Results

Sports participation
Art – music participation
Clubs or groups (e.g., youth groups, drum groups, dance groups)
Cultural activities and time spent with elders
Sedentary activities

Sports participation

Chart 1
Inuit children were more likely to participate in sport at least once per week than children in all of Canada, 2001

Canada's Physical Activity Guide for Children and Youth recommends that children participate in 90 minutes of moderate to vigorous daily physical activity (Health Canada and Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, 2002). Sport is one such type of activity. In 2001, almost three quarters (73%) of all Inuit children were found to participate in sports outside of school at least once per week and approximately one third (37%) participate 4 or more days per week (not shown).

Comparing Inuit children to their non-Inuit peers, Inuit children were more likely to participate in sport at least once per week than children in all of Canada (64%). Comparing the Inuit regions, a statistically significantly smaller share of Inuit children living in Nunavik participated at least once per week (67%) compared to children in Nunavut (73%). Approximately 65% of children living in Labrador and the Inuvialuit region participated at least once a week, which was not significantly different than other Inuit children.

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Art – Music participation

Table 1
Art - Music participation, 2001

Aside from sports participation, previous research considering all Canadian children has also shown that children who participate in other extracurricular activities demonstrate greater well-being. Offord, Lipman, and Duku (1998) found that children aged 6 to 11 years who participated in the arts had a decreased likelihood of having one or more problems, including emotional or behavioural disorders, incidences of repeating a grade, or impairment in social relationships. It has been suggested that extracurricular activities influence child well-being by enhancing self-esteem and by structuring the child's peer group (Barber and Stone, 2003).

In 2001, similar shares of Inuit children (22%) and all children in Canada (23%) participated in arts and / or music at least once per week. Children living in the Nunavik region were less likely to participate at least once per week or more (16%) than were children in Labrador (25%) or the Inuvialuit region (22%).

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Clubs or groups (e.g., youth groups, drum groups, dance groups)

Chart 2
Inuit children slightly less likely to participate in clubs or groups at least once per week, 2001

Similarly to arts and music participation, children's engagement in clubs or groups provides a context for peer involvement and consequently social and emotional skill development. In 2001, Inuit children were slightly less likely to participate in clubs or groups at least once per week (20%) than were non-Inuit children in general (23%), and this difference was again statistically significant. Children living in Nunavik were less likely to participate in clubs or groups at least once per week (13%) than children in all other regions. Children living in Labrador were more likely to participate in clubs or groups at least once per week (30%) than were children in Nunavut (18%).

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Cultural activities and time spent with elders

Chart 3
Inuit children's cultural activity participation and time spent with elders, 2001

Extended kinship and cultural activities play an important role in Aboriginal society (Thompson et al., 2000). As such, it was of interest to examine participation in such activities and children's time spent with elders as two of the activities which might occupy their leisure time. In 2001, approximately 17% of Inuit children were reported by their parents to have participated in cultural activities at least once per week, and half (50%) were found to spend time with elders. Children in Labrador (11%) and Nunavik (12%) were less likely to participate in cultural activities once per week or more than were children living in Nunavut (21%) or the Inuvialuit region (28%). Similarly, a statistically significantly smaller share of children living in Nunavik were found to spend time with their elders at least once per week or more (47%) than did children in Nunavut (57%) or the Inuvialuit region (59%). Children living in Labrador were equally likely to spend time with elders as compared to all other regions. Information to compare to non-Inuit children was not available.

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Sedentary activities

Table 2
Time spent watching television and playing on the computer or video games, 2001

While diabetes rates among Inuit are much lower than in the First Nations population, the rates among Inuit are of concern (Young et al., 2007). Thus, factors which influence obesity require exploration. Watching television and playing video games, often dubbed "screen-time" activities, are two common sedentary behaviours for children that have been shown to be associated with obesity (Tremblay and Willms, 2003).

In 2001, 45% of Inuit children were reported to watch three or more hours of television per day, and 24% played two or more hours of video games. No significant differences were found between the Inuit regions in terms of the proportion of children watching three or more hours of television per day. Children living in Nunavik (22%) and Nunavut (25%) were significantly less likely than children living in the Labrador (36%) and Inuvialuit (36%) regions to play two or more hours of videogames per day.