The Prince and the Pauper: Movement of Children Up and Down the Canadian Income Distribution, 1994-2004

This paper uses longitudinal microdata from the Statistics Canada National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) spanning the years 1994 through 2004 to study patterns of family income experienced by a cohort of 7163 Canadian children for most of their childhood. Five principal questions are addressed: 1) What trends in the level of real family income are apparent?; 2) What happens to inequality of income among this group of children as they grow up?; 3) Are the same children always the ones to be ‘stuck at the bottom’ or, alternatively, ‘secure at the top’ of the relative income distribution?; 4) What are the characteristics of the children who are most likely to ever or always be in the bottom (or top) of the distribution?; 5) What changes in characteristics are associated with movements up or down the income distribution?Children, Inequality, Child Poverty

Policy Brief No. 18 - The Dynamics of Inequality among Canadian Children

This study characterizes income inequality and mobility of Canadian children between the ages of 4/5 and 14/15. There is considerable inequality of family income. Moreover, income position is especially persistent for children at the bottom and top of the distribution; this is unfair and may be perpetuated into adulthood. Finally, family structure is very important for children’s material well-being; for example, they experience a considerable drop in income position upon parental separation/ divorce. It is recommended that such children be protected, perhaps through advance maintenance payments

The Well-Being of Adolescents in Northern Canada

Poster Presentation 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