A new study highlights the disadvantages faced by youth living in rural communities of the North Shore/Coast Garibaldi region of British Columbia.
While the urban centres of North and West Vancouver make up a large part of the health region, more than one-in-six young people live in rural neighbourhoods, according to the 2023 BC Adolescent Health Survey.
That’s concerning because rural youth are more than twice as likely to go to bed hungry because there isn’t enough money for food at home, says Annie Smith, executive director with the McCreary Centre Society and co-author of the report.
The 2023 BC AHS was completed by around 38,500 youth aged 12 to 19 in all but one of the school districts across the province.
One of 16 regional reports, the North Shore/Coast Garibaldi survey covered seven school districts, including North Van (SD 44), West Van (SD 45), Sunshine Coast (SD 46) and Sea to Sky (SD 48).
The survey is administered once every five years by public health nurses during class time. Completion is voluntary, but the uptake is typically strong, Smith said.
One of the survey’s more novel metrics is what’s called the youth deprivation index, which measures material wealth in terms of items that students feel they need to fit in.
“As adults, we’re focused on things like, ‘They’ve got to have a winter coat' … but they’re not what’s important to young people,” Smith said. “That’s not what they need in order to fit in and not feel lesser than, or be looked down on or bullied.”
The most-reported items on the list were spending money, their own space to hang out in, lunch money, smartphones and money for school supplies or extra-curricular activities.
In rural communities, around 25 per cent of youth reported lacking at least one item on the list, compared to 12 per cent among survey respondents overall.
This part of the survey was the result of consultation with youth themselves on what to ask, Smith said.
“Engaging young people in the research, in all aspects of it, is really what sort of stands out with this survey,” she said. “We ask the questions that young people tell us are important to ask, and then we use those findings to try and address those issues.”
Survey results shared with schools to drive productive conversations with students
Compared to the previous survey in 2018, there was a slight increase in youth feeling deprived of clothes to fit in, and a decrease in people who lacked but wished they had a smartphone and internet access.
The rural-urban divide also stood out for higher education, with 82 per cent of urban youth reporting plans to attend post-secondary, compared to 70 per cent in rural areas with plans for education beyond high school.
Gender gaps were also noticeable in the survey. Males generally reported the most positive health, and non-binary youth the least positive. For example, three-quarters of males rated their mental health as good or excellent, compared to half of females and just a quarter of non-binary youth.
Some of the survey’s findings were positive.
Traditionally, youth in the North Shore/Coast Garibaldi region are more likely to engage in physical activity than young people across B.C. This was unchanged in the recent survey.
Around 60 per cent of respondents played organized sports at least weekly, compared to 49 per cent provincially. About 70 per cent reported being a confident swimmer (62 per cent in across B.C.) and 43 per cent reported enjoying exercise very much (35 per cent across B.C.).
Smith said the survey results are shared with schools to help drive productive conversations with students.
“For example, we see kids feel less safe in the washrooms than they did five years ago (89 per cent in 2018, 78 per cent in 2023),” she said.
“So schools are now having those conversations with young people about, ‘Why don’t you feel safe? What’s going on?’” Smith said.
