Rethinking children’s public health : the development of an assets model

In recent years, there has been an enormous growth in the literature that has focussed upon health assets; these include children and young people’s developmental assets, community asset mapping and public health. Although there has been some consideration of assets within a child health context, this is limited and no literature has previously documented the mapping of children’s assets at an individual level. This study drew upon an ethnographic approach and a photo elicitation method to facilitate the mapping of the assets that underpin children’s wellbeing. Two primary schools in England were used to recruit twenty Year 5 children (aged 9-11 years of age). The participants, ten boys and ten girls, were given disposable cameras and asked to take photographs of the activities that they enjoyed. The children’s photographs were integral to subsequent individual semi-structured interviews. A constant comparative analysis technique facilitated the mapping of assets; this process revealed one overall ‘Stabilising Asset’ as well as eight internal and three external assets. All of the assets are presented within the ‘I’m Good’: Children’s Asset Wheel [CAW], an original model that was developed from the findings.