Does Poverty Impact Educational, Health Outcomes for Australian Indigenous Students (Research Paper Sample)

Does Poverty Impact Educational, and Health Outcomes for Australian Indigenous Students Introduction: It is considered that a large number of Australian students are suffering from food deficiency, and health problems and ultimately affecting education. This is due to the increase in the level of poverty in the country. The Australian University survey of 2017 tells that students are facing financial strains in which 58% of students talk about the level and nature of financial strains. It is reported; that one in seven undergraduate students go to college without the proper food because of financial distress. Classes without food lead to strains in educational progress. This report shows that classes without food reduce attention in lecture understanding (Taylor, Lalovic, & Thompson, 2019). Research Question: Does poverty in Australian indigenous students create health and educational problems? Significance of the Study: Poverty commonly leads to food insecurity and ultimately affects the nutritional needs of the students. Food deficiency leads to health problems and increases the medical expenses for students. Health problem costs are usually high in Australia and it affect the other activities of the students. It is observed that students who are receiving government benefits are also not able to afford food and health expenses. They are only able to pay the boarding, rent, and some educational expenses. Most of the students argue that government benefits are not increasing with the increasing educational and renting expenses. Health problems among Australian students mostly belong to food deficiency. There a different levels of health problems among Australian students. It is estimated that between 13% and 47% of higher education students are facing the issues because of food insecurity. This percentage is much higher than the overall food insecurity population in Australia which is 5.2% (ABS, 2016). There are Various types of research have conducted on health engagements at universities. The health-rated research has been conducted by Hughes et al. about the Island University. It was observed in the research that 70% of students who were facing food insecurity rated their health as “good” in comparison to “very good” by the food security students. In another research by Gallegos et al. with 810 students of Queensland University students with insecure food have bad health conditions as compared to the students with good financial conditions. Good health students have the financial support to take the food. This research not only collects data on the health condition of the students but also distracts academic engagement (Brownfield, Thielking, Bates, & Morrison, 2020). Psychological distress because of Financial distress Depression is a common problem for financial insurance students in Australia. Depression is the most common disease for mental illness. Cvetkovski, Reavely, and Jorm have researched vocational institutions and university students in Australia. They set some particular questionnaire for the students to reply with “yes” or “no”. It was to check the psychological conditions of the students with financial illness. In this regard, they took almost 3200 students from these institutions and started taking their responses (Cvetkovski et al. 2016). It was observed in the research that most of the students with financial stress cannot pay their electricity and gas bills on time. They cannot heat their home because of financial stress. These students were facing psychological distress. The academic results of students are not good. Most of them were below average or average. They are not focusing on education as other students with financial conditions. There is another research by Stan (2010) on Australian students. He took the 6500 students for the research to make it more authentic (Stan et al. 2010). It has been observed that students with continuous financial stress have double the chance of mental illness as compared to students with no or little financial stress in their educational careers. Mental disorders start with the depression of paying the utilities and food expenses (Brownfield, Thielking, Bates, & Morrison, 2020). Disturbance of Educational Achievement The positive relation between financial distress and academic achievement is still not clear. Some researcher believes that academic progress does not relate to financial condition but more to interest, review, engagement, and mental condition. Some researchers believe that poverty diverts attention and that depression for money disturbs academic progress. They believe that students with bad financial conditions have had to spend more time at work to meet their food and utilities expenses. In this regard, Arkoudis et al. conducted a broad research and took 18600 students as the sample. It was observed in the research that 9% of local and 7% of international students deferred their studies because of bad financial conditions. There 55% of local students want to full-time study if the finances permit (Arkoudis et al. 2018) This research shows that finances affect the educational progress of Australian students (Conlon, 2020). Methodology: A systematic review has been conducted to understand whether the poor financial condition of indigenous students in Australia causes poor health conditions and affects educational progress or not. This study follows the protocols of Cochrane for systematic reviews. This research strategy uses a combination of terms that include higher education, financial distress, educational progress, health condition, and expenses from the Australian database (Brownfield, Thielking, Bates, & Morrison, 2020). This research includes articles from 2010 to 2020. We are studying the 10 years of articles from the Australian data that include these specific terms to collect the data (Giorgia, 2021). The above five specific terms are higher education which also includes the terms college, university, bachelor, undergraduate, postgraduate. The second term is financial distress which also includes poverty, unemployment, financial risk, financial strain, and affordability. The third important term is educational progress which also includes the CGPA, percentage, grade, marks, and study engagement. The fourth important term is the health condition which also includes mental health, depression, food deficiency, breakfast, wellness, and diseases. The last important term is the expenses which also include the cost of food, cost of utilities, educational dues, and accommodation costs. These are some of the important terms that use in the systematic review. The systematic review of the study must contain the term “financial distress” or related to this as shown in the column. After selecting the articles of the first term then check the other ones as shown in the table. Most suitable articles are selected for the systematic review. It is ensured that we are studying the effects of financial distress on indigenous students in terms of health conditions and educational progress. It is assumed that the study is based on Australian students and published. Duplicates are removed before the final selection of the articles. Titles, abstracts, and introductions are reviewed for the research for selection. The abstract of the study helps to understand the research question and objective. It is important to select the most suitable articles for research about Australian indigenous students. Various articles compare the poverty and educational qualifications of Australian students. These irrelevant articles are removed after checking the abstract and the research question. This procedure not only helps to select the right articles but also helps to remove duplicate research. This method also helps to remove the old studies from the selection. It helps to gather and analyze the latest data about Australian students. In the review study, we also take help from the online software to establish reliability. In case of any confusion, we discuss the matter with the group and also take suggestions from the coordinator (Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff, Altman, & The PRISMA Group, 2009). In this systematic review study, more than 4000 studies were identified. This identification is based on the terms selected. These studies were further reviewed and found 25 studies that are most relevant to our question. These studies were reviewed thoroughly and collected the results. These articles include financial stress, food insecurity, health problems, unable to afford the necessities, academic progress, grades, and depression. Financial stress means the bad financial condition of the student. They cannot afford the necessities such as food and pay their utility bills. Poverty in the students is also used in some studies which are also considered as financial distress. Health problems are used as a common term for human diseases. Various studies use specific diseases because of financial stress (Brownfield, Thielking, Bates, & Morrison, 2020). These studies are also considered for the reviewed study and their results are considered as valid. Depression is considered a psychological problem in students. Depression is a common problem for Australian students because of their bad financial condition. Depression causes other sewer health issues in students. These diseases are detailed discussed and reviewed in the studies. Academic progress and grades are also important terms for the study. These are student performances by Australian students that are suffering the financial problems. The government is supporting Australian indigenous students financially. It is observed from the various types of research that this support is not enough for the students to fulfil their needs (Suzanne, 2016). Sampling: The sample is the most important factor for any research study. It is ensured to choose the right sample for t...