Anna Baranowska-Rataj explores families’ health in the context of changing Arctic

This is what Anna Baranowska-Rataj, Professor of Population Studies at Umeå University, wants to investigate as an Arctic Six Chair. Through new research collaborations and educational initiatives, she wants to increase knowledge about how economic and social circumstances affect family health and well-being in the Arctic.

When young people’s circumstances affect the whole family

Anna Baranowska-Rataj is active at the Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research (CEDAR) at Umeå University. Her research focuses on the links between the labour market, family, and health. A central question is how critical life events, such as job losses, affect not only those directly affected, but also other family members.

Previous research shows that these links can extend across generations. Economic difficulties among young adults and their decisions to remain in their parents’ household or region can affect their parents’ mental health. Baranowska-Ratajs has studied this both in Europe and specifically in the Swedish Arctic, including through the use of Swedish registers and health-related surveys from the Arctic region.

She now wants to investigate how critical life events, including migration, affect family health in the Arctic across generations. 

As an Arctic Six Chair, I want to develop both research-focused and educational collaborations. Demographic changes in the Arctic, economic opportunities for younger generations and health challenges for older generations are issues that can attract interest far beyond the circle of Arctic researchers

The Arctic is changing – but what happens to health?

The question is particularly important in a region where several major changes are taking place at the same time. Many Arctic areas are experiencing population decline and the outmigration of young people. At the same time, major investments in northern Sweden are creating jobs and new opportunities for young people and their families.

Baranowska-Rataj’s research draws attention to a dimension of this development that can easily be overlooked: health. Changing economic opportunities and migration patterns are not only about the labour market and regional development. They can also affect people’s health and well-being, and the consequences can reach beyond those who themselves find a job, become unemployed, move away or stay.

"As an Arctic Six Chair, I want to develop both research-focused and educational collaborations. Demographic changes in the Arctic, economic opportunities for younger generations and health challenges for older generations are issues that can attract interest far beyond the circle of Arctic researchers", says Anna Baranowska-Rataj.

New collaborations create new opportunities

Baranowska-Rataj has been appointed an Arctic Six Chair for the period 2026–2028. The role gives her the opportunity to build on her research together with researchers at other Arctic universities.

A central part will be a new collaboration with the University of Oulu. The researchers will, among other things, use data from the Northern Finland Birth Cohorts and the Arctic Biobank to investigate how critical life events affect families in the Arctic region.

Through the collaboration, questions concerning family, demography and health can be examined in a broader Arctic context. The ambition is to increase understanding of how societal changes affect families and across generations, and thereby contribute knowledge about an important part of the ongoing development in the Arctic.

Research reaching the next generation

But the work does not stop with new research results. As an Arctic Six Chair, Baranowska-Rataj also wants to develop workshops and educational initiatives on demographic changes, health and well-being in the Arctic.

Together with researchers within the Thematic Network Health and Wellbeing in the Arctic, she will highlight issues concerning migration and its drivers, economic opportunities for younger generations and health challenges for older people.

Research results and insights will be brought into the new workshops and courses. Baranowska-Rataj particularly wants to reach early-career researchers at the international research environments she is connected to.

In this way, the initiative has two strands that reinforce each other: new knowledge about how changes in the Arctic affect family health, and new opportunities to disseminate that knowledge internationally.

"I want to integrate key insights from research within the Health and Wellbeing in the Arctic network into new courses and thereby contribute to increasing the international visibility of research on health and well-being in the Arctic", she says.