Some Aspects of Maori Urban Migration: a Psychological Study

Abstract

Following a discussion of some of the implications of urban migration and culture change, predictions were made about the comparative levels of the adjustment of Maori and European, urban and rural, migrant and non-migrant fourteen year old boys. Data for the study were gathered from 306 subjects in a survey of the Wellington and East Coast areas of New Zealand. Four objective measures were developed for the survey and these, together with a structured interview and data from school records were used to assess interpersonal adjustment, competence, and intrapersonal adjustment. Some additional measures related to Maoriness, migration contact and orientation, and educational attitudes. It was observed during detailed analysis of the data, that contact with migrants and an orientation towards migration are significantly more frequently reported by Maori and rural than by European and urban groups, that there were no significant differences in the adjustment of rural and urban samples (though it was noted that on every measure the scores favoured the urban Maori over the rural Maori group), and that on all the measures of adjustment the European group scored higher than the Maori group A factor analysis provided some insights into the source and significance of “Maoriness”, and aided the interpretation of scores obtained by the Maori sample on a number of variables. Three major conclusions were drawn from the study. First that although differences between the separate groups were often small, there is a significant trend. for urban Europeans to show the best adjustment, followed in order by the rural Europeans, urban Maoris and. rural Maoris. Second, that the rural Maori group as potential migrants, obtained significantly lower scores than did the potential recipients, the urban European group, on all the measures of adjustment. Finally that rural-urban and inter-city migration appear to have no effect on the adjustment levels at fourteen years of age, of either Maori or European boys, a finding which raises questions about the specific effects of migration on the adjustment of individuals.