Addressing racism and its health impacts on children and young people: research summary

Abstract

This report focuses on Australian data collected in the last five years (2016–2020) and underscores the high prevalence of racial discrimination experienced by children and young people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, and from some ethnic minoritised groups. It also focuses on what works in interventions to reduce the impacts of racism on health. Existing data is under-utilised and substantial data gaps remain. To inform the targeting of future action across policy, research and practice, investment is needed in the analysis of data already collected and to quantify and capture children and young people’s contemporary experiences of racial discrimination. While high-quality evidence of effective anti-racism strategies among children and young people is relatively sparse, we have identified promising approaches and key principles for action to enable a more detailed understanding of the response required to address racism as a fundamental cause of ill-health and health inequalities for children and young people.