Purpose
The purpose of Engaging all New Zealanders is to raise awareness and create a sense of responsibility, to shift attitudes and social norms and to encourage everyone to take action for the wellbeing of vulnerable children and young people.
To achieve this, Oranga Tamariki aims to improve its understanding of New Zealanders’ beliefs, opinions, attitudes and behaviours regarding child and youth vulnerability.
The 2019 survey reported here follows on from the 2017 Engaging all New Zealanders survey and the formative research undertaken in March 2017 by EY Sweeney.
Methodology
PRIMARY APPROACH
The primary method for data collection aimed to deliver a representative picture of New Zealanders’ attitudes and behaviours, within the project constraints. Participation in the survey was via selfcompletion where respondents were first given the opportunity to respond online, followed some time later by the provision of a hard copy questionnaire. This is known as a ‘sequential mixed methodology’ approach.
Because physical address, age and Māori descent are shown on the Electoral Roll, we were able to design the survey to aim to achieve:
- a representative sample
- sufficient completed questionnaires from the harder-to-reach sub-groups of Māori and young New Zealanders who are typically considerably less likely to participate in research.
SUPPLEMENTARY APPROACH
In 2017, the supplementary approach aimed to help achieve as representative a view as possible from Pacific respondents. As Pacific ethnicity is not shown on the Electoral Roll, our approach included a combination of:
- The above self-completion approach, but with materials also available in Samoan and Tongan, and with the sample being selected from within mesh blocks where Pacific peoples make up more than 50% of the population
- Door to door interviewing in mesh blocks where Pacific peoples made up 90% of the population.
As in 2017, the 2019 supplementary approach aimed to help us achieve a representative sample from Pacific respondents but was adapted through the use of the Nielsen online panel instead of face-to-face fieldwork. This change in approach aimed to control bias in results caused by having an interviewer present while respondents were completing their surveys (i.e. people tend to provide more socially acceptable answers when someone else is in the room).
The second supplementary approach used in 2019 involved the use of the 2017 ‘re-contact sample’ for people who identified as either Māori or Pacific. This sample was made up of those who had agreed to take part in future research and aimed to boost the number of Māori and Pacific respondents. Very few responses were achieved through this approach and no analysis could be conducted for this group separately.
Key Results
The Children in New Zealand Communities Survey provides information about the attitudes and behaviours of the New Zealand public towards children and young people ‘at risk’ of not thriving.
This survey was a nationwide survey of New Zealand residents aged 18 years and over, using a mix of self completion methods. A total of 1,548 adults completed this survey between 13 February and 5 April 2019. Detailed information about the survey approach and sample profile can be found in the Appendix of the report.
Some of the questions touched upon in the report include:
- Does New Zealand have a problem or not?
- Are we aware of the contributors to vulnerability/wellbeing?
- Where does community responsibility sit relative to parental responsibility and governmental responsibility?
- Have people taken action when they have been in a position to do so?
- Does consideration of helping a child increase for certain types of care?
- Are we noticing information or commentary relating to vulnerable children?