How many young people are accruing the assets they need for a healthy transition into adulthood? Young people’s future health inquiry quantitative analyses

October 2019

Front cover image of quantitative analyses working paper

Key points

This working paper presents findings from new research carried out by the Association for Young People’s Health and University College London’s Institute of Child Health as part of the Health Foundation's Young people's future health inquiry.
At the start of the inquiry, young people identified four main assets that they felt all young people needed to accumulate as they transition into adulthood. These were appropriate skills, personal connections, financial & practical support and emotional support.
This research uses longitudinal datasets to explore how many young people are accumulating these assets, and how they relate to the three building blocks for a healthy adult life – a place to call home, secure and rewarding work, and supportive relationships. It also explores an additional building block: healthy habits.
The key research findings are featured in A healthy foundation for the future – the final report from the inquiry.

Background

The Health Foundation launched its Young people's future health inquiry in 2017. The inquiry focused on issues that young people identified as important for the transition to a healthy adulthood, including:

appropriate skills
personal connections
financial and practical support
emotional support.

This working paper presents findings from new research exploring the distribution of these assets and the patterns of accumulating them. It uses longitudinal datasets to explore how these assets relate to the three building blocks for a healthy adult life – a place to call home, secure and rewarding work, and supportive relationships – as well as an additional building block, healthy habits.

It builds on two previous working papers: one exploring the social determinants of young people's health, and one exploring existing evidence relating to the four assets that young people identified.

A full account of the process and the findings of this research are being submitted to a refereed journal, and also being presented at academic conferences in 2019/20.