 extension 48513.
The survey is funded by the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland Research and Development Fund.
What is this survey about?
This is an online survey about the experiences of rainbow young people aged 14-26 years in Aotearoa NZ. We want to understand your experiences of education, employment, and community so we can make Aotearoa a better place for rainbow young people and younger adults.
This survey has been created with the help of rainbow young people and adults, teachers, lecturers, youth workers and health professionals.
Who can take the survey?
This survey is for all rainbow young people, and their allies and friends.
We use the term ‘rainbow’ here in a broad way to describe the many ways people in our communities identify. We’d still like to hear from you, even if you don’t use the term ‘rainbow’ to describe yourself.
Allies and friends are people who do not identify as rainbow themselves, but show support for rainbow people in different ways.
You can take part in this survey if you:
are between 14 and 26 years old;
live in Aotearoa; and
identify as LGBTQIA+, takatāpui, a Pasifika rainbow identity (e.g. fa’afafine, leiti, mahu); are questioning your sexuality or gender; or are an ally or friend to rainbow young people.
How long will the survey take to complete?
The survey will take about 30 minutes to complete. It might be shorter or longer, depending on how much you choose to share. Once you have completed the survey, you will not need to do anything further, unless you would like to pick up a very small koha (gift) to thank you for sharing your experiences.
If you want to take a break from the survey, you can exit and return to the survey at any point before the survey’s end date. This option only works if you have ‘cookies’ enabled in your browser, so that it can save your answers anonymously and you can return to the place in the survey that you left.
Important: if you start the survey but do not complete it, your information may be accessible to someone else who uses the same device and tries to do the survey too, this is a risk to your anonymity. Once you have begun the survey, even if you do not complete it, the information will be retained in the study and will be submitted after the survey date closes.
What questions will you be asked?
The questions ask about how you identify, your education and/or employment, health, family/whānau, home life, values, and community. For most of the questions, you’ll just need to tick boxes. There are some questions that invite you to write in a longer answer if you wish. You will also be given the option to provide some non-identifying details (e.g., a combination the first letter of the name of the town where you were born, the day of the month you were born on, etc.) so we can link future surveys to find out how things have changed for you but keep your responses anonymous.
Benefits of taking part in the study
By taking part in the survey, you are helping us understand how things are going for rainbow people between 14 and 26 years old. Your experiences, no matter how ordinary or extraordinary, are valuable. Your answers can help us to identify what works well and what can be improved to better support rainbow young people.
To say thanks for taking the survey, you’ll be asked if you want to pick up a very small koha (gift) from a selected rainbow-friendly location around Aotearoa. The koha may be a sticker, wrist band, or enamel pin to say thanks for taking part in the study. This is completely voluntary, meaning you do not have to agree to pick up a koha if you do not wish to.
Risks of taking part in the study
While some of the questions in the survey are about positive topics, some ask about bullying, harassment, self-harm, suicide, and conversion therapy. We only ask questions that are important for our community to know about. But, there is a risk that these questions might be upsetting to answer.
A message will appear before each of these sections, asking if you want to skip the questions. If you think that these questions might be upsetting, it can be a good idea to reach out to a trusted friend or adult if you are younger. Remember it’s your choice to answer any question, and you can skip any question that you wish.
If something causes you distress when or after you do the survey, you can also get support from these free and confidential places:
Call or free text 1737 any time to talk to a trained counsellor
Call LIFELINE (0800 54 33 54) or free text HELP (4357) any time to talk to a trained counsellor
Call OUTline NZ (0800 688 5463) any evening from 6-9pm, or email them at info@outline.org.nz
RainbowYOUTH is a national youth-led organisation dedicated to supporting queer, gender diverse and intersex young people, as well as their whānau and wider communities. RainbowYOUTH runs drop-in centres in Auckland, Tauranga and New Plymouth, operates peer support groups in Auckland, Northland, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and online, provides one-on-one support to young people around gender and sexuality, and publishes a range of information resources and websites.
Gender Minorities Aotearoa is a nationwide organisation, which is run by and for transgender people, including non-binary, intersex, and takatāpui gender diverse people. It offers information, advocacy, and wrap around support for transgender people of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds. It runs The Gender Centre in Wellington, and provides online support to people across Aotearoa including through its Facebook group Transgender & Intersex NZ.
There are also specific community organisations that you may find helpful if you are seeking more information:
Tīwhanawhana is a takatāpui community group based in Wellington that welcomes people of diverse sexualities and gender identity.
F’INE is a Pasifika organisation which provides Whānau Ora navigation support and services for Pasifika LGBTQI individuals and their families in the Auckland region.
Village Collective provides sexual and reproductive health education for Pasifika youth. Their Rainbow Fale provides support for Pasifika Rainbow young people through mentoring, diversity groups and events.
ITANZ is the key intersex organisation in Aotearoa. One of their initiatives is Intersex Youth Aotearoa, a place for intersex young people and their whānau to share information, create community and find support.
At the end of the survey, you will be asked if you would like to get email updates about the study, future research, and/or if you want to collect a small koha (gift) for taking part. If you choose to give your email address in a second separate survey (not attached to your responses), there is a small risk that someone may read your email and see an update or invitation from the study, and guess that you took the survey. There is also a risk that someone may guess you have taken part in the survey if they see you collecting or using your koha.
If someone sees an email or koha, they may think that you identify as rainbow yourself because the survey is about rainbow people’s experiences. If you are rainbow, this means that your rainbow identity would no longer be private to them if this happens.
However, taking the survey does not mean you are a rainbow person because this survey is also for allies and friends of rainbow people. We understand you may be concerned that someone might guess your identity in this way. If so, we suggest that you do not give your email or collect a koha to protect your privacy.
What are your rights?
Your taking part is completely voluntary. You can stop taking the survey at any time without any disadvantage to you. This means that nothing bad will happen because you choose to stop the survey.
The only information you have to give is your age and the country you live in to check that you are able to participate. After that, you can skip any questions you wish, including without needing to give any reason for doing so – just press the ‘next’ arrow.
Every time you click the next arrow in the survey, your responses from the last page are saved. If you choose to exit, the answers that you shared will be saved automatically. This means your responses will still be recorded, even if you exit from the survey or do not complete it. Remember, if there is any question you do not wish to answer, you can skip that question.
The information you provide in this survey is secret and anonymous. We do not collect anyone’s names or any other information that might be able to identify you.
We will collect IP addresses, which are unique numbers based on the internet connection used for the survey. Your IP address does not identify you or your current address to us. We will only use IP addresses to double-check for multiple responses from the same person. When we are finished collecting responses, we will delete all the IP addresses that are collected.
We will not publish any information where someone could guess your identity. This means we will not share any results where the number of responses is so small (e.g., people from a particular small town), or the comments made are so detailed, that someone might be able to guess who the person is.
How will your responses be secured and stored?
Your responses will be stored anonymously on password-encrypted accounts through the University of Auckland. Only the research members will have access to the anonymous data.
All survey data will be stored indefinitely from when you take the survey. We hope to keep using this research to make things better for rainbow young people and young adults, but when it is no longer being used for this purpose we will destroy the data we have collected.
Depending on your answers in this survey, you may be asked if you would like us to share your responses with the Counting Ourselves study at the University of Waikato. The Counting Ourselves study is a by trans-led study that focuses on the health and wellbeing of trans and non-binary people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Like the other options in the survey, this is also voluntary, and your responses will also be covered by the same protections as this study.
How can you get updates about the study?
We will upload results and reports from the study on our website as soon as they are ready to be published. There will be a link to the website at the end of the survey.
At the end of the survey, you will also be asked if you would like to get updates about the study or invitations to take part in future research. If you say ‘yes’, you will be directed to a totally separate survey where you can put in your email address. Your email will be kept separate from your responses, so that your survey answers are still secret and anonymous. This is completely voluntary, meaning that you do not have to give your email address if you do not wish to get updates or invitations for future research.
Contact details
If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about the study at any stage, you can contact Dr John Fenaughty (Principal Investigator)
Phone: (09) 3737 599 x48513
Email: j.fenaughty@auckland.ac.nz
If you want to talk to someone who isn’t involved with the study, you can contact an independent health and disability advocate on:
Phone: 0800 555 050
Fax: 0800 2 SUPPORT (0800 2787 7678)
Email: advocacy@advocacy.org.nz
Website: https://www.advocacy.org.nz/
We have been granted ethics approval by HDEC (Reference 20/NTB/276).
If you have any ethical concerns about this research, you can contact the health and disability ethics committee (HDEC) on 0800 4 ETHICS or email them at hdecs@moh.govt.nz.
