2.5 Risk and protective factors: families, education and communities

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From the course by The University of Melbourne

Global Adolescent Health

41 ratings

The University of Melbourne

Global Adolescent Health

41 ratings

This course will explore the dynamic factors affecting the health and wellbeing of young people around the world, and how important it is for individuals, communities and nations that we improve the health and life chances of this important population group. With over 25% of the world’s population aged between 10 and 24 years, today’s generation of young people is the largest in human history. As the future leaders and drivers of growth, productivity and innovation, young people are our greatest assets, and investment in their health and wellbeing has social, economic and other benefits that continue across the lifespan and into the next generation. In this course we will adopt a life-course framework to take a holistic view of youth health and wellbeing. We will explore changing patterns of adolescent health and development, including why adolescence is starting earlier and ending later; how puberty and adolescent brain development may shape future health; and how what happens in adolescence can affect the start to life for the next generation. We’ll also look at the major health and social issues affecting young people and ways of addressing these through policy, practice and programming. COURSE FORMAT: This course comprises short video lectures and interviews, required and recommended readings, online discussion, quizzes and written assignments. There is no required text for this course and all readings are provided. DO I HAVE TO PAY FOR THIS COURSE? No- you may access 100% of material in this course for free. You are also welcome to do as much or as little of the course as you like, including all (or none!) of the assessment tasks- it all depends on your learning goals. The option to pay for this course is there for those who wish to receive a Course Certificate as evidence of completion (which does require you to attempt and successfully pass the assessment tasks). WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR? This course will be relevant for anyone with an interest in the health and wellbeing of young people. You do not need to be of any particular personal or professional background to benefit from this course, but having some basic undergraduate study experience will be helpful to your learning (particularly if in a health related field). WHAT IS THE MOST INTERESTING THING I'LL LEARN IF I TAKE THIS COURSE? You’ll learn how so much of what happens during adolescence can impact not only the future health of individuals, but the health of the next generation as well. You’ll develop a greater understanding of the key factors impacting upon youth health and learn how to be a better advocate for the health and wellbeing of young people. View the MOOC promotional video here: http://tinyurl.com/z5l4mod

From the lesson

Week 2 - Introduction to adolescent health: developmental and ecological perspectives (Part II)

This week we return to our conceptual framework and unpack the key concepts of social determinants of health and risk and protective factors. We explore what these terms mean and how they influence and shape adolescent health and development. We also begin to apply this knowledge at a practical level in terms of the interventions and actions we can take to improve or maintain health and wellbeing during the adolescent and young adult years, or prevent problems from happening in the first place.

2.1 Revisiting the framework6:43

2.2 Risk and protective factors: concepts9:43

2.3 Risk and protective factors: implementation11:57

2.4 Risk and protective factors: peer relationships6:04

2.5 Risk and protective factors: families, education and communities8:10

2.6 Social determinants of adolescent health: economic factors8:16

2.7 Social determinants of adolescent health: human rights and gender13:58

2.8 Social determinants of adolescent health: population displacement8:42

2.9 Social determinants of adolescent health: advertising and marketing9:33

2.10 Socially disadvantaged adolescents5:27

Interview with Prof Craig Jeffrey (UK/Aus) 22:40

Interview with Prof Rima Afifi (Lebanon/USA) 22:47

Interview with Baroness Susan Greenfield (UK) 21:06

Meet the Instructors

Professor Susan Sawyer
Chair of Adolescent Health
Department of Paediatrics
Professor George Patton
Professorial Fellow
Adolescent Health Research

This lecture once again addresses some of

those important social contexts that shape the health and

development of young people, their families, schools and local community.

Whether this be a village in a rural setting or

a neighbourhood suburb in an urban setting.

I previously introduced the social development model from David Hawkins and

Richard Catalano of the University of Washington as a useful one for

understanding how risk and protective factors may operate in each of those

settings, families, schools, local neighbourhoods.

At the core of the protective influence in each of these institutions and

settings is a sense of connection.

In families, that is evident in a young person having feelings of emotional

closeness and support with parents and schools.

It's around having a feeling of being safe in the sense that

education has a purpose and feeling committed to that purpose.

And in local communities, it's again about feeling safe and getting involved and

being part, and feeling part of one's community.

In each of these settings that sense of connection is dependent on

good communication.

Having opportunities to engage.

And having any contribution to the family, to the school,

to the community, recognised and valued.

It's also about feeling safe and

secure in each of these places and with, with ones peers.

Where all this goes well and

the young person has an experience of being nurtured,

the likelihood is that their health and social development will be positive.

Conversely, where a young person has little sense of connection or

is growing up in a background of

conflicts in relationships, the effects on health are likely to be profound.

Implicit in the social development model is an idea that

positive connection to families, schools and

communities with healthy values will have multiple benefits.

Where the opposite occurs, this creates multiple risks.

This is illustrated in this next slide around community risk factors.

Community norms, favorable to risky behaviours, so attitudes to violence,

or perhaps drug use powerfully influence young people within those communities.

In addition the extent to which

a community is disrupted and disorganised, perhaps by high levels of mobility,

affects the sense of connection that a young person might have

with that community and is associated with multiple risks.

In schools we see a similar pattern of influences.

This slide derives from a Melbourne based study.

It was the Gate House Project that demonstrated the powerful effects

of enhancing the social milieu, or the social environment in schools.

Really that's about making schools a better place for young people to be.

The model has, again at its core,

a sense of connection to teachers and other students.

That sense of connection arises where a student feels safe from victimisation

and bullying.

Has the scope and the opportunity to communicate with teachers and

where there is also an opportunity to participate in

school life beyond simply doing the work and in the classroom.

This project demonstrated that getting this right has profound

effects on the health risks, ranging from substance abuse,

to sexually risky behaviour, and extended even to

anti-social behaviour such as engaging in stealing, or interpersonal violence.

It's important to remember that schools and education systems are changing,

with young people spending a longer time in school in many parts of the world.

The benefits for health, particularly for adolescent girls, are profound.

As young people spend longer in education,

attention in many places has shifted to the transition into the workplace.

In many places, where there are high levels of youth unemployment,

this transition has become difficult.

We also see that in parallel with these changes in the school to

workplace transition, young people are also delaying marriage.

And delaying the creation of families of their own.

So, this means that their relationship with their family

of origin is also changing with young people staying at home for

much longer during this transitional phase.

So turning to families, they remain the most important setting.

The one that shapes the health and

development of adolescents more than any other.

Families come in many different shapes and sizes.

Extended families such as the one shown on the top left

are common in many poorer, less developed and rural parts of the world.

In such settings the transition from family of origin to the next generation

often takes place during the adolescent years, that is,

at a comparatively young age.

With economic development and

urbanisation, families commonly change in shape.

The picture in these settings is more commonly that of the nuclear family of

parents and immediate children, with a more distant connection

often with other family members, including grandparents.

As I mentioned, the transition to new families often differs in more developed

countries in that it takes place at an older age, typically in the 20s,

but in some high income countries, this extends into the 30s.

In general, this has had benefits both in health and attaining the skills

necessary for functioning in a more complex workforce and society.

However, it does commonly mean that young people spend many more years making

that transition from their own family of origin to having a family of their own.

If we consider again some of the ways in which family risk factors may affect

health and social development, it's clear that the effects are profound.

Having a family or parental history of a problem whether this be mental health,

substance abuse, alcohol and tobacco use, anti-social behaviour, and

offending, violence or any pregnancy,

are all profound risk factors for the same thing happening to young people.

And family dysfunction, whether this be disengagement from family,

conflict, lack of clarity about family rules and values.

These are again profound risk factors for

a whole range of adolescent health and social problems.

In this series of lectures on risk and protective factors,

I've attempted to stress how effective responses to many adolescent

health problems lie in the settings in which young people are growing up.

Whatever the actions we're seeking to make, to improve the health of young

people, our success will be determined by the extent to which we can affect

those settings in which young people are living, working, and growing up.

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