In the name of health and wellness: An analysis of how young children, their families and school navigate the moralizing dynamics of health promotion

This research explores experiential aspects of health promotion. Using in-depth interviews to collect adult health stories and an original child-centered methodological tool (Tell Me About It) to collect children's health stories, this case-study explores how people make sense of health in their everyday lives and asks to what degree this historical moment's intensified focus on promoting wellness is affecting children. The research examines the role of family and schooling in its analysis of how children and adults construct and experience health meanings. Data are analyzed through the theoretical frameworks of global forms/global assemblages; Foucauldian biopower; and political sociology using the analytic tools of Constructivist Grounded Theory. Thirty-three people participated in the research over a one-year period. School-based participants were interviewed in their urban public elementary school. Child and caregiver participants were interviewed in their homes. A primary research finding is that children and adults make sense of "health" kinesthetically; health is an embodied experience. Data indicate that children and adults use their kinesthetic, embodied experiences to recontextualize official health knowledge. Political implications of kinesthetic recontextualization are discussed. Further research is warranted regarding possible links between post 9/11 perceptions of risk and current messages about securing one's body through wellness.