The health of Canada's children. Part II: Health mechanisms and pathways.

The present article provides models that explain how exposures to differing quality living circumstances result in health inequalities among children. Living circumstances - the social determinants of health - operate through a variety of mechanisms to shape children's health and cognitive, emotional and social development. Specific processes set children off on trajectories such that these exposures - in interaction with their environments - not only shape their health as children but also provide the foundations for their health status as adults. In addition to specifying the mechanisms that mediate the relationship between living circumstances and health outcomes, the article also identifies some of the economic and political factors that shape the quality of the living circumstances to which Canadian children are exposed.