According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Adolescence is a time of rapid physical, cognitive, social and emotional development, and the experiences of those aged 10-19 years have profound impacts on their well-being both in the shorter and the longer term.”
In an apparent response, WHO and the Partnership for Material, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) developed the Adolescent Well-Being Framework (AWF): https://www.who.int/activities/promoting-adolescent-well-being.
What is Adolescent Well-being?
The AWF defines well-being as “Adolescents have the support, confidence, and resources to thrive in contexts of secure and healthy relationships, realizing their full potential and rights.”
Specifically, the AWF includes five interrelated domains that constitute well-being: 1) Good health and optimal nutrition, 2) Connectedness, positive values and contribution to society, 3) Safety and supportive environment, 4) Learning competence, education, skills and employability, and 5) Agency and resilience: https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(20)30396-7/fulltext.
Like overlapping notions of wellness, well-being is defined here as an interactive, multi-dimensional concept.
This means that for youth to thrive and be able to achieve their full potential necessarily entails a combination of various elements to contribute toward making a “whole person.”
Whole youth development approaches such as wellness and well-being naturally suggest broad, multisectoral cooperation and collaboration, which is often outside the control of individual prevention professionals and even organizations.
However, prevention specialists and their organizations can learn from broader well-being and wellness concepts to strengthen their practices and programs and ultimately impact broader positive youth development.
Implications for Prevention Specialists
Let’s look at the five domains of AWF’s well-being to generate some implications for enhancing prevention programs and practices.
Domain #1: Good health and optimum nutrition.
This domain includes the sub-domains of: 1) Physical health and capacities, 2) Mental health and capacities, and 3) Optimum nutritional status and diet.
Possible involvement by prevention professionals in this domain could include providing information, education, resources and services aimed at motivating youth to engage in drug use and mental health protective healthy behaviors, including regular physical activity and sports, eating breakfast and other nutritious foods (especially fruits and vegetables), getting adequate sleep, and using regular strategies to control stress and increase mindfulness, while limiting recreational screen time.
Sharing information about local resources for family, school and community services and events supporting each of these healthy behaviors and implementing drug use prevention programs that promote youth and parent healthy lifestyle behaviors and mental health are also recommended.
Domain #2: Connectedness, positive values and contribution to society.
This domain includes the sub-domains of: 1) Connectedness, 2) Valued and respected by others, 3) Attitudes, 4) Interpersonal skills, 5) Activity, and 6) Change and development.
Possible implications for prevention specialists within this domain include offering youth opportunities to become a part of positive social networks to develop meaningful relationships and friendship skills. Giving youth opportunities to become involved in decision-making, personal responsibility, develop empathy, and engage with others by participating on prevention coalitions or youth leadership groups. Offer opportunities could be provided for youth to set personal and professional goals to learn self-regulation skills and self-efficacy and improve themselves and their schools and communities.
Domain #3: Safety and supportive environment.
This domain includes the sub-domains of: 1) Safety, 2) Materials conditions, 3) Equity, 4) Equality, 5) Nondiscrimination, 6) Privacy, and 7) Responsive.
Implications of this well-being domain for youth prevention include offering programs that prevent nonviolence, exploitation, and bullying in schools, communities and online. Help create and support school policies and rights for all youth to participate in and equally receive information, opportunities, and services that promote personal safety, physical security, nondiscrimination and privacy. This domain suggests providing opportunities for youth to experience free time for relaxation as well as exploring pro-social extracurricular activities.
Domain #4: Learning competence, education, skills and employability.
This domain includes the sub-domains of: 1) Learning, 2) Education, 3) Resources, 4) Skills, 5) Employability, and 6) Confidence.
Implications of this domain for prevention specialists includes providing in school and out of school education and training both generally and more specifically in evidence-based programs that promote self-regulation skills, self-efficacy, motivation, and self-esteem to avoid alcohol and drug use but also to identify and achieve desired future goals regarding education, career, relationships, and healthy lifestyles.
Domain #5: Agency and resilience.
This final domain of well-being includes the sub-domains of: 1) Agency, 2) Identity, 3) Purpose, 4) Resilience, and 5) Fulfilment.
Implications for prevention specialists from this domain include giving youth opportunities to reflect upon their current substance use and other health behaviors that may either help or hinder their achieving future goals, desired purpose and positive self-images for enhancing their mental and physical health, success, fulfilment and happiness. In addition, this domain suggests providing youth opportunities and experiences to reflect upon and make choices that would empower them in the future, and feel more comfortable about who they are and want to be in the future, physically, socially, emotionally, economically, and spiritually.
Conclusion
Prevention specialists and organizations can use well-being and wellness concepts to enhance and expand their programs and practices toward achieving broader outcomes for improving the whole-health, positive development and full potential of youth.