IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i20p7555-d430437.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bleeding Bodies, Untrustworthy Bodies: A Social Constructionist Approach to Health and Wellbeing of Young People in Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Opiyo Onyango

    (Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2N 1N2, Canada
    School of Nursing and Midwifery, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kakamega 50100, Kenya)

  • Susan J. Elliott

    (Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2N 1N2, Canada)

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals provide a global development agenda that is meant to be inclusive of all people. However, the development needs for vulnerable populations such as youth are not reflected within the policy agenda of some developing countries. One of the reasons for this is that research that explores health and wellbeing concerns for young people are sparse in the region and where they exist, the focus has been on marginalized subgroups. To address this gap, this cross-sectional study explored the health and wellbeing of youth in Kenya. We conducted 10 focus group discussions and 14 in-depth interviews with youth ages 15 to 24 years. A thematic analysis of the data revealed that structural factors are important influencers of youth perceptions and their social constructions of health and wellbeing. Kenyan youth are concerned about the health status and healthcare services in their communities, as well as issues of community trust of youths and perceived risks of political misuse and emotional suffering. Our findings suggest that youth transitioning into adulthood in resource-constrained areas experience feelings of powerlessness and inability to take charge over their own life. This impacts how they perceive and socially construct health and wellbeing.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Opiyo Onyango & Susan J. Elliott, 2020. "Bleeding Bodies, Untrustworthy Bodies: A Social Constructionist Approach to Health and Wellbeing of Young People in Kenya," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-19, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:20:p:7555-:d:430437
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/20/7555/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/20/7555/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boniface Ayanbekongshie Ushie & Ekerette Emmanuel Udoh, 2016. "Where are We with Young People’s Wellbeing? Evidence from Nigerian Demographic and Health Surveys 2003–2013," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 803-833, November.
    2. Eyles, John & Brimacombe, Michael & Chaulk, Paul & Stoddart, Greg & Pranger, Tina & Moase, Olive, 2001. "What determines health? To where should we shift resources? : Attitudes towards the determinants of health among multiple stakeholder groups in Prince Edward Island, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 53(12), pages 1611-1619, December.
    3. Donatien Beguy & Joyce Mumah & Lindsey Gottschalk, 2014. "Unintended Pregnancies among Young Women Living in Urban Slums: Evidence from a Prospective Study in Nairobi City, Kenya," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-10, July.
    4. Dolan, Paul & Peasgood, Tessa & White, Mathew, 2008. "Do we really know what makes us happy A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 94-122, February.
    5. Eckersley, Richard, 2015. "Beyond inequality: Acknowledging the complexity of social determinants of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 121-125.
    6. Sommer, M. & Mmari, K., 2015. "Addressing structural and environmental factors for adolescent sexual and reproductive health in low- and middle-income countries," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(10), pages 1973-1981.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elizabeth A. Ochola & Susan J. Elliott & Diana M. S. Karanja, 2021. "The Impact of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) on Women’s Health and Wellbeing in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A Case Study of Kenya," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-14, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hye Yoon Chung & Youjin Hahn, 2021. "Work Transitions, Gender, and Subjective Well-Being," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(5), pages 2085-2109, October.
    2. Andrew E. Clark, 2018. "Four Decades of the Economics of Happiness: Where Next?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 245-269, June.
    3. Tomáš Želinský & Martina Mysíková & Thesia I. Garner, 2022. "Trends in Subjective Income Poverty Rates in the European Union," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(5), pages 2493-2516, October.
    4. Bhuiyan, Muhammad Faress & Ivlevs, Artjoms, 2019. "Micro-entrepreneurship and subjective well-being: Evidence from rural Bangladesh," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 625-645.
    5. Goerke, Laszlo, 2013. "Relative consumption and tax evasion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 52-65.
    6. Xiaobao Li & Houchao Lyu, 2022. "Social Status and Subjective Well-Being in Chinese Adults: Mediating Effect of Future Time Perspective," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(4), pages 2101-2116, August.
    7. Camilla Lenzi & Giovanni Perucca, 2021. "Not too close, not too far: Urbanisation and life satisfaction along the urban hierarchy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(13), pages 2742-2757, October.
    8. Giovanni Perucca, 2019. "Residents’ Satisfaction with Cultural City Life: Evidence from EU Cities," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 461-478, April.
    9. Tofallis, Chris, 2020. "Which formula for national happiness?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    10. Cinzia Di Novi & Rowena Jacobs & Matteo Migheli, 2013. "The quality of life of female informal caregivers: from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Sea," Working Papers 084cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
    11. Pan Zhang & Zhiguo Wang, 2019. "PM 2.5 Concentrations and Subjective Well-Being: Longitudinal Evidence from Aggregated Panel Data from Chinese Provinces," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-13, March.
    12. Giuseppina Guagnano & Elisabetta Santarelli & Isabella Santini, 2016. "Can Social Capital Affect Subjective Poverty in Europe? An Empirical Analysis Based on a Generalized Ordered Logit Model," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(2), pages 881-907, September.
    13. Martin Binder, 2016. "Revisiting Cheerful Jane and Miserable John: the impact of income, good health, social contacts and education declines with increasing subjective well-being," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(8), pages 544-553, May.
    14. Alpaslan Akay & Amelie Constant & Corrado Giulietti & Martin Guzi, 2017. "Ethnic diversity and well-being," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(1), pages 265-306, January.
    15. Akay, Alpaslan & Martinsson, Peter, 2011. "Does relative income matter for the very poor? Evidence from rural Ethiopia," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 110(3), pages 213-215, March.
    16. Grace Carolina Guevara-Rosero & Andrea Gabriela Bonilla-Bolaños, 2021. "Non-pecuniary Effects of Migration Inflows to Ecuador: Is Residents’ Life Satisfaction Affected?," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1243-1270, December.
    17. Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell & Xavier Ramos, 2010. "Inequality Aversion and Risk Attitudes," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 271, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    18. Bruno S. Frey & Anthony Gullo, 2021. "Does Sports Make People Happier, or Do Happy People More Sports?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(4), pages 432-458, May.
    19. Bruno Frey, 2011. "Tullock challenges: happiness, revolutions, and democracy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 269-281, September.
    20. Violeta Misheva, 2016. "What Determines Emotional Well-Being? The Role of Adverse Experiences: Evidence Using Twin Data," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 1921-1937, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:20:p:7555-:d:430437. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.