What Is Maslow's Hierarchy Of Wellbeing

“Australia's estimated resident population in 2012 of 22.7 million people is projected to increase to between 36.8 and 48.3 million people by 2061, and to between 42.4 and 70.1 million people by 2101” (Population Projections, Australia, 2013). The population has increased enormously over the past couple of decades and has shown no signs of slowing down. In 1970 the population rate was just 12.51 million people, while 45 years later this number has almost doubled (Population size and growth , 2012). The reasons behind Australia’s large growth rates involves two main components; natural increases, such as births and extended life expectancy, and overseas migration. As urban areas are predicted to increase within the coming decades the demand

on housing is rising and without a new supply of dwellings, the prices are radically intensifying for future home owners. New supplies of dwellings are obviously needed to accommodate the growth in population. “Population growth is a major underlying factor for the demand of housing and without a new supply of dwellings, it pushes up the prices for both renting and purchasing dwellings.” (Karantonis) This increase can only result in urban sprawl, which in turn presents a whole new level of pressure to upgrade existing infrastructures as well as providing new resources and foundations to start a community. The standard of advanced quality expectations for these new developments has also increased, vividly putting large pressures on both urban redevelopment and settlement. Angelo Karantonis from the University of Technology stated that, “The requirement for new infrastructure is more the norm and together with new environmental compliance costs and elevated quality expectations, it impacts on the cost of new supply of dwellings.” By discontinuing the Great Australian Dream, there would be more land space and capacity to accommodate a quickly rising population furthermore there would most likely be a vast drop in housing affordability, meaning that more families would be able to invest in a home and live a normal life.
“In the last ten years Australian house prices have risen by 147% while incomes have risen by only 57%” (Toohey, 2011). House prices in Australia have led to an increased interest in concepts surrounding the idea of housing affordability and housing stress. Housing prices have increased enormously over the past decade leaving many Australian families in immense amounts of debt, with vast housing stress and for some, leaving them without any hope of ever owning a house. “High housing costs accentuate financial hardship for low income households by leaving too little in the household budget for non-housing expenses and place some households at risk of being unable to pay their housing costs.” (O'Flynn, 2011) Housing stress used to be considered as a rare and infrequent occurrence that only arose in quite poor families. However in this day and age it’s considered quite normal and appears to be a somewhat kind of lifestyle for many Australians. “Lower-income private renters and purchasers are particularly likely to be affected, with research indicating that the incidence of housing stress for these groups is 65% and 49% of total households respectively” (Ren Adams, 2008). A family is thought to be in housing stress when they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing while earning in the bottom 40 percent of the country, otherwise known as the 30/40 rule (Housing affordability, 2015). Many couples or families place themselves in these kinds of situations voluntarily by investing in houses that are far beyond their reach for the concept of the Great Australian Dream, however this can be justified by many as aiming for high quality locations with good education and vast job opportunities for their children. “It is also possible that housing stress might reflect voluntary choices by households who are willing to ‘prefer’ housing stress as long as they can achieve other outcomes, such as better location, housing quality or employment opportunities” (Do current measures of housing affordability reflect wellbeing?) Others find themselves in these situations by constraint; a marriage breakup, loss of employment, costs of children or sickness.
However the emotional side of housing stress can be quite brutal. Some people can find themselves with unhealthy chronic stress, severe anxiety and quite often it leads to depression and other mental health cases. “In a study conducted by Dunn (2002), he found poor physical and mental health associated with physical and emotional housing stress.” Australian families are putting their own health on the line and may find themselves in severe financial debts that they are likely to never recover from, all for the sake of the Great Australian Dream. Another study that investigated the relationship between housing stress and overall wellbeing found that housing stress accounted for a vast proportion of mental health, general health and alcohol abuse, (Ong, 2002) often resulting in adverse life events for the rest of the family, in particular the children and the wellbeing of the household.
Australians are more troubled than ever by the rate and pressures of life, taking away from family relationships and wellbeing.

Family wellbeing goes beyond the idea of financial affluence and prosperity to compromise things such as emotional and physical health and safety. As Maslow’s hierarchy suggests, you need these psychological needs to reach self-actualization. Maslow’s Hierarchy of wellbeing has five levels; physical needs, safety and security, love and belonging, self-esteem and finally self-actualization. The importance of family wellbeing is much greater than a lot of people may realise. Family cohesion is a basic security need for all families that contributes a major part of essential qualities that are needed for unity; it provides a positive sense of self, creates opportunities to grow with one another and provides stability and security within the household (Maria Krysan, 1990). For children, this is a very important aspect of their development and mental growth. Children need to have a strong sense of belonging, love and care so that they can properly develop the skills they need in life to help reach their full potential, however more often than not these needs are not met and the chances of poor life outcomes increases. The most common reason for this; parents having to work late, working far away or working more than one job to pay expensive house mortgages along with other bills. Families Australia stated that, “Time spent together and good communication are key strengths of functional families but this is being increasingly harmed by work pressures. Many families want to spend more time together but find that increased consumerism and the demands on time and money to make ends meet prevent this from becoming a reality.” (Babington, 2006). As a result of this children are often left on their own or left only seeing their parents for short amounts of time and not receiving the love and nurture they need to properly grow. Abandonment has a very

strong negative outcome on the wellbeing of a family and can often lead to adverse life outcomes for the children experiencing this. Too many Australian families are compromising the Great Australian Dream over the importance of family wellbeing.