Give Youth a Voice – Subjective Health Theories and its Implications for Health Promotion in Social Work

Background: Youth are actors of their life world and shape their health in all their doings of every day. But, they are not free at all decisions they make. Every action evolves in a set of own capacities, structural possibilities and sociocultural subtle limited real opportunities. Aims: In this presentation a holistic perspective on youth health will be discussed and show the potential of social work in youth health promotion: the relevance of the every day and participation. Methods: In 2013 500 youth aged 15./16. years were asked about their health and aspects of their every day by questionnaire. Two years later 12 of the researched were interviewed in three focus group discussion, one with the healthiest, one with the average group and one with the unhealthiest. Results: The results show, that the set of personal capacities impact the health of the researched statistically significant. But, how they act in their life world and how coping strategies shape their health emerges in youth every day. Discussion: Subjective health theories can provide a possibility to get an insight in the formation of health in youth everyday and highlight the relevance to participate youth in health promotion in social work practice.