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The Well-Being of Adolescents in Northern Canada

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Abstract

The Territorial North (i.e. Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut) is markedly different from the rest of Canada; yet there is little statistically reliable information about adolescent well-being in the region. The objective of this paper is to create a portrait of adolescent well-being in the Territorial North relative to Southern Canada. We do so using the Canadian Community Health Survey, a nationally representative dataset. We examine seven domains of well-being with 23 indicators by region and Aboriginal identity for youth aged 12 to 17. We include objective and subjective measures, reflecting the importance of adolescents’ perspectives in studies of their own well-being. We find negligible differences among the non-Aboriginal population; while most indicators are substantially worse for Aboriginal youth, especially in Northern Canada (e.g. income, poverty, household education, family structure, crowding, food insecurity, exposure to second-hand smoke, school enrolment, smoking, sexual activity, obesity and overweight, oral and mental health). However, there are exceptions (e.g. physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, stress, body image, belonging). Nevertheless, Aboriginal youth in the North are generally less satisfied with life. This is not surprising since they fare worse in most well-being indicators considered in this study.

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Notes

  1. Adolescents in the Territorial North are not represented across all dimensions of well-being comprised by the UNICEF ranking. For example, income data originate from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID); while educational achievement is measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The SLID and PISA exclude residents of Northern Canada.

  2. The CRC defines children as people under the age of 18; thus it applies to our study of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years.

  3. Some well-being indicators are based on parent-reported data (i.e. income, food insecurity).

  4. We are unable to differentiate between First Nations, Métis and Inuit adolescents because of limited sample size; however we acknowledge heterogeneity between and within these populations.

  5. We divide household income by the square root of family size. Thus, a four-person family with an income of $40,000 is thought to have the same material standard of living as a single individual with an income of $20,000.

  6. Relative price adjustments account for variation in cost of living between Northern and Southern Canada; however they do not necessarily address differences within each region. Note that differences in cost of living may be overstated for families that engage in traditional subsistence.

  7. 'We create a price index for each year, defined as average cost of the basket in the Territorial North divided by average cost of the basket in Southern Canada, all multiplied by 100. For example in 2008, average cost of the ‘Revised Northern Food Basket’ was $418 in Northern Canada and $216 in the South; thus the price index is 193.5. So, x dollars of income in Southern Canada is equivalent to (x/193.5)*100 dollars of income in the North.

  8. Regions in the Territorial North are delineated by census divisions. There is one census division in Yukon, two in Northwest Territories (i.e. Fort Smith, Inuvik) and three in Nunavut (i.e. Baffin, Kivalliq, Kitikmeot).

  9. After-tax income data are not available in the CCHS. As such, poverty may be overstated given Canada’s progressive tax system. Alternatively, poverty may be understated to the extent the CCHS excludes vulnerable adolescents such as those living on Aboriginal reserves.

  10. An average poverty gap ratio is the average income shortfall expressed as a percentage of the poverty line.

  11. The Food Mail Program has since been replaced by Nutrition North Canada.

  12. The ten largest communities in Nunavut are: Iqaluit; Rankin Inlet; Cambridge Bay; Kugluktuk; Cape Dorset; Igloolik; Pond Inlet; Pangnirtung; Baker Lake; and Arviat.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Canadian Labour Market and Skills Researcher Network. Data were accessed at the Atlantic Research Data Centre. We thank Heather Hobson for vetting our output. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at: Atlantic Canada Economics Association Conferences, October 2012 and 2013; Canadian Research Data Centre Network Conference, October 2012; Canadian Economics Association Conference, June 2013; Department of Economics at University of New Brunswick Saint John, November 2013; and ArcticNet Annual Scientific Meeting, December 2013. We thank participants at these venues for helpful comments. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for valuable feedback.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

    Peter Burton, Angela Daley & Shelley Phipps

  2. Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Canada

    Shelley Phipps

Authors
  1. Peter Burton
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  2. Angela Daley
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  3. Shelley Phipps
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Angela Daley.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 2 List of well-being domains, indicators and the respective sub-sample exclusions. The full sample comprises Canadian youth aged 12 to 17 based on CCHS Cycles 2.1 (2003), 3.1 (2005), 4.1 (2007) and 2008
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Burton, P., Daley, A. & Phipps, S. The Well-Being of Adolescents in Northern Canada. Child Ind Res 8, 717–745 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-014-9252-8

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