FAMILY/WHĀNAU WELLBEING
The wellbeing of family and whānau is critical to, and interwoven with, the wellbeing of children and young people. This indicator looks at how young New Zealanders (aged 12-24) rate the wellbeing of their families and whānau.
As part of developing the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy we heard from more than 6,000 children and young people about what makes a good life. A key message from children and young people was that for them to be well, their family needed to be well. Their whānau, friends and other support people are critical to, and interwoven with, their wellbeing.
Measuring family and whānau wellbeing is complex. Previous research has attempted to quantify family or whānau wellbeing by grouping up a range of characteristics of individuals (like income or health status), or trying to measure the quality of relationships between family members. However, this approach does not reflect the variation between individuals, cultures, and age groups in their concept of family and/or whānau, and what it means for them to be well.
Rather than narrowly constraining the concept of family or whānau wellbeing, New Zealanders are asked for their assessment of how well their family is doing — whoever they define as their family. We believe that this is the best way to measure whether family and whānau wellbeing is changing over time, in the ways that are the most important to them.
This indicator relates to the 'loved, safe and nurtured' outcome.
How will this be measured?
- This indicator uses survey data drawn from the Household Labour Force Survey to measure the percentage of adults (age 18-24) who rate their family as doing well (7-10 on a scale of 0-10).
- Data will also be used from the Youth Health and Wellbeing Survey - 'WhatAboutMe?' for information on how 12-18 year olds rate the wellbeing of their family.
- Baseline data from the Youth Health and Wellbeing Survey - 'WhatAboutMe?' is expected in 2021.
For more information
- This way of measuring wellbeing was initially developed and included in Te Kupenga - the Māori social survey. For more detailed information about the measure used in this indicator and how it relates to Te Ao Māori concepts of family and whānau visit: https://thehub.sia.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Subjective-whanau-wellbeing-report.pdf
- Also see Ngā Tūtohu Aotearoa - Family/whānau wellbeing indicator: https://wellbeingindicators.stats.govt.nz/en/whanau-wellbeing/
- For more information about the Youth Health and Wellbeing Survey - 'WhatAboutMe?'' visit: https://www.whataboutme.nz/