Canada's Children: A Fact Sheet of Social Indicators

1997-98

These statistics have been compiled from published sources by Dr. S. Parlow, Department of Psychology, Carleton University. If you spot factual errors or have more recent information, please feel free to contact her at sparlow@ccs.carleton.ca.

• Poverty
• Homelessness
• Health insurance
• Childhood immunization
• Low birth weight and infant death
• Teenage parenthood
• Divorce
• Mental illness
• Child abuse and neglect
• Daycare
• School achievement
• School dropout
• References

Poverty

• In 1989, the House of Commons unanimously passed a resolution to end child poverty by the end of the century. At the time, the child poverty rate in Canada was estimated at 14.5%. Since then, sadly, the rate of child poverty in Canada has risen. By 1994, 1.4 million Canadian children (roughly one in five) under the age of 18 were living in poverty (Ross, Scott & Kelly, 1996). For children living in families headed by a single mother, the likelihood of living in poverty is greater than 70%.
• Younger children are more likely to live in poverty in Canada than older children. In 1994-95, a total of 24.6% of children aged 0 to 11 years were classified as poor. Newfoundland and Manitoba had the highest rates (33.1% and 28.9%) and British Columbia the lowest (22.1%).
• Poor children in Canada have poorer health, are more likely to be hyperactive, to have emotional and behavioural problems, and to get in trouble with the law. Their school performance is more than twice as likely to be judged as “poor” by their teachers, and they are twice as likely to drop out of school before graduating. They live in inferior, cramped housing, and have a much greater chance of being raised in care facilities such as foster homes or children's aid residences. They are also more likely to partake in high-risk behaviours, including smoking, taking drugs and drinking, and having sex without using birth control or condoms (Ross, Scott & Kelly, 1996).

Homelessness

• Theoretically, there are no homeless children in Canada. However, there are children living in shelters and some who live on the street for varying periods of time. Almost 45,000 runaway cases were reported to police departments across Canada in 1990 (McDonald, 1994), of whom approximately one in three had run away before. About 77% of the runaways returned home in less than a week.

Health insurance

• All Canadian children have health insurance and receive basic health care services as a right.

Childhood immunization

• Almost all Canadian babies are immunized against preventable childhood illnesses, including measles, tetanus, and polio.

Low birth weight and infant death

• Both the rate of low weight births and the infant mortality rate have been steadily declining in Canada. Only 4.7% of single live births weighed less than 2500 grams at birth in 1989. Preterm babies are more likely to have low birth weights, but being a firstborn and female are also risk factors. Women under age 20 and over age 40 have the highest relative risk of having a low birth weight infant, but first-time mothers and smokers are also at risk.
• Between 1960 and 1993, the infant mortality rate for Canada dropped by 77%, to 6.3 deaths per 1,000 live births. Although the infant mortality rate has also declined among aboriginal peoples in Canada, the infant mortality rate for this group remains substantially above the national average (Bobet, 1994). In 1986, the infant mortality rate for children of First Nations living on reservations was a shocking 17.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. Much of this difference is attributable to deaths occuring after the first month of life but within the first year. The mortality for this group was comparable to the national norm for the first month of life.

Teenage parenthood

• The majority of teens in Canada are sexually active. In a 1990 survey, 57% of young men and 63% of young women between the ages of 15 and 19 years said they had been involved in a sexual relationship, and a significant number (16% and 12%, respectively) reported having sexual intercourse before age 15. Of those who were sexually active, many (32-46%) reported using birth control or condoms sometimes or not at all (Ross, Scott & Kelly, 1996). The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (especially infective chlamydia and penicillinase-producing neisseria gonorrhea) is rising in Canada, especially in young women.
• Although the number of sexually active teens has been increasing, the rate of teenage pregnancy has fallen. In 1991, the rate of teen pregnancy was 41 births per 1,000 population (Ross,Scott,& Kelly, 1996). This represents about 6% of all births in Canada.

Divorce

• The rate of divorce has dramatically increased in Canada over the last three decades, to a rate of 1200 divorces per 100,000 marriages in 1990 (Lero & Johnson, 1994). However, most Canadian children still live in a two-parent family. In 1994-95, 79% of children aged 0-11 years were living with both their biological parents. About 15.7% lived with a single parent (in 92.8% of cases, with a single mother) and 8.6% in a blended family. Less than 1% lived with someone other than a parent.
• The concept of the Canadian family has changed dramatically in recent times, and continues to change, as blended families, parents living apart with joint custody arrangements, common-law arrangements, and same-sex relationships are becoming more common-place and accepted. In fact, the “traditional” family headed by an employed man and a stay-at-home wife is rare in Canada, accounting for less than one in five of all husband-wife families in 1991 (Lero & Johnson, 1994).
• Probably the greatest change with respect to the Canadian family in the past two decades has been the rise in the numbers of single-parent and common-law families (LaNovara, 1994). This is particularly true in Quebec, where the rate of common-law families is much higher than in any other province. Family size has also declined nationally, and large families are rare, with less than 1% of families with children having 5 or more children living at home. On average, Canadian women produce 1.8 children (Lero & Johnson, 1994).

Mental illness

• Estimates of the number of Canadian children suffering from an emotional, behavioural or learning disorder severe enough to warrant special services are typically between 10 and 15%. However, in a large Ontario survey of more than 3000 children, 19.5% of boys and 13.5% of girls between 4 and 11 years met DSM III criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder (Offord et al., 1987).
• The rate of learning disabilities is about twice that of emotional and behavioural disorders. Most children with learning disabilities in Canada are identified within the school system and offered special services ranging from individualized support in a regular classroom to resource room support or segregated special classes.
• Comparatively few services are available for children with behavioural problems. Of the estimated 3.3-5.0% of students who have behaviour problems with no accompanying cognitive disabilities, less than one-third will receive special services in the school system or in the community (Csapo, 1985). The lack of programs geared to adolescents with either learning disabilities or behavioural problems is a particular concern (Alberta Education, Special Education Services, 1983).
• Most provinces recognize two categories of behavioural problems -- externalizing and internalizing. The first category includes impulsive, aggressive, hyperactive and antisocial children; the second includes shy, fearful, neurotic, emotionally disturbed, inhibited and withdrawn children. Of the two, externalizing problems are more stable over time, more resistent to treatment, and more strongly related to adult psychopathology (Ledingham & Crombie, 1987). Boys are more likely to demonstrate externalizing problems and girls to demonstrate internalizing problems. However, in the Ontario study, the frequency of neurosis was about 10% for both sexes. The gender difference was more apparent for externalizing problems. The frequency of conduct disorder was 6.5% for boys and 1.8% for girls. A similar gender difference was observed for hyperactivity, which was reported in 10% of boys and only 3.3% of girls.

Child abuse and neglect

• Most provinces recognize three categories of abuse -- physical maltreatment, emotional or mental maltreatment (including neglect), and sexual maltreatment.
• For example, in 1989, the Children's Aid Societies of Ontario received more than 16,800 reports of alleged child abuse. Of these, 52% reported physical abuse, 46% sexual abuse, and 3% emotional abuse. It has been estimated that about one in four girls and one in ten boys in Canada is the victim of unwanted sexual acts before the age of 18 years (Maloney, 1990). The actual rate may be higher, especially for boys, who may find it more difficult to admit that they are the victims of a sexual assault. Typically, the abuser is male and is known to the child.

Daycare

• Working mothers are much more common in Canada today than in the past. In 1991, 63% of mothers with children under age 16 and 57% of mothers with children under age 6 were employed in the labour force, up from 50% and 42%, respectively, a decade earlier (Ghalam, 1994).
• So it is not surprizing that, by 1994-95, a total of 32.4% of children aged 0 to 11 (1.5 million children) were in some form on non-parental child care. Of the children who were not in child care, 39.6% had been in child care at some point in the past. Thus, a total of 72.0% of Canadian children in this age range had experienced child care. The most common arrangements were unrelated family home day-care, unregulated (34%), care by a relative, in the child's or someone else's home (21%) and care by a regulated child-care centre (16%). On average, they spent 21.2 hours per week in their primary care arrangement, but many children spent either a lot less or a lot more hours in care.
• Care arrangements for these children were stable, on the whole. More than three-quarters (77%) had not experienced a change in their primary care arrangements in the previous year. About 16% experienced one change in their primary care arrangements and only 7% experienced two or more changes.
• When considering the care of older children, the number of latchkey children in Canada is a growing concern in Canada. In 1988, 23% of children aged 6-12 years spent at least some time alone or with a sibling under age 13. Self-care or care by a sibling was the primary care arrangement for 7% of children aged 6 to 9 and 21% of children aged 10 to 12 (Lero, Pence, Loelman & Brockman, 1992).

School achievement

• Canadian educational practices have received mixed reviews. A Survey of Literacy Skills Used in Daily Activities undertaken in 1989 by Statistics Canada revealed that although most young adults aged 16-24 could read simple, clearly laid-out material, almost a quarter (23%) had difficulty reading more complex reading material (Montigny, 1994).
• Another survey, the General Social Survey, revealed that in the same year, 82% of
• 15-19 year-olds knew how to use a computer. They used computers to primarily to play games and for word processing. Moreover, 49% of teenagers had done some programming (Lowe, 1994).

School dropout

• The rate of school drop-out has declined sharply in Canada over the past decade. In 1981, the drop-out rate for 16-17 year-olds living in poverty or not was 23% and 14% respectively. By 1993, the rates had dropped to 8% and 5% (Ross, Scott & Kelly, 1996).

Do you want to know more? These sources may be helpful:

Lero, D.S. & Johnson, K.L. (1994) 110 Canadian Statistics on Work and Family. Ottawa: The Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women.

Growing Up in Canada: National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 1996.

McKie, C. & Thompson, K. (1990 and 1994) Canadian Social Trends (vols 1 and 2). Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing.

References

Growing Up in Canada: National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 1996.

Bobet, 1994,. Indian Mortality. In McKie, C. & Thompson, K. (Eds.) Canadian Social Trends (vol 2). Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing. pp 57-60.

Ghalam, N.Z. (1994). Women in the workplace. In McKie, C. & Thompson, K. (Eds.) Canadian Social Trends (vol 2). Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing. Pp. 141-146.

LaNovara, P.(1994). Changes in family living. In McKie, C. & Thompson, K. (Eds.) Canadian Social Trends (vol 2). Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing. Pp.171-174.

Lero, D.S., Pence, A.R., Goelman, H., & Brockman, L.M. (1992). Canadian National Child Care Study, special tabulation. Stats Canada?

Lero, D.S. & Johnson, K.L. (1994). 110 Canadian Statistics on Work and Family. Ottawa: The Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women.

Lowe, G.S. (1994) Computer literacy. In McKie, C., & Thompson, K. (Eds.) Canadian Social Trends (vol 2). Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing. pp. 315-320.

McDonald, R.J. (1994). Missing Children. In McKie, C. & Thompson, K. (Eds.) Canadian Social Trends (vol 2). Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing. Pp. 213-216.

Montigny, G. (1994). Reading skills. In In McKie, C., & Thompson, K. (Eds.) Canadian Social Trends (vol 2). Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing. pp. 321-324.

Ross, D.P., Scott, K., & Kelly, M. (1996). Child Poverty: What are the Consequences? Ottawa: Centre for Internal Statistics, Canadian Council on Social Development.