Education as a Social Determinant of Health: Issues Facing Indigenous and Visible Minority Students in Postsecondary Education in Western Canada

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Janki Shankar¹  Eugene Ip²  Ernest Khalema⁴  Jennifer Couture³  Shawn Tan¹  Rosslynn T. Zulla⁴ 

[1] Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, 444 11044, 82 Avenue, Edmonton, AB T6G0T2, Canada; E-Mails:;Department of Community Studies, Faculty of Health and Community Studies, NorQuest College, Edmonton, AB T5J 1L6, Canada; E-Mail:;Department of Sociology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada; E-Mail:;School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1C9, Canada; E-Mails:

关键词: low income minority youth;    postsecondary education;    social determinants of health;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph10093908

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The level of educational attainment is increasingly being recognized as an important social determinant of health. While higher educational attainment can play a significant role in shaping employment opportunities, it can also increase the capacity for better decision making regarding one’s health, and provide scope for increasing social and personal resources that are vital for physical and mental health. In today’s highly globalized knowledge based society postsecondary education (PSE) is fast becoming a minimum requirement for securing employment that can afford young adults the economic, social and personal resources needed for better health. Canada ranks high among OECD countries in terms of advanced education, with 66% of Canadians having completed some form of postsecondary education. Yet youth from low income indigenous and visible minority (LIIVM) backgrounds continue to be poorly represented at PSE levels. The current study aimed to understand the reasons for this poor representation by examining the experiences of LIIVM students enrolled in a postsecondary program. Findings show that the challenges they faced during the course of their study had an adverse impact on their health and that improving representation of these students in PSE will require changes at many levels.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.