Wellbeing in Adolescence

Young people’s wellbeing – research program

https://sites.flinders.edu.au/wellbeing-in-adolescence/


• Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (1982 – ongoing)

• Making a Difference (2008-12)

• Beyond bushfires (2009-20)

• Australian Child Wellbeing Project (2012-16)

• Stories of Resourcing and Resourcefulness (2015-18)

• Changing Children’s Chances (2016-19)

• A Different Take (2018-19)

• Wellbeing in Adolescence (2019-22)

• Can LEGO® robotics therapy improve the mental health and social skills of adolescents on the autism spectrum? (2020-21)

See https://sites.flinders.edu.au/wellbeing-in-adolescence/related-projects/

https://sites.flinders.edu.au/wellbeing-in-adolescence/related-projects/

Key themes:• Young people’s voices• Marginalisation• Assets and resources• Policy responses

• Health, education, community services


Chief investigatorsGerry Redmond, Colin MacDougall & Pammi Raghavendra (Flinders)Fiona Brooks (UTS)Jen Skattebol (UNSW)Gill Main (Leeds)

Policy Advisory Groupincludes ARACY, NGOs, State & Commonwealth Government agencies

Wellbeing in Adolescence (2019-22)

Investigate risk factors for exclusion of young people Identify assets and resources as protective

factors Explore young people’s lived experience in their

daily routines Examine impacts on outcomes: education mental health wellbeing life chances.

Wellbeing in Adolescence – Project aims

This webinar – Focus on assets

• Illustrating the Assets Model for young people’s health (Fiona Brooks)

• Contradictions in the lives of young carers (Cathy Thomson)

• Young people and neighbourhood belonging (Sabera Turkmani)

Wellbeing in Adolescence

Illustrating The Asset Model For Public Health: Applications For Policy, Research And Practice In

Young People’s Health

Professor Fiona Brooks, UTS, SydneyProfessor Colin MacDougall, Flinders,

Adelaide

Salutogenesis

• In 1979 Aaron Antonovsky introduced the concept of salutogenesis as the study of health development.

• Pathogenesis works retrospectively from disease to determine how individuals can avoid, manage, and/or eliminate that disease.

• Salutogenesis works prospectively by considering how to create, enhance, and improve physical, mental, and social well-being.

‘..policy development has focused too much on the failure of individuals and local communities to avoid disease rather than their potential to create and sustain health and continued development’

Source: Morgan and Ziglio (2007)

Premise

Deficit models focus on identifying problems of populations or groups within populations

• Requiring professional resources, resulting in high levels of dependence on hospital and welfare services that focus on risk factors and disease

• Individuals and communities ‘who are identified as failing’ to make adaptive changes towards health are labelled and stigmatised

• For young people navigating adolescence this can lead to increase societal rejection of young people

• Prevents questions being asked about what promotes YP health and well-being – from their perspective?

Deficits

The more we provide young people with opportunities to experience and accumulate the positive effects of protective factors (health assets), the more likely they are to achieve and sustain health and well-being in later life.

Assets based approaches

?

A health asset can be defined as any protective factor (or resource), which enhances the ability of individuals, communities and populations to maintain and sustain health and well-being. (Morgan 2007)

Health assets – definitions

Is a personal project enough ?

Support (family relationships, caring school and neighbourhood)Empowerment (community

values youth, young people seen as resources)Constructive use of time

(participation in clubs and associations)

• Commitment to learning(achievement motivation)

• Positive values (caring and responsible to others)

• Social competencies(cultural competence, peaceful conflict resolution

• Positive identity (self esteem

• BUT…. REPRESENTS A STARTING POINT….

40 Development Assets (Scales, 2001)

• Assets most meaningfully manifest only in the transaction between the person and the environment’ (Granger 2002).

• Morgan and Zigilo (2007) many of the assets that are key to the creation of health and well-being are located within the social context of people’s lives

Assets framing 2 key principles

• Need to move away from a simple additive or listing approach Friedli, (2013).

• Need increased connectivity between assets theory and the material realities of people’s lives

• Simplistically prioritising psycho-social factors can construct a potential for victim- blaming and underplaying how broader social determinants construct health and life outcomes.

Assets framingpotential pitfalls for policy and practice.

• Focuses on positive health promoting and protecting factors for the creation of health, well-being and positive life outcomes.

• Emphasis on a life course approach to understanding the most important key assets at each life stage.

• Passionate about the need to involve young people in all aspects of health development process

• Recognises that many of the key assets for creating youth well-being lie within the social context of young people’s health inequalities

• Helps to reconstruct existing knowledge in such a way as to aid policy and practice to promote positive strengths based approaches

Summary of assets framing

Asset mechanisms, pathways and action for young people’s health

Physical Assets

Psychological emotional

Assets

SocialAssets


Strengthens Social Cohesion

(feelings of safety and trust, sense of belonging)

Strengthens Social Inclusion

Physical Assets


Assets

SocialAssets


Mental Wellbeing

Cultural Wellbeing

Physical Wellbeing

Spiritual Wellbeing

Sexual Wellbeing




Physical Assets


Assets

SocialAssets


Mental Wellbeing

Cultural Wellbeing

Physical Wellbeing

Spiritual Wellbeing

Sexual Wellbeing




Physical Assets


Assets

SocialAssets

Theories of change: e.g. Proportionate Universalism - Enable Mediate and Advocate

Young people’s participation in analysis and interpretationPolitical Action As

set

mob

ilisa

tion

• Are some assets (protective factors) more important than others?

• What are the cumulative effects of multiple assets on young people's mental and physical well being?

• How do different social and cultural contexts impact on the benefits of these assets?

Modelling Assets The questions we are seeking to address

• Brooks, F., Magnusson, J., Spencer, N., & Morgan, A. (2012). Adolescent multiple risk behaviour: An assets approach to the role of family, school and community. Journal of Public Health, 34, 48–56.

• https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/34/suppl_1/i48/1549847

• Paakkari, L., Torppa, M., Välimaa, R. et al. Health asset profiles and health indicators among 13- and 15-year-old adolescents. Int J Public Health 64, 1301–1311 (2019). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00038-019-01280-7

• Chester, K. L., Magnusson, J., Klemera, E., Spencer, N., & Brooks, F. (2019). The mitigating role of ecological health assets in adolescent cyberbullying victimization. Youth and Society, 51 (3), 291-317.

• Brooks, F., Michaelson, V., King N., Inchley, J., Pickett, W. (2018) Spirituality as a protective health asset for young people: An international comparative analysis from three countries. International Journal of Public Health, 63 (3), 387-395.

For More Information

https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/34/suppl_1/i48/1549847

https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/7nO4CXLWMAfj8XRjuD9ufV?domain=link.springer.com


Harnessing young people’s assets to inform policy development? Case Study 1: Contradictions in the lives of young carers

Cathy Thomson and Jen Skattebol, SPRC UNSW Sydney

Case Study 1: Contradictions in the lives of young carers

• Young carers are people aged 25 years and under who provide unpaid support and assistance to people with disability, chronic illness or frailty due to ageing (Carers NSW, 2020)

• Caring responsibilities as a risk factor

• Young carers identified as a group ‘most at risk of long-term welfare dependency’ (Porter, 2017).

• Compared to young people without caring responsibilities:• Lower rates of completion year 12• Lower rate of participation training and • Lower rates of employment (Hill et al., 2016)

Method

• Qualitative data analysis from a program of research

• Stories of resourcefulness (SoR)– 44 longitudinal biographical narratives of young people who have experienced exclusion

• Making a Difference (MaD) – exploratory study – what money do young people need and what are their experiences of inclusion based on qualitative interviews with 100 young people.

• Australian Child Well-being Project (ACWP) – integrated mixed method -qualitative\ activity-based data on what constitutes ‘a good life’ with 110 young people (for survey development) oversampling of young people who are at risk of exclusion

Case study: Tula*Early life I was premature because of my mum's drug addiction. Dad took me from day one and it was just hard for him being a single dad and trying to work…Dad had money some days and then some days you wouldn't get anything…not having anything in the cupboards. It was pretty hard. It was just me and my dad and then his girlfriend that came and went. So I didn't really go to school much. We moved every six months. Then Dad met some lady and we ended up staying with her for a bit and then he just up and left me with her. She let me stay there for two weeks, but my dad he wouldn't answer his phone, so she just had enough. She already had five kids of her own. We ended up getting the police to come and get me and DoCs became involved.

Note: * pseudonyms used

Case study: TulaTeenage lifeDoCs rang my best friend from school. I ended up staying with her and her family for three years. But then we had a bit of a falling out, me and my friend.

Then I stayed with my great-Aunty. I stayed there for a bit until I was 16. She didn't like the boyfriend. She told us to leave. So I left and went and stayed with my girlfriend.

My Aunty gave me so much drama. She’d come running to my girlfriend's house with people to come and drag me out of the house. It was pretty full on.

I'm trying to give my kids a lot more thanwhat I did when I was a kid

Case study: Tula*

Young carer’s lifeMy son has officially been diagnosed with Asperger's on the broad spectrum and the school that he's at now isn't meeting the standards he needs to help him.He's basically going to get lost in the system, so I've got to change schoolsagain and sort all this stuff out and figure out where to go, what to do… So it's a never-ending battle right now.

You've just got to basically push and ask questions until they answer you.

Quinn*Early life

It’s always been tough. Mum and dad got divorced when I was younger. I was back and forth between them.

I think it was seven different schools since kindergarten. I was always getting into trouble. I had the reputation of the class clown, so every single class I would go in,I would get sent out straight away.

It got to a point where I just kept getting in trouble and grounded all the time and then Dad was like, ‘I’m going to send you to live with your mum’. He just said that as a throw off. And I’m like, ‘I want to go and live with my mum’. He was shocked.

Quinn*Teenage lifeIt was maybe halfway through Year 10 when I just changed. I just settled down, matured. I was like, where is it going to get me being an idiot all the time? It’s going to get me nowhere. Young carer’s lifeMum has depression. She got married when she was 16 and she’s been married and then had kids, and then got divorced.I take care of her now, give her meds sometimes. She can’t work. She is sick. I give her money here and thereevery week. I'll help her shop sometimes, take her tothe doctors. I do what I can.


• Risks: • Young carer/young parent• Disengaged from school early• Unemployed• Living in financial

disadvantage

• Assets • Resilience• Problem solving• Advocacy• Responsibility – caring

• Mobilisers• Key worker • Relationships• Housing

ReferencesCarers NSW (2020) Young Carers, NSW Carers, https://www.carersnsw.org.au/how-we-help/support/ycHill, T., Thomson C., Raven M., Wong, M, Cass C., Yeandle S., Buckner, L. (2016) Carers and Social Inclusion, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Australia.Porter, C (2017), Improving the lives of young carers, Media Release by The Hon Christian Porter MP, https://formerministers.dss.gov.au/17307/improving-the-lives-of-young-carers/

Young People and Neighbourhood Belonging

Identifying the assets that are protective of young people’s mental health and wellbeing

University of Technology Sydney

Professor. Fiona Brooks, [email protected]

Dr. Sabera Turkmani, [email protected]

Dr. Joanna Wang , [email protected]

Sarita Bista, [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]




Background

• Decline in traditional health risk behaviours• The asset-based approach as a protective strategy

to improve positive health outcomes• Building assets such as relationships and social

skills support adolescent's sense of belonging and empower them to thrive

• Lack of evidence on protective factors and assets


Mental Wellbeing

Cultural Wellbeing

Physical Wellbeing

Spiritual Wellbeing

Sexual Wellbeing




Physical Assets


Assets

SocialAssets

Theories of change: e.g. Proportionate Universalism - Enable Mediate and Advocate

Young people’s participation in analysis and interpretationPolitical Action As

set

mob

ilisa

tion

Assets Issues Measures

Neighbourhood sense of belonging Social capital, neighbourhood & society characteristics & resources,

Active volunteering, attachment, access, community involvement , personal safety

Family Parenting, parent-child relationships,parent living with children or elsewhere

Interpersonal connection,financial support, social support, Integration, belonging & personal space, Family ability to get along, violence, abuse

Peer relationship Peer relationship school, home, neighbourhood

Sexual harassment, bullying victimisation, intolerance

Research aim

To examine the association between protective assets such as socio-environmental factors, including neighbourhood belonging and, social support on mental health and well being among adolescents.

Data analysis

Using Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC),• Descriptive analysis • Multilevel models with three waves of LSAC (linear mixed effect

model)

Outcome measures

• Child-reported SDQ total difficulties, • Relationship between the neighbourhood variables and mental health

status of young children• Child’s age, and gender • Child resides in two-parents home• Peer positive total scale, • Warm parenting

• The Socioeconomic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) • Remoteness area classification (ARIA)

Results

Variable Number Age range Mean age (SD)

Total participants at Wave 5 3956 12.08 - 13.83 12.89 (0.31)



Results

Variable Number (%) Range Mean (SD)

Neighbourhood livability score 3842 1.0 - 5.0 3.96 ± 0.75

Neighbourhood facility score 3842 1.0 - 5.0 3.96 ± 0.94

Social belonging-cohesion/trust score 3841 1.0 - 5.0 3.60 ± 0.64

Peer positive total score 3841 19 - 75 58.21 ± 7.23

Warm parenting score 3851 1.5 - 5.0 4.15 ± 0.64

Household usual income (weekly) 3672 $0 - $16651 $2360.9 ±1667.8

Mental health is a gendered issue

Neighbourhood safety as protective measure

Mental health and developmental opportunities

9

9.5

10

10.5

11

11.5

12

Very poor/deteriorated Fairly good Very good

Mar

gina

l mea

ns

Marginal mean SDQ Total Difficulties scores by general condition of nearby buildings

10

10.1

10.2

10.3

10.4

10.5

10.6

10.7

10.8

10.9

11

11.1

Moderately accessible Accessible Highly accessible Remote/very remote

Mar

gina

l mea

ns

Marginal mean SDQ Total Difficulties scores by ARIA remoteness

Significant results from linear mixed effect models

• Higher neighbourhood belonging scores were significantly associated with better mental health and emotional difficulties

Parameter Estimate Std. Error t p value 95% CILower Bound

Upper Bound

Intercept (at age 12) 11.14 1.34 8.32 0.00 8.52 13.77

Age12 0.38 0.04 10.37 0.00 0.31 0.45

Girls (vs Boys) 0.64 0.19 3.36 0.00 0.26 1.01

Social belonging-cohesion/trust -0.70 0.15 -4.58 0.00 -1.00 -0.40

Peer positive -0.31 0.02 -18.89 0.00 -0.35 -0.28

Warm Parenting -0.49 0.12 -4.04 0.00 -0.73 That -0.25

Two-parent house - no (vs yes) 0.69 0.22 3.19 0.00 0.27 1.11

Family socioeconomic position -0.38 0.09 -4.35 0.00 -0.55 -0.21



• Increase in parental warmth score associated with better mental health score


Upper Bound

Intercept (at age 12) 11.14 1.34 8.32 0.00 8.52 13.77

Age12 0.38 0.04 10.37 0.00 0.31 0.45

Girls (vs Boys) 0.64 0.19 3.36 0.00 0.26 1.01


Peer positive -0.31 0.02 -18.89 0.00 -0.35 -0.28






• Two-parent home was significantly associated with better mental health outcome.


Upper Bound

Intercept (at age 12) 11.14 1.34 8.32 0.00 8.52 13.77

Age12 0.38 0.04 10.37 0.00 0.31 0.45

Girls (vs Boys) 0.64 0.19 3.36 0.00 0.26 1.01


Peer positive -0.31 0.02 -18.89 0.00 -0.35 -0.28






• Increase in the family’s socioeconomic position associated with lower levels of the poor mental health


Upper Bound

Intercept (at age 12) 11.14 1.34 8.32 0.00 8.52 13.77

Age12 0.38 0.04 10.37 0.00 0.31 0.45

Girls (vs Boys) 0.64 0.19 3.36 0.00 0.26 1.01


Peer positive -0.31 0.02 -18.89 0.00 -0.35 -0.28



Family socioeconomic position -0.38 0.09 -4.35 0.00 -0.55 -0.21Family socioeconomic position -0.38 0.09 -4.35 0.00 -0.55 -0.21

Conclusion

• Young people’s connections to their ecological environment can be seen as assets that play a significant role in supporting their health and wellbeing. Interventions should support young people to build and maintain these assets.

• Developmental opportunities are important for young people to thrive – the conditions in the neighborhood where developmental activities occur are associated with mental health.

• Parenting styles is key for child’s mental and emotional wellbeing. Therefore, public health approaches need to promote safe and supportive family environments.

Next steps

Refining the Assets Model - health, education & wellbeing• Young carers• Neighbourhood belonging• Extra-curricular activities• Young people & poverty

Improving data for researching young people’s assets & wellbeing

• Young people with disability


References

1. Gray M, Smart D. Growing up in Australia : the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children is now walking and talking. Family Matters. 2009(79):5-13.

2. Edwards Ben, Bromfield LM. Neighbourhood influences on young children’s emotional and behavioural problems. Family Matters 2010;84.

3. Morgan A, Ziglio E. Revitalising the evidence base for public health: an assets model. Promotion & Education. 2007;14(2_suppl):17-22.

4. Mullan Killian , Higgins Daryl. A safe and supportive family environment for children: key components and links to child outcomes. In: Department of Families H, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) editor. Canberra; 2014.

Wellbeing in Adolescence

Documents