Describes an approach, as advanced by researcher Emory Cowen, which focuses on wellness in interventions with children and adolescents from diverse backgrounds. This approach recognizes that (1) values about wellness differ across cultures and subgroups; (2) wellness varies in importance in different situations and different points in the life span; and (3) wellness embraces multiple interventions. Different attitudes toward health promotion and healthy behavior often exist within the same cultural group. In addition, children have different styles of and experiences with acculturation, to which wellness interventions need to be geared. Wellness understood in terms of individuals’ efforts to cope with and adapt to the larger society suggests that positive outcomes will differ across situations. Before interventions are designed, they must be relevant to the population, involve collaborative relationships in the local setting, and emphasize family participation and individual empowerment. Effective wellness interventions are interdependent and can be sequenced over time. Changing U.S. demographics call for a multileveled, multifaceted approach to wellness that takes into account differing cultural attitudes to health promotion. (60 references)
