The formation of classed health lifestyles during youth: A two-generational, longitudinal approach.

The topic of this article is the classed formation of health lifestyles in youth. Based on longitudinal interview data (41 youths, 17 of their parents) from two contrasting class contexts in Norway, we investigate how health lifestyles are reproduced across generations and during youth, focussing particularly on diet and physical activity. We find that young people's health lifestyles are powerfully shaped by social class and moulded over time in ways that may impact their further health trajectory. The health practices of upper-class young people are closely monitored; they are practically and emotionally scaffolded by their parents. Developing a rigorous health orientation, they come to view health as an investment for the future, intrinsically linked to achievement, discipline and identity. Working-class parents focus more on the child's autonomy in matters of diet and physical activity. Separating health practices from family life, their children's health orientation becomes more fragile and their children's health lifestyle trajectory more arbitrary and vulnerable to peer influence and marketised body cultures. Combining temporality, youth agency and relationality, it becomes evident that young people internalise their parents' health lifestyle, leaving room for different expressions of youth agency.

Social Variations in Perceived Parenting Styles among Norwegian Adolescents.

Previous research has documented the associations between parenting and parenting styles and child and adolescent outcomes. Little is known, however, about the social structuring of parenting in contemporary Nordic welfare states. A possible hypothesis is that socioeconomic variations in parenting styles in present-day Norway will be small because of material affluence, limited income inequality, and an active welfare state. This study examines social variations in parenting as perceived by Norwegian adolescents (N = 1362), with a focus on four parenting style dimensions: responsiveness, demandingness, neglecting, and intrusive. Responsiveness seems to capture major divisions in parenting. Adolescents in families with fewer economic resources experienced their parents as somewhat less responsive, but responsiveness was not related to parents' education. Low parental education was on the other hand associated with perceptions of parents as neglecting and intrusive. Viewing parents as demanding did neither vary with parental education nor with family economy. Substantial variations in parenting styles persist in present-day Norway, and these variations correspond moderately with the families' placement in the social structure. Indicators of parenting and parenting styles may be useful indicators of some aspects of child and adolescent well-being.