Community Foundations of Canada conducts a national study every year to look at the quality of life of Canadians. In 2012, the study looked specifically at youth. For this study, the foundation collected research from many sources to provide a picture of youths’ quality of life. This report presents a picture of health, well-being, and employment issues facing youth in Canada. Among the study findings:
- While the high-school dropout rate fell in all provinces from the early 1990s, one in 12 youth 20 to 24 years old had not obtained a high-school diploma in 2009/10.
- Canada’s 2nd highest poverty rates in 2009 were in households where the major income earner was under the age of 25 (33.8%).
- While the rate of bullying behaviours (29% of students report having been bullied) remained the same since the first time it was measured in 2003, cyber-bullying, a new measure in CAMH’s 2011 survey, was reported by one in five students. This represents an estimated 217,000 students in Ontario alone.
- The rate of students reporting psychological distress rose to 43%, up from 36% in the 1999 survey. In Ontario, 43% of girls in grades 7–12 reported distress, up from 36% in 1999 and significantly above the 24% of boys who reported these feelings.
You can read this Research Report Round-up on the EEnet website.
Research Report Round-ups are brief summaries of research reports, presented in a user-friendly format. To read EENet’s clear language report summaries, visit www.eenet.ca.