A new study claims about one in five secondary school students are living in poverty.

A large proportion of New Zealand teenagers are living in poverty, a study has revealed.

The research from Auckland University showed almost one in five secondary school students and nearly half of all Pacific students were struggling.

Significant differences between ethnicities were highlighted, with about one third of Maori students living in households experiencing poverty.

Published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, the study used data from the Youth 2012 study of 8500 students.

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It grouped students by household poverty based on nine indicators of deprivation:

* No car

* No phone

* No computer

* Parental worry about not having enough food

* More than two people sharing a bedroom

* No holidays with family

* Moving home more than twice a year

* Garages or living rooms used as bedrooms

* No parent at home with employment.

Students needed to report two or more indicators before being classed as experiencing poverty, while researchers also examined the interaction between household deprivation and depressive symptoms, smoking and obesity.

Senior lecturer and co-author of the report Dr Terry Fleming said some results mirrored those found by the Ministry of Social Development and the Child Poverty Action Group.

But the suggestion such a large proportion of Pacific youth were living in poverty was worrying.

"When you start excluding a community or ethnic group to that extent that's pretty harmful."

One important finding from the study showed that young people experiencing hardships but living in rich neighbourhoods did worse than young people struggling in poor neighbourhoods.

They also had higher rates of depression and smoking.

This was likely to stem from the stress of dealing with having to do without compared to their peers, she said.

"People say 'well I never grew up with a computer, what are you talking about'...but this shows not being able to participate in society is having a pretty serious effect.

"When you see other students going to Hawaii on holiday, going to France on school trips, it must be hard."

Many parents made sacrifices to get their children into higher decile schools.

Other schools offered scholarships to students who could not afford to attend and while this was laudable, there could be unintended consequences.

"We can't just be thinking about lifting individuals up, we have to think about the whole family, not just that exceptional kid."

KidsCan chief executive Julie Chapman said the problem was huge and not going away.

With some families spending 60 to 70 per cent of their income on housing, there was little room for anything else.

Recently there had been a big demand for hygiene packs for young adults, consisting of items such as deodorant, toothpaste and shampoo.

With the items expensive and many family budgets stretched there was often no room for them on the shopping list, she said.