Abstract
ObjectivesWe examined the associations between adolescents’ health assets and various health indicators (smoking, alcohol use, sleep length, physical activity, healthy eating, oral health, self-reported health, multiple health complaints).MethodsA nationally representative sample was drawn from Finnish-speaking schools, comprising 13- and 15-year-old adolescents (n = 3833). The measures taken covered the adolescents’ health assets, which were labelled Family-financial, Psychological, Family-social, Friends-social, School-social, and Human. Our analysis applied two-step cluster analysis and multilevel mixed-effects binary logistic regression.ResultsSix asset profiles were identified: ‘Limited in most assets, despite medium affluence’, ‘Mostly average assets, but low affluence’, ‘Mostly average assets, though high affluence’, ‘Mostly above average assets’, ‘Rich in most assets’, and ‘Rich in all assets’. There were significant differences between the profiles in terms of risk level and desirable level health outcomes.ConclusionsAdolescents differ in their asset profiles. Having multiple health assets appears to protect adolescents from risky behaviour or poor health, and to promote positive health. There is a need for health initiatives to develop a range of health-protecting and health-promoting assets, rather than focus on only one.
Highlights
During the last decade, an ever-greater emphasis has been placed on how the circumstances in which people live, grow, develop, and work contribute to health disparities
Objectives We examined the associations between adolescents’ health assets and various health indicators
There were significant differences between the profiles in terms of risk level and desirable level health outcomes. Adolescents differ in their asset profiles
Summary
An ever-greater emphasis has been placed on how the circumstances in which people live, grow, develop, and work (i.e. the social determinants of health; Marmot 2005; World Health Organization 2008) contribute to health disparities. Assets can be both external and internal (Brooks and Kendall 2013; see Leffert et al 1998), being situated within individuals (e.g. self-esteem, skills) and within institutions or communities (involving, e.g. family-social support, school connectedness). An asset-based approach encompasses the notion that instead of focusing on health risks and on the prevention of diseases, more emphasis should be put on the factors that constitute health and well-being (Benson et al 1999; Morgan and Ziglio 2007). Deriving from such considerations, the aim has been to find a balance between assets approaches and risk-focused (deficit) approaches (Benson et al 1999; Morgan and Ziglio 2007), meaning that the factors that society positively desires for its young people should be brought into the agenda, rather than merely the negative indicators that should be avoided (Murphey et al 2004)
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