Intersectionality: Social Marginalisation and Self-Reported Health Status in Young People

Fiona Robards, Melissa Kang, Georgina Luscombe, Catherine Hawke, Lena Sanci, Katharine Steinbeck, Karen Zwi, Susan Towns and Tim Usherwood
Additional contact information
Fiona Robards: Department of General Practice, Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Westmead 2145, Australia
Melissa Kang: Department of General Practice, Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Westmead 2145, Australia
Georgina Luscombe: School of Rural Health, The University of Sydney, Orange 2800, Australia
Catherine Hawke: School of Rural Health, The University of Sydney, Orange 2800, Australia
Lena Sanci: Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne, Carlton 2218, Australia
Katharine Steinbeck: Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Sydney, Clinical School at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead NSW, Westmead 2145, Australia
Karen Zwi: School of Women’s and Children’s Health, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
Susan Towns: Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Sydney, Clinical School at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead NSW, Westmead 2145, Australia
Tim Usherwood: Department of General Practice, Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Westmead 2145, Australia

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-10

Abstract: Background: The aim of this study was to measure young people’s health status and explore associations between health status and belonging to one or more socio-culturally marginalised group. Methods: part of the Access 3 project, this cross-sectional survey of young people aged 12–24 years living in New South Wales, Australia, oversampled young people from one or more of the following groups: Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander; living in rural and remote areas; homeless; refugee; and/or, sexuality and/or gender diverse. This paper reports on findings pertaining to health status, presence of chronic health conditions, psychological distress, and wellbeing measures. Results: 1416 participants completed the survey; 897 (63.3%) belonged to at least one marginalised group; 574 (40.5%) to one, 281 (19.8%) to two and 42 (3.0%) to three or four groups. Belonging to more marginalised groups was significantly associated with having more chronic health conditions ( p = 0.001), a greater likelihood of high psychological distress ( p = 0.001) and of illness or injury related absence from school or work ( p < 0.05). Conclusions: increasing marginalisation is associated with decreasing health status. Using an intersectional lens can to be a useful way to understand disadvantage for young people belonging to multiple marginalised groups.

Keywords: young people; adolescents; access to health care; marginalised youth; intersectionalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/8104/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/8104/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:8104-:d:439348

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().