Report examines whānau wellbeing to inform future

A report tracking 25 years of wellbeing for Māori whānau was launched by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga at The University of Auckland today.

Written by Associate Professor Cindy Kiro, Martin von Randow and Andrew Sporle the report “Trends in Wellbeing for Māori households/families, 1981–2006” uses data from the Family Whanau and Wellbeing project based at COMPASS and was commissioned by Ngā Pae o Māramatanga.

This report is the first to specifically concentrate on Māori whānau and households providing a framework for monitoring whānau wellbeing through the use and analyses of Census data. Given the wide and current interest in whānau ora, the report is a timely contribution allowing more informed public policy development around Māori whanau/households’ wellbeing.

Significant changes took place in all New Zealand households over the 25-year period, but the extent and the direction of the changes sometimes varied for Māori.

Cindy Kiro, Head of the School of Public Health at Massey University and previous Children’s Commissioner says: “There were important gains for Māori households, such as a reduction in crowding, improvements in secondary educational attainment, and improvements in income for some categories of Māori households.

“However,” she says, “it is not surprising that the report also shows significant inequalities still remain among Māori households and between Māori and non-Māori households.

“Some inequalities have increased over the 25 years while inequality trends notably improved during 2004-2008, possibly due to higher employment and as a result of Working for Families.

“There are many lessons to learn from our past that have relevance for current and future policy and the likely effects of these on the wellbeing of Māori families and households. This report is a valuable contribution to better understanding these lessons”, says Dr Kiro.


Notes:

Authors are Cynthia Kiro (School of Public Health, Massey University), Martin von Randow (Centre of Methods and Policy Application in the Social Sciences (COMPASS), The University of Auckland) and Andrew Sporle (Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland).

Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence, conducts and supports research that addresses needs and seizes opportunities arising in Māori communities. Our vision is that the potential of Māori to contribute to New Zealand and the world is realised. We convene excellent multi-disciplinary research teams located throughout a network of research providers. For more information see www.maramatanga.ac.nz

COMPASS Research Centre is based within the Faculty of Arts at The University of Auckland. It consists of a team of researchers with experience and expertise in a range of disciplines and research methodologies. COMPASS currently holds a number of externally-funded grants, including those from the Health Research Council (HRC), the Marsden fund and FRST.

COMPASS also provides management and infrastructure for the New Zealand Social Statistics Network (NZSSN, www.nzssn.org.nz) and the New Zealand Social Science Data Service (NZSSDS, www.nzssds.org.nz). The latter allows for online analysis of archived data sets.

The School of Public Health at Massey University is the only dedicated School of Public Health with a focus on health promotion and disease prevention it has expertise in epidemiology associated with cancers, respiratory infections, occupational and environmental health, Māori health and development, sleep/wake and social science and health including evaluation.