2021, Article / Letter to editor (Health Promotion International, (2021), pp. 1-11)Physical activity (PA) contributes to health throughout life. In particular, young people can benefit from this. Schools can play a key role in providing learning conditions to experience meaningful PAs aimed at inspiring students to lifelong PA. In this article, we argue the need for a salutogenic approach in schools focussing on respecting and enhancing adolescents’ agency with regard to their PA. This approach entails listening to adolescents’ perspectives and inviting them to participate in actively designing and carrying out PA as a prerequisite for their inclusive engagement. We unpack the concept of agency by drawing on insights from the Capability Approach. This provides input for the integration of agency in health promoting schools and salutogenic approaches, to enhance PA-related agency.
Finally, we outline a research agenda to, eventually, create opportunities for students in schools to
expand their PA-related agency
2021, Article in monograph or in proceedings (proceedings worden niet gepubliceerd)The way in which individuals perceive their quality of life is influenced by the contexts in which they live. Each
of them perceives these contexts differently. Moreover, individuals' perception of their possibilities to
influence their context and make use of their resources, differs greatly and appears to depend on aspects as
individual motives, limiting or stimulating factors, resources, and whether these activities are meaningful to
them. These aspects are interrelated within their contexts in complex and fluid ways. To better understand this
fluidity we contend that the conceptualization of 'agency' of individuals from the Capabilities Approach, is
useful. Agency refers to the conversion of a person's assets into realistic opportunities, allowing him/her to
exercise agency by choosing how he/she prefers to function. This conversion process is limited or enhanced by
factors in the social, physical and personal environment. This suggests that Salutogenic theory and the
Capability Approach (CA) have complementary qualities. Therefore, we propose adding the dimension of
?agency' to the dimensions of SOC in the salutogenic model to better understand and facilitate how individuals
experience quality of life.