Abstract

        Of Canada's 1,256,000 teens aged 14 to 17 in 2001, 28% report having had a serious school problem, 30% of the boys and 27% of the girls. Newfoundland's teens are least likely to report serious problems, 20%, while teens in Alberta most likely, 36%.

        Serious school problems are positively associated with high-risk behaviours of teens: smoking, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, and having had sexual intercourse. For example, of those who have smoked marijuana, 41% of all teens, 40% report problems, compared with 20% of the non-marijuana smokers. Of those who have had sexual intercourse, 26% of all teens, 42% report problems, compared with 24% of others.

        Association with friends who live high-risk lifestyles, smokers, drinkers, marijuana smokers, and skipping school, is also strongly associated with the likelihood of a teen having had serious school problems.

        Family dysfunction is associated with the chance of serious school problems. For example, of teens in families in which the main parent agrees that expressing sadness is a problem, 7% of all teens, 33% report school problems, compared with 26% of teens in other two-parent families.

        Both the human capital of the parent and teen, and their investments in the stock of human capital, are expected to lower the chance of the teen experiencing serious school problems. Most of the results are consistent with this expectation.

        Human capital is measured by the education of the main parent and spouse, and the age, sex, ethnicity, health status, language, marital status and family size.

        Also, of those teens with married parents, 74% of the total, 27% report serious school problems, compared with 37% of teens whose parents live common-law, and 33% of those whose parents are separated or divorced.

        The highest reporting of serious school problems is by teens who live with their mother and a step-father, 42% report problems, or whose mother is absent from the home, so that they live with either a step-mother or a father, 41%, suggesting that step-families are the weakest kind of families for teen performance in school.

        Teens with no affiliation, 15% of the total, are most likely to report serious school problems, while non-Baptist conservative Christian teens, also 15% of the total, are least likely, 24%. Curiously, the Baptist teens are relatively likely to report school problems.

        Investments in human capital by the parent are associated with a lower incidence of serious school problems, as revealed by the results on volunteering, worship frequency, and the frequency of reading books. Negative investments in human capital are associated with higher incidence of teen problems: smoking by the parent or spouse.

        Income and wealth are associated with a lower incidence of teen school problems, along with not being on welfare or worrying over the family financial situation.

        Hours of work or no paid work on the part of the main parent is unassociated with the incidence of teens reporting serious school problems, though shift and weekend work appears to be associated with school problems.

        The regression results are disappointing in the sense that few of the associations for 28 groups of teens are statistically significant. The likelihood of having had a problem increases if the teen is older, eight groups of teens, is male, three groups, the parent is younger, three groups, worships less frequently, five groups, and is not married, five groups. The sex of the teen, weeks worked and parental education are unimportant.