Family and community life is multi-dimensional and complex. This makes it difficult to design questionnaires that can adequately capture the different dimensions of family and community life.

Overall, the NATSISS 2002 survey does a good job of measuring a range of aspects of family and community life given that these domains are only two of the many domains that a general social survey of the Indigenous population needs to cover. In this chapter we have outlined the measures of family and community life included in the survey and have attempted to highlight some of the issues which need to be taken into account when analysing the data generated by these questions.

Second, the measures focus on the individual, with no information gathered on the quality of relationships, parenting behaviour, family functioning, and so on. Given the crucial importance of such issues for wellbeing, some measures on these issues should be considered for future surveys. The Longitudinal Survey of Australian Children may provide a useful source of questions on some of these issues.

Third, the measures of household structure and composition are problematic for a proportion of the Indigenous population, given the complex and multi-generational nature of many households. The use of a household grid to gather information on family composition is worth considering.