BackgroundGreater interest is being shown in participatory approaches, especially in research on interventions that concern children and young people’s health and well-being. Although participatory approaches have user involvement in common, they differ in terms of the explicit guidance on how to actually involve and engage children and young people in health research. The aim of this scoping review was to systematically map recent research involving children and young people in the development of interventions targeting issues of health and well-being.MethodsAn interpretative scoping literature review based on: a scientific literature search in (health and social science) databases, reference lists, a manual search in key journals and contact with existing networks was conducted. A total of 4458 references were identified through the literature search, of which 41 studies published between 2000 and 2017 were included in the review. The target population was children and young people under 25 years old. Level of participation was categorized according to Shier’s Pathways to Participation Model.ResultsThe review showed that participatory approaches were most often used in the development of interventions in school settings and in community and healthcare settings and on issues concerning support in lifestyle or in managing illness or disease. The level of participation varied from children and young people taking part just as active informants, through stages of greater participation both in quantitative and qualitative terms, to children and young people becoming an active agent involved as a co-researcher where the research process was shaped by views of a higher level of mutuality. Most of the studies were categorised at a medium level and only three studies were judged to involve the children and young people at the highest level.ConclusionsThis scoping review showed that work remains in enabling children and young people to influence the development of interventions targeting health and well-being. In relation to level of sustainability in the interventions, it is relevant that goals, strategies and processes are formulated by those who can gain from the interventions. Participatory approaches aiming for a higher level of participation where children and young people work together with the researchers in partnerships are thus warranted.

BackgroundResearch has shown inconsistencies in results and difficulties in conceptualization of assessment of socioeconomic status (SES) among adolescents. The aim of this study was thus to test the validity of self-reported information on SES in two age-groups (11–13 and 14–16 years old) in an adolescent population and to evaluate its relationship to self-reported health related quality of life (HRQOL). Different measures of SES commonly used in research in relation to HRQOL were tested in this study; parent’s occupations status, family material affluence status (FAS) and perceived SES.MethodA cross-sectional study, with a sample of 948 respondents (n = 467, 11–13 years old and n = 481, 14–16 years old) completed questionnaires about SES and HRQOL. The adolescents’ completion rates were used, with chi2-test, to investigate differences between gender and age-group. Correlation was used for convergent validity and ANOVA for concurrent validity.ResultsWe found a low completion rate for both fathers’ (41.7 %) and mothers' (37.5 %) occupation status, and a difference in completion rate between gender and age-groups. FAS had the highest completion rate (100 %) compared to parent's occupations status and perceived SES. The convergent validity between the SES-indicators was weak (Spearman correlation coefficient below 0.3), suggesting that the indicators measured different dimensions of SES. Both FAS and perceived SES showed a gradient in mean HRQOL between low and high SES in relation to HRQOL, this was significant only for perceived SES (p < 0.01, both age-groups).ConclusionThis study indicates the need for considering different approaches to measures of SES among adolescences and when evaluating SES in relation to HRQOL. Further research is needed to investigate sustainable ways to measure SES, delineating the relevance of tangible measures of education, occupation and income in relation to the perceived socioeconomic status in comparison with others in immediate social networks and in society at large.

Strain in domestic work, including perceived inequity in the relationship and lack of a satisfactory relationship with a spouse/cohabiter, was associated with lower self-rated health in this cross-sectional study. Future research needs to address the specific importance of strain in domestic work as a contributory factor to women's ill-health.

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Given the prevalence of mental illness worldwide, it is important to better understand the dynamics of mental health help-seeking behavior to improve access to care. The aim of this study was to investigate if general self-efficacy (GSE) was associated with self-reported mental illness and help-seeking behavior and barriers to care in a randomized population. This study utilized a mailed questionnaire completed by 3,981 persons aged 19-64 years who resided in Western Sweden. GSE was measured and logistic regression models calculated, controlling for various sociodemographic variables. Results showed that 25% of men and 43% of women reported a lifetime prevalence of mental illness that they felt could have benefitted from treatment. Of those, 37% of the men and 27% of the women reported barriers to care. Men and women with low GSE were more likely to suffer from mental illness compared with persons high in GSE, but GSE did not enhance help-seeking behavior or perceived barriers to care. The most prevalent barriers to care for both sexes were beliefs that the illness will pass by itself, doubt whether treatment works, lack of knowledge of where to go and feelings of shame. Overall, GSE scores did not differ among those who experienced various barriers to care with the exception of two barriers only among women.