Youth not employed or in school face poorer mental, physical health: study

OTTAWA — A new study is offering what it calls a rare look at the health and psychological impacts endured by Canadian youth who are not working, training or studying.

The Statistics Canada research said 11.1 per cent of youth, aged 18 to 29 years old, found themselves without work, studies or training opportunities, putting them at risk of persistent social and economic challenges. The results were based on surveys of 13,270 participants between 2015 and 2017.

The young people were more likely to have poorer mental and physical health, suicidal thoughts and lower levels of life satisfaction as a result, the report said.

The examination’s focus was on Canadian youth who were “not in employment, education or training” — a classification also known by its acronym NEET.

The Statistics Canada study, published last Friday, said most youth NEET research in Canada has focused on sociodemographic characteristics and the shift from studies to work. As a result, “relatively little is known about the psychological wellbeing” of Canadian youth NEET, the authors wrote.

The research sought to address this by laying out a psychological profile of youth NEET, based on data from Canadian Community Health Survey results.

In the study, youth NEET were divided into three subgroups — 38 per cent of them reported they were looking for paid work, 27.5 per cent said they were caring for children and 34.5 per cent were categorized as “other.”

The “other” group included people who reported their main activities as something like volunteering or household work. Some reported having a long-term illness or disability.

In most categories, the study found that the respondents who reported caring for children as their main activity had similar results to non-NEET youth. Those classified in the “other” category had consistently poorer characteristics, the research found.

Here are some of the Canadian findings:

- Mental health: 13.8 per cent of youth NEET reported poor or fair mental health, compared with 7.8 per cent of non-NEET youth.

- Suicide: 23.7 per cent of youth NEET said they seriously contemplated suicide, compared with 14.9 per cent of nonNEET.

- Social well-being: 33.2 per cent of youth NEET said they were very satisfied with their lives, compared with 39.7 per cent of non-NEET.

- Physical health: 55.9 per cent of youth NEET reported very good or excellent physical health, compared with 72 per cent of non-NEET.

- Education: 38.9 per cent of youth NEET had completed post-secondary education, compared with 53.1 per cent of non-NEET.

One expert in the field called it good news that Statistics Canada is examining data for youth NEET that goes deeper than employment numbers.

Maria Eugenia Longo, a professor at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, also said the situation for the young people found within this category is very heterogeneous.

“It allows us to know a little more about the situation of these people, like for example, their psychosocial situation or their food needs,” said Longo, who was a member of the federal government’s expert panel on youth employment.

“These are characteristics that we cannot observe in most reports on NEET.”