About this topic
For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people, mental health and wellbeing are enhanced by connection to Country, family and spirit, strong social networks and strong leadership in the community (Gee et al. 2014).
Family support can strengthen wellbeing by providing connections to community and culture and the provision of emotional support, particularly in times of stress (Gee et al. 2014; Milroy et al. 2014). Community participation and contact with friends and family outside the household can enhance a person’s sense of belonging, social resilience and can offer meaning to everyday life (ABS 2016; DoH 2019).
Connection to community, family and kinship
Connection to community and to family and kinship are 2 of the 7 domains of social and emotional wellbeing for First Nations people.
Social and emotional wellbeing is a holistic way of looking at relationships between individuals, family, kin and community in the context of land, culture, spirituality and ancestry. Cultural groups and individuals each have their own interpretation of social and emotional wellbeing (Gee et al. 2014).
Having support networks enhances connection to community. Having a loving, stable, accepting and supportive family improves connection to family and kinship (PM&C 2017).
Strong connections to family and kinship systems are central to the functioning of First Nations communities. Connection to community provides opportunities for support and collaboration (PM&C 2017).
The protective benefit of connection to family and kinship is fundamental to wellbeing and these connections are an important resilience tool for First Nations people (Dudgeon et al 2021). Another important protective factor for families, communities and identity is cultural continuity (Dudgeon et al 2022).
Processes that empower cultural continuity and community control enable healthy connections to family and kin. However, these connections are disrupted by trauma from colonisation, compounded by socioeconomic marginalisation, family violence, substance abuse and the persistent impacts of racism (Dudgeon et al 2021).
In 2020, all Australian governments and the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations worked in partnership to develop the National Agreement on Closing the Gap- external site opens in new window (the National Agreement), built around 4 Priority Reforms. The National Agreement also identifies 19 targets across 17 socioeconomic outcome areas. Four of these targets directly relate to family and community, monitored annually by the Productivity Commission.
National Agreement on Closing the Gap: family and community-related targets
Outcome area 10: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults are not overrepresented in the criminal justice system
- Target: By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults held in incarceration by at least 15% (from an age-standardised rate of 2,142.9 per 100,000 in 2019 to 1,821.5 per 100,000 by 2031).
- Status: In 2023, the age-standardised imprisonment rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults was 2,265.8 per 100,000, which was higher than the target trajectory rate for 2023 of 2,035.8 per 100,000 population.
Outcome area 11: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are not overrepresented in the criminal justice system
- Target: By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people (10–17 years) in detention by at least 30% (from 32.1 per 10,000 in 2018–19 to 22.3 per 10,000 by 2031).
- Status: In 2022–23, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people (10–17 years) in detention was 29.8 per 10,000, which was higher than the target trajectory rate of 28.8 per 10,000 population in 2022–23.
Outcome area 12: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are not overrepresented in the child protection system
- Target: By 2031, reduce the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care by 45% (from 54.2 per 1,000 in 2019 to 29.8 per 1,000 by 2031).
- Status: In 2023, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care was 57.2 per 1,000, which is higher than the target trajectory rate of 46.0 per 1,000 population.
Outcome area 13: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and households are safe
- Target: By 2031, the rate of all forms of family violence and abuse against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children is reduced by at least 50%, as progress towards zero (from 8.4% in 2018–19 to 4.2% by 2031).
- Status: There are no new data on self-reported experiences of violence since the baseline year of 2018–19.
Key issues
Family connections are affected by child removal, family violence, incarceration and the pervasive effects of intergenerational poverty (Dudgeon et al 2021).
Child protection
Child protection agencies aim to address the safety needs of children. These agencies and services intervene within family settings to support children who are at risk of harm (Titterton 2017). Removing children from their families, culture and communities is a last resort (Productivity Commission 2019).
The reasons for the overrepresentation of First Nations children in child protection and out-of-home care systems are complex and include the intergenerational effects of previous separations from family and culture and the legacy of past policies of forced removal (AIHW 2019).
Community safety
A safe community is one where people feel protected from harm in their home, workplace and society (AIHW 2023b). The wellbeing and mental health of many First Nations people are affected by the safety of their community. Safe communities are able to provide emotional, physical or financial support during times of crisis (DoH 2019).
First Nations people have experienced violence through colonisation, discrimination and cultural dispossession (Day et al. 2013; Our Watch 2018). This has resulted in ongoing social, economic, physical, psychological and emotional effects (AIHW 2018a; Coles et al. 2015; Loxton et al. 2019; Our Watch 2018).
The effects of colonisation are perpetuated through:
- racialised, structural inequalities of power
- entrenched racism in social norms, attitudes and practices
- racist violence
- condoning of, and insufficient accountability for, violence against First Nations people.
‘Lateral violence’ describes the way people (First Nations and non-Indigenous) in positions of powerlessness covertly or overtly direct their dissatisfaction inward towards themselves, each other and those less powerful than themselves (AIHW & NIAA 2020).
For First Nations people, the roots of lateral violence are found in colonisation, oppression, intergenerational trauma and experiences of racism (Korff 2015).
A range of First Nations community initiatives have been implemented to manage community safety. These include family violence prevention programs and community patrols (AIHW & NIAA 2020).
The child protection and criminal justice systems are also used as ways of managing community safety, but interactions with these systems can be traumatic for First Nations communities. Violence or child abuse can be under-reported by victims due to lack of trust in police (Bailey et al. 2017; Olsen & Lovett 2016; Prentice et al. 2017; Willis 2010).
Improving the level of safety in all communities depends on addressing entrenched inequality and disadvantage and the multiple factors that give rise to violent and criminal behaviour.
Survivors of the Stolen Generations and their descendants experience higher levels of incarceration, unemployment and poor health compared with First Nations people in the same age cohort who were not removed (AIHW 2018b).
Contact with the criminal justice system
First Nations people experience contact with the criminal justice system – as both offenders and victims – at much higher rates than non-Indigenous Australians (Productivity Commission 2016; Senate Community Affairs References Committee 2010).
Imprisonment compounds existing social and economic disadvantage and affects family, children and the broader community with intergenerational effects (AIHW & NIAA 2020). Child removals, poverty, higher rates of stressful life events, psychological distress, and mental health issues are linked to the higher rates of contact with the criminal justice system (AMA 2015; McCausland et al. 2017; Shepherd et al. 2017). The experience of imprisonment can contribute to poor mental health (Baldry et al. 2015).
The use of culturally immersive programs, First Nations sentencing courts (for example, Koori court), on-Country programs and parenting programs can result in positive social and emotional wellbeing outcomes for First Nations people and their communities (Bennett 2016; Marchetti 2009; Palmer 2013).
Key statistics
Caution should be taken in ascribing the direction of relationships using the Clearinghouse analysis. While the analysis found associations between variables, it cannot determine the direction of the relationships nor the causal factors/variables.
Family composition
The data presented in this section are sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing 2021 (Census) for persons aged 15 years and over (Data sources). The Australian Census of Population and Housing is a count of population and dwellings and collects data on age, sex and other characteristics of the population (ABS 2021). See the data tables in the Download data section for notes related to these data.
In 2021, there were 208,066 families with at least one member identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Among these, couple families with 2–3 dependent children were the most common family composition (25.1% or 52,295 families) (Figure 1; Table FC.1).
Unpaid child care and domestic work
In 2021, around 166,600 First Nations people aged 15 and over provided unpaid care for children in the week prior to the Census night. One third (33%) of First Nations people who looked after only their own children or only the children of other people reported doing 15 or more hours of unpaid domestic work, such as cooking or cleaning. This rose to nearly half (48%) among people who looked after both their own children and the child/children of others. Only one in 10 (11%) people who did not provide child care reported doing 15 or more hours of unpaid domestic work in the week prior to Census night (Figure 2, Table FC.2).
Social and emotional wellbeing measures
The Indigenous Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Clearinghouse (the Clearinghouse) has used 3 social and emotional wellbeing measures – psychological distress, level of mastery and perceived social support – from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) 2018–19 to identify relationships between factors like social connection, removal from family, experience of violence, and mental health conditions and SEWB. For more information these scales, see the topic page on Social and emotional wellbeing.
The data presented in this section are sourced from the NATSIHS 2018–19 and are for persons aged 18 and over. Estimates are calculated using a sample selected from a population rather than all members of that population. See the data tables in the Download data section for notes related to these data.
Social connection
Strong and healthy connections to community protect First Nations people from mental ill-health. Healthy connections to family and kin are enabled by processes that empower cultural continuity and community control. Strong and healthy connections to family and kin protect people from suicide and suicide-related behaviour. Connection to family and kin is acknowledged to underpin social and emotional wellbeing across the life span, and across generations (Dudgeon et al. 2021).
Data in this section refer to people in non-remote areas.
In 2018–19, 73% of First Nations adults reported that they get the emotional support and help they need from their family. A similar proportion (74%) of First Nations adults reported that their family really tries to help them (AIHW & NIAA 2020).
People who reported High perceived social support were most likely to report Low/Moderate psychological distress (78% or 176,100 out of 227,200) (Table FC.3).
The proportion of people reporting High/Very high psychological distress increased as perceived social support decreased. People who had Low perceived social support were most likely to report High/Very high psychological distress (56% or 19,800 out of 35,100) (Figure 3; Table FC.3).
High perceived social support was greater among people without a diagnosed mental health condition compared with people with a diagnosed mental health condition (67% compared with 50%). The proportion of people reporting Low perceived social support was greater among people with a mental health condition (13% compared with 6.1%) (Figure 4; Table FC.4).
Among First Nations people who reported feeling accepted by other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people, over two thirds (69%) reported Low or Moderate psychological distress. This was compared to 59% among people who did not feel accepted (Table FC.5).
People who felt accepted were also more likely to report High mastery (67%) and High perceived social support (62%) compared to those who did not feel accepted (55% and 46%, respectively) (Table FC.5).
Removal from family
First Nations people in Australia are burdened by trauma from colonisation and the ongoing transmission of trauma across generations as a result of the forced removal of children from their families and communities (the Stolen Generations). Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (including forced removal from family) leads to trauma which is compounded by additional exposure to other stressors associated with racism and socio-economic marginalisation. Together, they contribute to the breaking of healthy and protective connections to family and kin and the healthy continuity of family and kin relations (Dudgeon et al. 2021).
Psychological distress was highest among people aged 18 and over who had both been removed from their natural family themselves and had a relative removed, with almost half (43%) reporting High/Very high psychological distress. This compared with about a quarter (26%) for people who had not been removed, nor had a relative removed (Table FC.6).
In non-remote areas, perceived social support was highest among people who had not been removed, nor had a relative removed, with over two thirds (68%) reporting High perceived social support (Figure 3). Of people who had experienced removal of themselves or a relative, people who had a relative only removed were most likely to report High perceived social support (58%), followed by people who were removed but not had a relative removed (51%) and people who had both been removed themselves and had a relative removed (44%) (Figure 5; Table FC.6).
Level of mastery, which is the level of control a person feels over their own life, followed a different pattern. Level of mastery was similar among people who were removed but did not have a relative removed, people who were not removed and did not have a relative removed, and people who had a relative only removed were most likely to report High mastery (69%, 67% and 66%, respectively). Level of mastery was lower for people who had both been removed themselves and had a relative removed, with 55% reporting High mastery (Table FC.6).
Almost half (45%) of people who had both been removed themselves and had a relative removed reported a current, diagnosed mental health condition. This compared with just under a third (32%) of people who were neither removed nor had a relative removed (Table FC.7).
Experience of violence
Feeling safe at home and in the community contributes to good social and emotional wellbeing. Experiencing threats and acts of violence, living in an environment where personal safety is at risk and facing social settings where violence is common can have negative health effects on victims of violence (AIHW & NIAA 2023). Aside from acute physical injury, health effects can include depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, as well as cardiovascular disease and premature mortality (Rivara et al. 2019).
In 2018–19, First Nations people who experienced threatened physical harm were less likely to report Low/Moderate psychological distress (43%), High mastery (49%) and High perceived social support (47%), compared with people who did not experience threatened harm (74%, 69% and 62%, respectively) (Table FC.8).
Proportions were similar among people who experienced actual physical harm by another person: Low/Moderate psychological distress (49%), High mastery (43%) and High perceived social support (43%), compared with 70%, 67% and 61%, respectively, among those who did not (Figure 6; Table FC.8).
Both males and females who experienced threatened physical harm were more likely to have a current, diagnosed mental health condition (59% for males and 69% for females) than those who did not (25% for males and 39% for females). For males, this proportion dropped to 36% among those who experienced actual physical harm, but for females the proportion remained at around two thirds (65%) (Figure 7, Table FC.9).
Data tables
Table number and title | Source | Reference period |
---|---|---|
Table FC.1: Count of dependant children in First Nations families, 2021 | AIHW analysis of ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021 | 2021 |
Table FC.2: Number of hours spent doing unpaid domestic work among First Nations people, by whether provided unpaid child care, 2021 | AIHW analysis of ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021 | 2021 |
Table FC.3: Psychological distress among First Nations people, by perceived social support, 2018–19 | AIHW analysis of ABS NATSIHS | 2018–19 |
Table FC.4: Perceived social support among First Nations people, by presence of mental health conditions, 2018–19 | AIHW analysis of ABS NATSIHS | 2018–19 |
Table FC.5: Social and emotional wellbeing among First Nations people, by feelings of acceptance, 2018–19 | AIHW analysis of ABS NATSIHS | 2018–19 |
Table FC.6: Social and emotional wellbeing among First Nations people, by removal from natural family, 2018–19 | AIHW analysis of ABS NATSIHS | 2018–19 |
Table FC.7: Presence of mental health conditions among First Nations people, by removal from natural family, 2018–19 | AIHW analysis of ABS NATSIHS | 2018–19 |
Table FC.8: Social and emotional wellbeing among First Nations people, by physical harm, 2018–19 | AIHW analysis of ABS NATSIHS | 2018–19 |
Table FC.9: Presence of mental health conditions among First Nations people, by physical harm, 2018–19 | AIHW analysis of ABS NATSIHS | 2018–19 |