Tu Maori Mai: Maori Cultural Embeddeness Improves Adaptive Coping and Wellbeing for Maori Adolescents

Abstract

This longitudinal study investigated how being culturally embedded can improve adaptive coping strategies and wellbeing for Māori youth. We asked approximately four hundred Māori youth about: attitudes towards, and competency in, te reo Māori; connectedness to whānau and friends; and awareness of cross-cultural similarities and differences. They were also asked about their use of adaptive coping strategies and overall sense of wellbeing. Findings revealed bi-directional relationships over time between embeddedness and adaptive coping, and between adaptive coping and wellbeing. The predicted longitudinal mediation was empirically supported, namely cultural embeddedness at T1 predicted residualised adaptive coping at T2, which, in turn, predicted residualised wellbeing at T3. The only other significant longitudinal mediation was the same variables in the reverse direction. The positive implications of improving Māori cultural embeddedness are discussed.