Browsing by Author "Watson, Peter"

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    Resiliency, Connectivity and Environments: Their roles in theorizing approaches to the promoting the wellbeing of young people
    (Clifford Beers Foundation, 2004-02) McCreanor, Tim; Watson, Peter
    Early theory and findings in the area of resilience among young people emphasised individual differences and personality characteristics to explain different reactions to stress and risk. The ‘modern’ resiliency literature views the possible explanatory variables for different outcomes in broader contexts such as family, schools and community. Despite this change over time the individualising, problem focused orientation of resilience approaches continues to obscure the environment, leaving it an under-interrogated factor in youth wellbeing. The importance of this rests on its impact on policy and practice in the fields of youth development and health promotion. In this paper we argue that contemporary resiliency theory and research continue to fall short of the paradigm shift called for by those orienting to environmentally-based public health measures to improve population level wellbeing among young people.
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    Towards promoting youth mental health in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Holistic "houses" of health
    (Clifford Beers Foundation, 2002-05) Anae, Melanie; Moewaka Barnes, Helen; McCreanor, Tim; Watson, Peter
    A study of the literature on mental health promotion suggests that to a far greater extent than ‘physical’ health concerns, mental health seems to be dominated by the illness focus of established clinical perspectives and practices. In Aotearoa/New Zealand this leaves little in the way of conceptual space or fiscal resources for the development of new preventative possibilities of population-oriented measures focussed on enhancing social and physical environments. Outflanking this unfortunate impasse, indigenous Maori and Samoan (Pacific) conceptual frameworks for health offer holistic theoretical foundations upon which we can work for health through positive development. This paper examines these frameworks and the youth development paradigm to draw out parameters of what might count as healthy youth development in this country.