The Families and Whānau Status Report 2017 looks at the pivotal role that families and whānau hold within our society.
It's the fifth in a series of annual reports which provide an essential background to any study, process or programme involving social services, and will aid better decision-making to improve the lives of New Zealand’s families, whānau and their communities.
Our 2017 research suggests it's important to apply a whole-of-family focus to current and proposed policies to increase the likelihood that they are responsive to families’ needs and produce positive outcomes for all their members. For many Māori, the wellbeing of whānau is just as important as the wellbeing of the individual and efforts to strengthen interpersonal relationships will contribute to a thriving whānau.
This omnibus report presents six projects undertaken in our family and whānau work programme in the past year and summarises the key themes and implications.
Two new pieces of research are also included in the 2017 report:
- Patterns of multiple disadvantage across New Zealand families. This research is supported by a Multiple Disadvantage Measures Catalogue. You can view these resources here on The Hub.
- Social support networks that families can access.
The report also includes highly topical and recent research and forum discussions from our family and whānau research programme. These include:
- Resilience in the face of adversity: summarises recent literature about at-risk children who go on to achieve good outcomes
- Subjective perceptions of Whānau Wellbeing: examines how well Māori think their whānau are doing and the factors associated with positive perceptions of wellbeing using 2013 Te Kupenga (Maori Social Survey) data
- The Te Ritorito 2017 Forum – opportunities and challenges for whānau, hapū and iwi wellbeing: presents an overview of the proceedings and initial outcomes from the forum, which was jointly hosted by Superu and Te Puni Kōkiri. You can view the presentation videos and slides here.
Finally, there is an introductory chapter on the research project ‘Bridging Cultural Perspectives - building capability for both ‘Western’ and Te Ao Māori based perspectives to inform our work’ which is work still to be fully released.