Educational outcomes and health of children – process of segregation in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (MeTrOP project)
Person in charge:
Prof. Matti Rimpelä, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) & University of Tampere, School of Public Health (TSPH).
Research teams:
(1) Prof. Matti Rimpelä, prof. Arja Rimpelä, Ph.D. Sakari Karvonen - Lifestyle and health (STAKES, TSPH)
(2) Prof. Jarkko Hautamäki and Ph.D. Jorma Kuusela - Schooling and educational outcomes (University of Helsinki, Centre for Educational Assessment (CEA), and Finnish National Board of Education (FNBE))
(3) Prof. Mari Vaattovaara - Social and spatial differentiation and neighbourhood effects (University of Helsinki, Department of Geography)
(4) Prof. Hannu Oja - Multilevel modelling (TSPH)
This study focuses on increasing differentiation of educational outcomes and health of children as components of a process of social and spatial segregation in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Researchers with extensive experience from four disciplines and research traditions (urban geography, public health, education and statistics) are combined to form a genuinely multidisciplinary study.
The main research questions are: Has the process of social and spatial differentiation (1) resulted in growing segregation between the childrens’ educational outcomes (2) and health, including health behaviour (3)? How are these three phenomena (1-3) interlinked in individual and contextual (class, school, neighbourhood, municipality) levels?
The social and spatial differentiation in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area has been researched in different disciplines, but it is still unclear whether the observed changes in the region actually result in the process of serious segregation in welfare and educational outcomes as suggested in the current research discourse on the metropolisation process. This study is a unique opportunity to study the phenomena with exceptional data, measured genuinely on several levels and subject areas. This has been lacking in the previous research.
In the first phase of the study (2008-2009), the data from the School Health Promotion Survey (2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, N= 60 000) are analysed (individual measurement, school-level aggregate, multilevel modelling).
In 2009, (1) a class-room survey (health, health behaviour, educational outcomes and attitudes) for all pupils (6th and 9th grades, N=30 000) in the area are conducted and (2) merged with school level data (survey to principals), (3) geographical data (GIS data base) and (4) municipal welfare statistics, to form an internationally unique data set for multilevel modelling.
The Helsinki Metropolitan Area is one of Europe’s most rapidly growing urban regions with strong Nordic welfare policies and an excellent educational system highlighted by the OECD PISA-outcomes. The results from empirical research on the area give an important contribution to international theoretical understanding of a polarising metropolisation process and its mechanisms leading to differentiation in health and education. It also highlights potential processes imposing social and spatial segregation into the educational system. This understanding can be applied to developing national policies for supporting balanced social and spatial development.