Australian wellbeing hits slump

September 06, 2006

(Source: 'The Australian' newspaper - www.news.com.au)
 
AUSTRALIANS' sense of wellbeing has fallen to its lowest level in five years, largely because we feel disconnected from each other, according to a new survey.
 
Australians recorded their lowest personal wellbeing since April 2001 in May this year, when it dropped from 75.26 last October to 74.11.
 
Bob Cummins, author of Survey 15 of The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, today said the marked drop was directly linked to how we feel about our relationships and connection to the community.
 
It was also linked to the fact Australians were feeling less threatened by external events and were subsequently less attached to each other.
 
This in turn caused their personal wellbeing to drop, he said. As people felt more secure within the world, their sense of wellbeing was more attuned to the quality of personal relationships.
 
"(The Index) showed a marked rise in personal wellbeing following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Bali bombing and the early stages of the Iraq war," said Prof Cummins, from Deakin University.
 
"Our personal wellbeing is highly influenced by our relationships and interactions with others, and the external threats make us feel united and connected to each other."
 
Given this, Prof Cummins said it would be interesting to see if the personal wellbeing of Australians rose following the foiled terrorist activity in the UK, particularly with the elderly.
 
"People aged over 75 and living alone have been the most significantly influenced," Prof Cummins said.
 
"Their satisfaction with relationships and community connection ? which increased substantially in times of perceived threat since September 11 ? has now decreased significantly.
 
"It appears that this group is more sensitive to perceptions of external threat, perhaps because they experienced the Second World War as young adults.
 
"For those who now live alone, the threat of conflict gave them a renewed sense of connection to others."
 
The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index is an academic study that measures the subjective personal wellbeing of Australians.
 
? The Australian