SENDERISMO

The previous sections have given a brief overview of why there is a need to address young people’s health issues from a different perspective than focusing on deviant health- related behaviour and overemphasising future physical health outcomes. An alternative

health; one that still acknowledges the importance of future health risks, but builds on young people’s assets and their current health needs. The following section will outline how incorporating psychosocial health and adopting ideas from a positive youth development model may be useful for a holistic concept of young people’s health that focuses on the day- to-day challenges young people face, and allows room for positive stories to emerge.

Psychosocial health is an important component of young people’s health. It affects young people’s present lives, and has the potential to be promoted from an assets-based perspective. There is no unified definition of psychosocial health, making its use and

measurement vast and diverse. In the broadest sense, psychosocial health is “related to one's

intrinsic psychological state and one’s relationships with other human beings and social institutions” (LeBlanc, Talbot, & Craig, 2005, p. 166). Psychosocial health is related to resilience, which has been defined as the ability to master everyday challenges successfully. Resilient young people have problem-solving skills, a sense of purpose and future,

autonomy, and social competence (Benard, 1993). Psychosocial health thus offers areas for potential research associated with young people’s assets; it allows health promoters to focus on positive aspects in young people’s lives, while acknowledging challenges, and places value on young people’s present health. Of course, a focus on physical health would not in itself do the opposite. However, physical health has been historically targeted by

preventative health promotion and is thus generally more often associated with

interventions targeting prospective health. Furthermore, physical health is a less apparent day-to-day issue for young people on the whole compared to psychosocial health (Hendry

& Reid, 2000; O’Higgins et al., 2010). However, the final aim should be to incorporate a

holistic perspective and allow room for present and future physical, mental, and social health issues to emerge.

The need to address psychosocial health is further supported by the fact that current trends predict psychosocial health to be a rising burden in the younger generations globally

(Patel et al., 2007). For instance, day-to-day challenges young people face compromise how they feel and cope with life. An Australian study found that while 89% of young people reported feeling happy overall, on average one third said they were lonely, stressed, had problems calming down, or worried too much (M. Bernard et al., 2007). Psychosocial health problems are not confined to lower socio-economic groups or the unengaged. In fact,

over-engagement may also be a source of psychosocial distress in today’s youth (Leahy et

al., 2010). Feeling exhausted, lonely, hopeless, overwhelmed, or anxious to the extent that such feelings impair their functioning in life are often reported by college students

(American College Health Association, 2013). Following such arguments Eckersley (2011) supports a greater focus on psychosocial health, moving beyond mortality rates as

indicators of young people’s health, because they do not take into account “non-fatal,

chronic ill-health, and self-reported health and happiness” (p.627). As briefly mentioned

above, emerging social changes affect young people’s health in multiple ways that may not lead to pathological physical or mental disease, but affect them in everyday life. Eckersley goes on to argue that the emphasis currently placed on consumerism has led to a superficial reorientation from intrinsic to extrinsic values . This shift has contributed to a decreased appreciation of shared cultural practices that “distracts people from what is most important to wellbeing: the quality of their relationships with each other and the world, which, ideally,

contribute to a deep and ensuring sense of intrinsic worth and existential certainty”

(Eckersley, 2011, p. 633). Incorporating young people’s psychosocial health into more

health promotion endeavours thus not only supports an assets-based approach that emphasises young people’s agency and present needs, but also addresses an emerging health issue in the 21st century.

A useful framework that captures the key components of psychosocial health is the positive youth development model (PYD). This is a strengths-based approach in which young people are seen as a resource (Lerner, Almerigi, Theokas, & Lerner, 2005; Lerner,

Brentano, Dowling, & Anderson, 2002). The PYD perspective is derived from

developmental systems theory, and views youth as developing in a context of reciprocal interactions between people and their environments. It takes into account internal

characteristics, surrounding family, peer and, other relationships, and the norms and values within the culture (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Lerner et al., 2002). Hamilton, Hamilton, and Pittman (2004) describe the key tenets of PYD as including a positive focus, an aim for all young people to thrive, an emphasis on healthy relationships and on mastering challenges over time, and engagement of young people as participants. The core goals of a PYD approach include: ensuring a consistent strengths-based youth development; building and maintaining quality relationships; enabling young people to contribute to society;

facilitating feelings of connection to others and society; providing genuine opportunities for young people to participate and engage; building knowledge on PYD; and enabling all young people to believe they have agency in the now and for their future trajectory (Ministry of Youth Affairs, 2002). Positive social relationships and strong connections to social contexts are two core principles in international and national PYD literature, and can be seen as positive assets in their own right as well as mediators for other assets, such as competence and character (Hamilton et al., 2004). Overall, a PYD approach supports a

positive, holistic, and empowerment-based health promotion approach to young people’s

health.