Approaches to understanding youth well-being

Abstract

Despite that young people are the population group least likely to experience the burden of disease, significant attention is paid to the “problem” of youth health. Young people and children are often discussed in terms of their risk status, whether “at risk” and in need of protection or engaged in risk-taking and in need of control or education. Traditionally health has been understood as the absence of disease. However, the term “well-being” is increasingly used to conjure a broader notion of physical, mental, social, material, and civic health. The attainment of “well-being” has gathered an increasingly idealized and individualized focus and has become a catchall descriptor conjuring noti..