Int J Qualitative Stud Health Well-being EMPIRICAL STUDIES ‘‘Peers, parents and phones’’*Swedish adolescents and health promotion ANNA-KARIN LINDQVIST, PhD student, CATRINE KOSTENIUS, Associate Professor, & GUNVOR GARD, Professor Department of Health Sciences, Lule a˚ University of Technology, Lule a˚, Sweden Abstract Many unhealthy behaviors are created during adolescence and follow the individual into adulthood. In addition, health behaviors often occur in clusters as those who are inactive are more likely to eat unhealthy food and smoke. This makes the early foundation of healthy behaviors vital. The aim was to describe and develop an understanding of adolescents’ awareness and experiences concerning health promotion. Data was collected using focus groups with a total of 28 seventh graders and was analysed with latent qualitative content analysis. One main theme was identified; being competent, ambivalent and creative at the same time. The following three subthemes also emerged: being a digital native for better and for worse, knowing what is healthy, and sometimes doing it, and considering change and having ideas of how change could be supported. The main theme elucidates how the majority of students were informed and able but they did not always prioritize their health. The concept of health promotion relies upon the engagement of the individual; however, although the students had clear ideas about how they would like to change their own behaviors, they felt a need for support. Interestingly, the students were able to make several suggestions about the kind of support that would make a difference to their adoption to more healthy modes of living. They suggested information and communication technology (ICT), for example en- couraging text messages (SMS), and social support, for example parents setting rules and peers inspiring them to adhere to a healthy behavior. The knowledge gained from this study echoes our view of inclusion and this could be helpful for those who encounter the challenge of promoting health among adolescents. Key words: Adolescents, content analysis, empowerment, focus groups, health promotion, information and communication technology, social support (Accepted: 11 May 2012; Published: 18 June 2012) Children growing up today are expected to have a shorter lifespan than their parents owing to inactivity, poor diet and obesity-related diseases (Kumanyika et al., 2008). Many forms of unhealthy behavior are created during adolescence and follow the individual into adulthood (Herman, Craig, Gauvin, & Katzmarzyk, 2009), in addition to which, poor health-related behavior tends to occur in clusters with those who are inactive tending to eat unhealthy and smoke, therefore the early establishment of healthy behavior is vital (Herman et al., 2009). With the global increase in inactivity and obesity amongst young people, there is an urgent need for effective programs to promote health and wellbeing (Wang & Lobstein, 2006). Health promotion is often described within an empowerment perspective suggesting both personal control over one’s own life and democratic partici- pation in one’s social context (Goodstadt et al., 2001). Health promotion can be defined as ‘‘ . . . the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health’’ (WHO, 1986). The WHO and the United Nations have described the need to continue accumulating evidence concerning interventions relating to health promotion in schools and improving the implementation process to en- sure optimal transfer of this evidence into practice (Tang et al., 2009). Schools have been identified as an important setting for health promotion activities (Mittelmark, Perry, Wise, Lamarre, & Jones, 2007). Health promoting schools often build up a co- operation between students, teachers and parents, with the aim being to strengthen students’ health Correspondence: A.-K. Lindqvist, Department of Health Sciences, Lulea˚ University of Technology, SE-971 87 Lulea˚, Sweden. E-mail: anna-karin. lindqvist@ltu.se #2012 A.-K. Lindqvist et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Citation: Int J Qualitative Stud Health Well-being 2012, 7: 17726 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v7i0.17726 (page number not for citation purpose) 1