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Centre for Research on

Children and Families1

Ethical and methodological challenges involved in tracking and reporting on ethnicity, race and Aboriginal heritage

Nico Trocmé, Toni EspositoVandna Sinha

CRCF Research Seminar, October 9th, 2013



What were the ethnic or cultural origins of your ancestors? (NHS 2011)

this question collects information on the ancestral origins of the population and provides information about the composition of Canada's diverse population.'

an ancestor is usually more distant than a grandparent.‘

For example, Canadian, English, French, Chinese, East Indian, Italian, German, Scottish, Irish, Cree, Mi'kmaq, Salish, Métis, Inuit, Filipino, Dutch, Ukrainian, Polish, Portuguese, Greek, Korean, Vietnamese, Jamaican, Jewish, Lebanese, Salvadorean, Somali, Colombian, etc.

Specify as many origins as applicable



The challenge of classifying ethno-cultural and Aboriginal background

• Ethnicity, race, Aboriginal heritage and culture are social constructs;

• There are no internationally accepted classifications;

• Yet the experience of discrimination is pervasive;

• How should we measure these constructs?



Census 2006 / National Household Survey 2011

• Up to 2011, a random 20% of households in Canada were required to complete the Census Long Form which included pre-set questions on ethnicity and Aboriginal status

• In 2011 the long form was replaced with a voluntary National Household Survey (68.6% response rate) which includes a self-defined ethnic ancestry question and pre-set ethnic categories



Visible Minority (Employment Equity Act)

• persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.'

• Categories in the visible minority population variable include:– Chinese, South Asian, Black, Filipino, Latin American,

Southeast Asian, Arab, West Asian, Korean, Japanese,

– Visible minority, n.i.e. ('n.i.e.' means 'not included elsewhere'),

– Multiple visible minority.



Statistics Canada

• http://www.statcan.gc.ca

• http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo50a-eng.htm

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo50a-eng.htm








Children 0-14 in Foster Care (Census 2011)

Newfoundand

Prince

Ed. Isl

Nova Scotia

New Brunsw

ick

Quebec

Ontario

Manitoba

Saskatchewan

Alberta

British

ColumbiaYukon

Northwest

Nunavut0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

5.61

2.60

4.30

3.96

4.69

3.21

18.41

10.79

6.36 6.00

11.94

16.65

12.95

per 1

000

child

ren

National average


Children and Families

Percentage distribution of the population aged 14 and under in private households by living arrangement Canada, 201148% of the roughly 30,000 children aged 14 and under in foster care were Aboriginal.

Living arrangements Total Aboriginal

identity population

First Nations single

identity

Métis single identity

Inuit single identity

Non-Aboriginal

identity population

Children of both parents 49.6 45.0 58.0 61.6 76.0

Stepchildren 8.5 8.7 8.6 6.3 5.8

Children of lone parent 34.4 37.1 29.8 25.8 17.4

Grandchildren in skip-generation family

2.7 3.3 1.4 2.3 0.4

Foster children 3.6 4.5 1.7 2.8 0.3

Living with other relatives

1.2 1.4 0.5 1.1 0.2

Source: Statistics Canada, National Household Survey, 2011. 15



Tracking ethno-racial background in health, education and social services

• Self-identification is not always feasible:– Limited opportunity to ask– Potentially high refusal rate– Prohibitive coding costs

• Many opt for lengthy ethnicity lists that come closest to the lists generated through self identification

• Use of a short set of categories is often controversial



Qc Health and Social Services Ethnic Codes• Over 200 ethnic codes• Yet this level of detail is never used for analytic or reporting

purposes• Despite an effort to increase response rate, data quality is

plagued by missing data



Exploring the placement trajectories of children in the Québec child protection system

18



Missing data is?Is it: missing completely at random—

unrelated to child protection services.not missing at random—probably

related to whether or not a child receives child protection services, the kind of services received and for how long.

Average maltreatment investigations by ethno-racial

background

Average invesitgations0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2

Aboriginal Black Other Missing

1.53 1.33

1.51 (0.96)

1.77 1.62

(F (df=127,180) = 1027.18, p < .001)

Investigated children (N = 127,181)

Aboriginal children (N = 4,715)

Black children (N = 3,959)

All other children (N = 67,216)

Unidentified children (N = 51,291)






Neighbourhood SES disadvantages0

0.2

0.4

0.6


.546 .584

.311.216

(F (df=127,180) = 384.83, p < .001)

Neighborhood area socioeconomic disadvantages by ethno-racial

background

.29 (.92)

Youth criminal justice services rate by ethno-racial background

Youth criminal justice services rate0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%


14% 17% 25%

2%

(X2 (df=3) = 4992.15, p < .001)

Investigated children 10 to 17 (N = 55,110)





Placement rate by ethno-racial background & age at initial maltreatment investigation (N = 127,181)

Placement rate by ethno-racial background

Placement rate 0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%


28% 31% 32%

10%

(X2 (df=3) = 8302.81, p < .001-Rp)






Placement changes by ethno-racial background (N =29,040)

(Kruskal-Wallis H X2 p < .001-Rp)



How to deal with missing informationOption 1: do nothing. Works if the number of missing

values are typically small and missing values are typically random.

Option 2: delete cases with missing values. Subjects with missing values may be different than the subjects without missing values.

Option 3 replace the missing values (i.e. simple imputation). Same disadvantage as option 2.

Option 4 leave out the variable and not control for ethno-racial information. Given the high level and non-randomness of missing data, this reduces the uncertainty of the effect of children’s ethno-racial background on the probability of experiencing a child protection event (y) .

26



CIS Ethno Racial and Aboriginal Codes



Ethno-racial “appearance” of primary caregiver (CIS, 2008)*

Aboriginal18%

Other

0.6%

Vis-ible Mi-nor-ity

14%

White68%

Latin American; 1.8%

Black; 5.5%

Arab/West Asian; 1.6%

South Asian; 2.5%

Other Southeast Asian; 1.4%

Chinese; 1.0%

* N= 15,980, missing data in 6 cases



Aboriginal heritage of children in cases of substantiated maltreatment (CIS-08)

78% not Aboriginal66,930

FN Status:12,751

FN Non-Status: 2,561Métis: 1,828Inuit: 893Other: 477

6% of children in Canada are Aboriginal



Rates of First Nations & non-Aboriginal child investigations conducted by sampled agencies (FN-CIS 2008)

Total Investigations

140.6

33.5

First Nations Non-Aboriginal

Inve

stiga

tions

per

100

0 Ch

ildre

n

4.2

x gr

eate

r

42%substantiated

35%substantiated

Substantiated Investigations

59.5

11.8



Primary maltreatment in substantiated First Nations and Non-Aboriginal maltreatment investigations conducted by sampled agencies (FN-CIS 2008)

27.7

19.9

5.6 5.6

1.03.5 4.2

1.02.7

0.4

First Nations Non-Aboriginal

Subs

tanti

ated

Inve

stiga

tions

per

100

0 Ch

ildre

n

4.7

x gr

eate

r

5.4

x gr

eate

r

2.1

x gr

eate

r

2.7

x gr

eate

r

8.0

x gr

eate

r



Ethno-racial appearance might be measurable…

• But, is it ethical to collect this information?

• …or, is it ethical not to collect this information?



Importance of context

“Child neglect rampant in First Nations communities”

vs.“Child welfare services not equipped to meet

needs of First Nations families raising children in adverse conditions”



“no research about us without us”OCAP principles provide a framework – Ownership, describes the collective relationship of

members of a First Nation to their cultural knowledge, data and information in all forms

– Control, refers to maintaining oversight over all aspects of information management

– Access refers to the right of First Nations individuals and collectivities to access information and data about themselves and their Nations, wherever it is held.

– Possession facilitates the protection of ownership and control over data.



OCAP and the CIS• Balance OCAP with protection of anonymity

and limits of the research design.• FN Advisory Committee oversaw sampling,

recruitment, interpretation and reporting of primary findings and approves all secondary analyses focusing on FN.

• Capacity building in the form of data training workshops and supporting data analysis essential to ensure access.



Summary

• Key ethical considerations:– Clearly articulate purpose for tracking ethno-racial or

Aboriginal data.– Ensure control / authentic involvement of ethno-racial or

Aboriginal stakeholders.– Contextualize all reporting of data.

• Key methodological considerations:– Maintain comparability with existing population statistics.– Use manageable categories to ensure high response rates.– Credible data is powerful data

• Further discussion…



Merci!

www.cwrp.ca

centre for research on children and families ethical and methodological challenges involved in...

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