Social capital as a health asset for young people's health and wellbeing

Abstract

nvesting in the health and wellbeing of children and young people is essential for the success and sustainability of future generations. We already have much knowledge about the many factors that can impact on their ability to deal with the different pressures that they face from very early years to mid-adolescence. These factors relate to their own genetic susceptibilities to achieving health, to their family, to their environment (particularly school) and life events. Early to mid adolescence marks a particularly difficult period when young people have to deal with considerable change in their lives such as growing academic expectations; changing social relationships with family and peers and physical and emotional changes associated with maturation. The question is therefore how do we provide them with the optimum conditions to be able to understand, make sense and deal with these situations as they arise. The idea of 'health assets' has emerged recently as one way of focussing the minds of researchers, policy makers and practitioners on the best ways of doing this. Essentially, a health asset can be defined as any factor which enhances the ability of individuals, communities and populations to maintain and sustain health and wellbeing. The argument then being that the more opportunities young people have in childhood and adolescence to experience and accumulate the positive effects of these assets that outweigh negative risk factors, the more likely they are to achieve and sustain health and mental well-being in later life. The concept of social capital can be seen as a 'health asset' as it has already been identified as a 'resource for societies, contributing to a range of beneficial economic, social and health outcomes. However there is work to be done to understand how best to apply it to the health and wellbeing of young people. The pros and cons of the concept have been well rehearsed in research regarding its utility for adult health and therefore this paper seeks to apply that learning to a young people's wellbeing agenda. In doing so it sets out a building block framework for policy research and practice to refocus their energies into evidence and programmes that help build the skills and competences required by young people so that they can seize the opportunities for healthy and successful lives. (Antony Morgan)