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Handbook of Children and Youth Studies pp 95–113Cite as

Approaches to Understanding Youth Well-Being

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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 notions of a successful transition to adulthood.

The definition of well-being itself is an emerging one. Is the state of well-being a right or a duty, a cause or an effect? Is it an individual or a social phenomenon? Is it an ideal or a measurable state? What are the measures and standards through which it should be defined? What are the strategies and policies through which it should be addressed? And what role should young people themselves have in defining and leading efforts to enhance their well-being?

Different types of “expertise” are harnessed to investigate and address concerns with youth well-being. This in itself creates a challenge because psychologists, epidemiologists, sociologists, and educators use different explanatory stories through which to account for the factors that influence youth well-being. Yet each of these traditions has something to offer to those seeking to understand and improve the health status of young people. This chapter outlines four possible frameworks through which to approach building an understanding of youth well-being. It recommends the use of interdisciplinary approaches which call from each of these models when seeking to understand how young people themselves experience the challenge of nurturing their own well-being.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Youth Research Centre, The University of Melbourne, 100 Leicester St, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Helen Cahill

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  1. Helen Cahill
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Correspondence to Helen Cahill .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Youth Research Centre, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Johanna Wyn

  2. Youth Research Centre, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Helen Cahill

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

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Cahill, H. (2015). Approaches to Understanding Youth Well-Being. In: Wyn, J., Cahill, H. (eds) Handbook of Children and Youth Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4451-15-4_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4451-15-4_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-4451-14-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-4451-15-4

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