Well-being during the transition to adulthood : analyses of family life and eating healthily in Great Britain
Wills, Wendy Jane;
(2003)
Well-being during the transition to adulthood : analyses of family life and eating healthily in Great Britain.
PhD thesis, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17037/PUBS.00682310
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The aim of this thesis is to examine the relationships between family life, wellbeing
and eating healthily among young adults in Britain who are going through
the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The research objectives are
addressed using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Secondary
analysis was performed on two large, nationally representative data sets, the
British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the Health Survey for England
(HSFE). Data was also collected, mainly using biographical interviews, from a
group of young adults at a college of further education in Essex during 2001.
Several important findings are reported. Using a typology of parenting 'styles', it
seems that young people who are close to their parents in adolescence, and
who experience appropriate rules and boundaries (classified as having
authoritative parents) are more likely to report better social, emotional, physical
and mental well-being when they are aged 16-24 than their peers who
experience non-authoritative parenting when at secondary school. Parenting
style is more clearly associated with later well-being than whether young people
grew up in an intact, lone parent or stepfamily. Young people with better wellbeing
are more likely to participate in post-compulsory education and
employment whereas young people with the worst well-being are more likely to
be unemployed or otherwise economically inactive (though direction of causality
is not determined in the research). An important objective was to examine
whether young people have diets that are likely to meet recommendations for
helping to prevent the onset of cancer and coronary heart disease. Many young
people did not meet the recommended targets for fat and fibre and this was
closely associated with the transition to adulthood. Eating healthily was at odds
with young people's need to differentiate from the family whilst strengthening
bonds with peers. After the turmoil of leaving school, some young people started
to make healthier food choices, and this was associated with having a better
sense of well-being and authoritative parents in adolescence.