By Catherine Solyom, Gazette Education Reporter | Link to Article
Moving to Quebec is bad for your health — at least for high school students.
By Catherine Solyom, Gazette Education Reporter | Link to Article
Moving to Quebec is bad for your health — at least for high school students.
A report released Tuesday by the Institut de la Statistique du Québec revealed that students born outside of Canada or to parents born abroad were less likely to smoke, drink and have sex.
But the longer they lived in Quebec, the more likely they were to adopt these typically Canadian behaviours.
Based on a study done of 65,000 adolescents — the Quebec Health Survey of High School Students 2010-2011 — the report paints a broad portrait of first- and second-generation immigrants, who make up 58 per cent of the high school population in Montreal. (First-generation students — born outside Canada — make up 20.5 per cent of high school students in Montreal, and 37.5 per cent are second-generation students defined as having at least one parent born abroad.)
These students were more likely to live in two-parent families and have at least one parent with a university degree than those whose parents were both born in Canada.
They were also more likely to have at least one parent unemployed, however, and were far less likely to be employed themselves, leading to greater levels of poverty.
Almost 25 per cent of students born outside Canada were in the most underprivileged echelon of society, compared with 16.6 of second-generation students, and 11.8 per cent of students whose parents were both born in Canada.
But the report, which mirrors findings among adult immigrants, shows a disturbing trend in students picking up unhealthy habits over time.
While 54 per cent of first-generation students had never consumed alcohol, only 47 per cent of second-generation students could say the same, compared with 30 per cent of students whose parents were both born here.
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