Factors that influence the wellbeing of individuals and families within the home and community
In this domain the exam asks you to explain how a range of factors shape the wellbeing of individuals and families, and how those factors interact in home and community settings. Strong answers name a wellbeing model, trace cause and effect, and move beyond listing influences.
Wellbeing and its dimensions
Wellbeing is more than physical health. Te Whare Tapa Whā describes four interdependent walls: taha tinana (physical), taha hinengaro (mental and emotional), taha whānau (social and family), and taha wairua (spiritual). A factor that weakens one wall strains the others - overcrowded housing disturbs sleep (tinana), raises stress (hinengaro), and increases household conflict (whānau).
Types of factors
- Economic: income, job security, cost of living, debt.
- Social: family roles, social support, discrimination, community connectedness.
- Cultural: identity, language, tikanga, migrant status.
- Physical and environmental: housing quality, transport, food access, neighbourhood safety.
- Political: policy settings, welfare rules, funding of health and school services.
Factors can be protective or a risk, and they operate at individual, whānau, and community levels. Interdependence matters: a community's resources, such as a food hub or an affordable bus route, shape what a family can actually do at home.
Worked example
A family of five on a low income, with both parents working shifts, lives 40 minutes from the nearest supermarket. Economic: low income limits food choice. Environmental: distance raises the time and cost of buying fresh food. Social: shift work removes shared mealtimes, a protective routine. These combine so the family relies on energy-dense convenience food, affecting physical wellbeing. The community-level factor is distance and transport; responses could include a community food hub, a school breakfast programme, or flexible work hours. This shows wellbeing is shaped at several levels, not by income alone.
Traps
- Naming a factor without explaining its effect on a specific wellbeing dimension.
- Ignoring interaction; the exam rewards chains of cause and effect, not lists.
- Treating the family as one unit - members' needs differ.
- Forgetting community and political factors.
- Confusing a factor with its consequence.