Fergie Gillian, Smith Katherine, Vaczy Caroline, Mackenzie Mhairi, Hilton Shona
MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Centre for Health Policy, School of Social Work and Social Policy, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
Sociol Health Illn. 2025 Jan;47(1):e13842. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.13842. Epub 2024 Oct 21.
Young people coming of age amidst widespread socioeconomic uncertainty have a unique vantage from which to interpret how social, economic and environmental factors might influence health and the generation of health inequalities. Despite this, only a small number of existing studies of 'lay' understandings of health inequalities have focused on young people. This arts-based qualitative study builds on that body of research, in the context of the UK, to explore how young people make sense of health inequalities. Across two sites, Glasgow and Leeds, six groups of young people (39 in total) took part in online workshops to explore their perspectives. Throughout they engaged with population health research evidence; contributed to group discussions and responded creatively, via visual and performance art and by articulating their own views and experiences. In this paper, we explore how individual and structural explanations for health inequalities emerged, employing concepts from sociological studies of youth to shed light on these accounts. In particular, we argue that the concept of 'austere meritocracy', the persistence of narratives of aspiration and hard work as key to success against an increasingly hostile socio-economic backdrop, helps explain young people's perspectives on health inequalities in the UK.
在广泛的社会经济不确定性中成长起来的年轻人，拥有独特的视角来解读社会、经济和环境因素如何影响健康以及健康不平等的产生。尽管如此，现有的关于“外行”对健康不平等理解的研究中，只有少数关注了年轻人。这项基于艺术的定性研究在英国的背景下，以该研究主体为基础，探讨年轻人如何理解健康不平等。在格拉斯哥和利兹两个地点，六组年轻人（共39人）参加了在线研讨会，以探讨他们的观点。在整个过程中，他们接触了人口健康研究证据；参与小组讨论，并通过视觉和表演艺术以及阐述自己的观点和经历做出创造性回应。在本文中，我们运用青年社会学研究中的概念来探讨健康不平等的个体和结构解释是如何出现的，以阐明这些观点。特别是，我们认为“严峻的精英统治”概念，即在日益不利的社会经济背景下，追求成功和努力工作的叙述持续存在并被视为关键，有助于解释英国年轻人对健康不平等的看法。
