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Social Determinants of Health and Education: Understanding Intersectionalities During Childhood

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Health and Education Interdependence

Abstract

This chapter explores the conceptual understandings of health and learning, as well as the health benefits of learning, to address the social factors that determine existing inequalities in these outcomes. Inequalities in health and learning start in early life, are transmitted intergenerationally, and are fuelled by the intersectionality of disadvantage into which children are born. To provide a more comprehensive understanding of the channels by which social determinants reproduce inequalities, the chapter builds on the ecological model developed by Feinstein and colleagues (2008) to make explicit the conditions, forces and systems, that impact the formation and persistence of inequalities. The chapter concludes with the importance of addressing the social factors and processes that cause the reproduction of existing inequalities in health and learning within specific contexts. The intent, here, is to promote a more equitable social agenda.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Prof. Tom Schuller for his critical comments to earlier versions of this chapter as well as the lead editor of the book, Prof. Richard Midford.

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    Ricardo Sabates & Ariel Yardeni

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  1. Ricardo Sabates
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    Richard Midford

  2. School of Education, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, NT, Australia

    Georgie Nutton

  3. Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia

    Brendon Hyndman

  4. Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, Australia

    Sven Silburn

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Sabates, R., Yardeni, A. (2020). Social Determinants of Health and Education: Understanding Intersectionalities During Childhood. In: Midford, R., Nutton, G., Hyndman, B., Silburn, S. (eds) Health and Education Interdependence. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3959-6_2

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