Sociodemographic Characteristics
How Youth in Halton Engage in Caring for their Communities and the Environment
What opportunities exist for all young people in Halton to engage in environmental and civic activities and benefit from the natural environment? Are we creating accessible green spaces and engaging youth in our communities?
Sociodemographic characteristics of this sample 
* Participants could self-identify and enter their own gender identity. The most common response was non-binary. Other responses included: gender fluid (13), questioning/not sure (10), demigirl (3), agender (12), genderqueer (2).
** Living in Canada for five years or less
*** Respondents could self-identify with one or more race. While the most popular was white (44%), 56% of responses were across diverse racial categories such as: South Asian (20%), East Asian (12%), Middle Eastern (8%), Black (8%), Southeast Asian (5%) and Latino (4%). For the purposes of this report, those responses were categorized as visible minority. Visible minority refers to whether a person is a visible minority or not, as defined by the Employment Equity Act. The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour”.
Suggested citation: Our Kids Network (2023). Building for the future: how youth in Halton engage in caring for their communities and the environment. 2021 Halton Youth Impact Survey.
Limitations
- Open invitation sampling strategy (non-probabilistic)
- Sample is not necessarily representative of all children and youth living in Halton.
- It is not possible to determine a response rate.
- However, considering the geographic coverage and the size of the final sample, it’s fair to assume that we have a reasonably good cross-section of children and youth living in Halton.
- A higher degree of diversity within this sample calls for caution when interpreting overall ratios. For more details on the composition of the sample see the sociodemographic table
- The data are meant to provide a snapshot of youth wellbeing during COVID, and caution should be used when comparing across time.
- While each indicator is important, using multiple indicators as evidence of strengths and needs provides a more comprehensive representation
- This is a self-report survey and several types of response bias have been identified related to self-report surveys. Use caution when interpreting the findings
