School Health Promotion Study 2021: Espoo has succeeded in preventing loneliness

A total of 786 young people with a foreign background responded to the School Health Promotion Study 2021 in Espoo. Since 2013, the national School Health Promotion Study carried out by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) has asked respondents to specify their own as well as their mother’s and father’s country of birth. Based on these answers, it is possible to divide respondents into four groups depending on their origin. Young people with a foreign background are divided into those born in Finland and those born abroad.

Further information: THL: Classification of origin and description of material according to origin in School Health Promotion Study(external link, opens in a new window) (in Finnish)

An increasing number of young people with a foreign background enjoy going to school, and vocational school students with a foreign background are more enthusiastic about their studies than those with a Finnish background. Especially secondary school pupils and vocational school students were relatively speaking more positive about the treatment received from teachers.

In secondary schools, learning challenges have decreased among foreign-born girls with a foreign background from 54 per cent in 2019 to 39 per cent in 2021. However, learning challenges have increased among Finnish-born boys with a foreign background from 17 per cent in 2019 to 30 per cent in 2021.

The responses given by secondary school pupils in 2021 show that bullying and loneliness have clearly decreased, particularly among foreign-born boys with an immigrant background. An increasing number of young people have at least one good friend. Among foreign-born boys with a foreign background, a sense of being an important part of the classroom community has increased from 39 per cent to 56 per cent.

“For foreign-born boys with a foreign background, the situation has clearly improved in comparison with the results of the School Health Promotion Study carried out in 2019. Espoo’s collective student welfare services have been successful in their work among young people who speak a language other than Finnish or Swedish as their mother tongue,” says Health Care Specialist Minna Eväsoja.

Even though the number of secondary school pupils with a foreign background who feel lonely, in other words do not have friends, has decreased, a sense of loneliness has increased among both girls and boys with a foreign background. Feelings of loneliness were most common among girls with a Finnish background.

Physical activity has increased among young people with a foreign background. The School Health Promotion Study shows that the level of physical activity is the same among young people with a foreign background and those with a Finnish background.

An increasing number of Finnish-born girls and boys with a foreign background feel that their health is average or poor. In secondary schools, 42 per cent of girls with a foreign background have been worried about their mood over the past 12 months, while the figure is 53 per cent for girls with a Finnish background. A particular concern is binge drinking among boys with a foreign background in secondary schools.

In 2021, approximately 11,700 young people who speak a language other than Finnish or Swedish as their mother tongue attended basic or upper secondary education in Espoo. Approximately 5,000 pupils participate in mother tongue instruction in 40 different languages. In August in 2022 in Espoo, a language other than Finnish or Swedish is spoken as a mother tongue by:

• 27 per cent of pupils in basic education
• 30 per cent of new first-graders
• 37 per cent of students pursuing a vocational upper secondary qualification
• 29 per cent of students in the general upper secondary school for adults.
  

Further information:

Minna Eväsoja, Health Care Specialist
Email: minna.evasoja@espoo.fi
Tel. +358 43 8247077

Read more:
School Health Promotion Study 2021: Mental wellbeing challenges have increased among girls | City of Espoo (in Finnish)