ACTGHS psychosocial events, adults

Commentary

27.2% of respondents to the 2022 ACT General Health Survey said that they had a new job, 25.5% had someone close to them who had died, 14.5% had moved house, 14.1% had experienced financial hardship, 12.4% had experienced serious illness, 7.3% had a marriage/relationship breakdown, 6.9% had experienced serious injury, 5.1% had an unplanned job loss, 3.5% had their home robbed/burgled and 2.0% had experienced domestic/family violence in the last 12 months. In 2022, males (21.2%) were significantly less likely to report that they had someone close to them who had died than females (29.2%).

There was no significant difference between males and females in the other psychosocial events categories. In 2022, respondents aged 18 to 24 years were significantly more likely to report that they had a new job in the last 12 months than respondents aged 25 to 44 years, 45 to 64 years and 65 years and over. Respondents aged 25 to 44 years were significantly more likely to have had a new job than respondents aged 45 to 64 years and 65 years and over and respondents aged 45 to 64 years were significantly more likely to have had a new job than respondents aged 65 years and over in 2022 (18 to 24 years: 59.7%; 25 to 44 years: 36.3%; 45 to 64 years: 18.6%; 65 years and over: 2.1%).

Respondents aged 18 to 24 years (20.0%) and 25 to 44 years (20.4%) were significantly more likely to report moving house than respondents aged 45 to 64 years (9.8%) and 65 years and over (4.1%) and significantly more likely to experience a marriage/relationship breakdown in 2022 (18 to 24 years: 18.4%; 25 to 44 years: 8.9%; 45 to 64 years: 4.4%; 65 years and over: 2.5%). Respondents aged 65 years and over were significantly more likely to report serious illness than respondents aged 25 to 44 years (18.6% vs 8.7%) in 2022. Respondents aged 18 to 24 years (27.3%) were significantly more likely to report financial hardship than respondents aged 45 to 64 years (10.8%) and 65 years and over (8.7%) in 2022.

Note: The indicator shows self-reported data collected through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). Estimates were weighted to adjust for differences in the probability of selection among respondents and were benchmarked to the estimated residential population using the latest available Australian Bureau of Statistics population estimates.

Psychosocial events are collected every third year (2019 and 2022). Respondents are aged 18 years and over (i.e. no children).

Persons includes male, female, other sex and refused sex respondents and may not always add to the sum of male and female.

The following estimates have a relative standard error between 25% and 50% and should be used with caution:

• 2019 and 2022: respondents aged 65 years and over who had experienced unplanned job loss and who had a new job
• 2019: respondents aged 25 to 44 years who had experience domestic/family violence
• 2019 and 2022: respondents aged 25 to 44 years who had experience domestic/family violence
• 2019 and 2022: respondents aged 65 years and over who had moved house
• 2019: respondents aged 25 to 44 years and 65 years and over whose home was robbed/burgled
• 2022: respondents aged 45 to 64 years who had experienced domestic/family violence
• 2022: respondents aged 65 years and over who had a marriage/relationship breakdown
• 2022: respondents aged 18 to 24 years who had a serious illness.

The following estimates have not been published due to small numbers or a relative standard error greater than 50%:

• 2019 and 2022: respondents aged 18 to 24 years who have experienced unplanned job loss
• 2019 and 2022: respondents aged 18 to 24 years and 65 years and over who have experienced domestic/family violence
• 2019 and 2022: respondents aged 18 to 24 years who have had their home robbed/burgled
• 2019 and 2022: respondents aged 18 to 24 years who have experienced serious injury
• 2019: respondents aged 18 to 24 years who have experienced serious illness
• 2019: respondents aged 65 years and over who had a marriage/relationship breakdown
  - 2022: respondents aged 65 years and over who have had their home robbed/burgled.

Statistically significant differences are difficult to detect for smaller jurisdictions such as the Australian Capital Territory. Sometimes, even large apparent differences may not be statistically significant. This is particularly the case in breakdowns of small populations because the small sample size means that there is not enough power to identify even large differences as statistically significant.

Chart

ion of adults aged 18 years and over who experienced psycho-social events, ACT General Health Survey, 2019-2022 

Data

To access the data, select "View source data" link at the bottom of the visualisation. This link will open up a data table that you can download.

Codes and sources

Q. In the past 12 months have you personally experienced any of the following?

An unplanned loss of job
Starting a new job
Family/domestic violence
Moved house
A robbery or your home burgled
The death of someone close to you
A marriage/relationship breakdown
A serious injury
A serious illness
Financial hardship

Yes; No; Don't know; Refused

Don't know and refused responses were excluded from analysis.

A copy of the ACT General Health Survey questionnaires can be found in Data collections.