Informal Leadership Roles of Tongan Mothers - Recognising Distress and Navigating Help-Seeking in Aotearoa New Zealand
Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Pacific communities in Aotearoa New Zealand continue to experience disparities in access to mental health services. While these disparities have been widely documented, less attention has been given to how concerns about wellbeing are recognised and responded to within Pacific family life. This thesis explores Tongan mothers’ perspectives on how distress is recognised, interpreted, and responded to within Tongan families and how decisions about seeking help are shaped. The study focuses on mothers because they often play central roles within family relationships, where concerns about wellbeing are first noticed and managed. The research was guided by the Kakala Research Framework as the overarching methodological approach. One-on-one Talanoa was used to collect data and analysed through an inductive thematic approach. Six Tongan mothers living in Auckland participated in Tongan and English. The findings show that participants drew on a range of cultural, spiritual, and experiential understandings when describing situations where someone appeared to be struggling. Mothers moved between different ways of interpreting distress informed by Tongan cultural knowledge, Christian faith, family experiences, and ideas encountered through living in Aotearoa New Zealand. Four themes were developed: 1) Two worlds of understanding distress; 2) “We will surely laugh”: Shame, stigma and the power of words; 3) Family first: How distress is recognised and managed; and 4) Seeking help beyond the family. Across talanoa, situations of distress were often first recognised within the family and interpreted through relational, cultural, and spiritual lenses. Participants described how community attitudes and everyday language can influence how these situations are spoken about, while decisions about seeking help beyond the family were often shaped through discussions within family relationships. These accounts highlight the important role mothers play in recognising distress, shaping family responses, and influencing decisions about whether support should remain within the family or move beyond it. This thesis contributes to Pacific wellbeing research while also offering insight into the informal leadership roles mothers play within family and community life. Understanding these roles may help inform more culturally grounded approaches to supporting Pacific families in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Author: Vakameilalo, Kalatisi Likiliki
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7215549228