WELL-BEING FROM A SOCIAL JUSTICE PERSPECTIVE: A NARRATIVE STUDY ON FEMALE ADOLESCENTS FROM COYHAIQUE, CHILE By María Isidora Bilbao-Nieva A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Psychology–Masters of Arts 2020 ABSTRACT WELL-BEING FROM A SOCIAL JUSTICE PERSPECTIVE: A NARRATIVE STUDY ON FEMALE ADOLESCENTS FROM COYHAIQUE, CHILE By María Isidora Bilbao-Nieva Well-being is a targeted goal for public policies, interventions, and social programs around the world. Definitions and operationalizations of well-being are multiple and have been focusing on objective or subjective aspects. Researchers have found differences in what is deemed valuable in different countries, and the concept of well-being also varies depending upon intersecting factors such as age, gender, and social class. For these reasons, it is crucial to understand well-being within a context and specific population. Yet, most research has focused on developed countries and adults. There is almost no research devoted to understanding the well- being of adolescent girls from Latin American countries. This study uses a qualitative methodology based on narrative inquiry. It aims is to understand how eight teenage girls from Coyhaique, Chile, define and experience well-being within the life domains in which they operate. By focusing on their living conditions, the study explores how these contribute to or impede their well-being, maintaining a social justice perspective of well-being. The results show that the participants gave critical importance to the relationships they establish at the different life domains in which they operate. Also, they described how numerous threats to their safety hinder their well-being. To promote well-being within this population, efforts should focus on ensuring safety by protecting them from violence and promoting positive and healthy relationships with adults and peers. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................vi STUDY OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................ 1 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................... 7 Debates in the field ................................................................................................... 7 Subjective Well-being ............................................................................................... 8 Subjective well-being in adolescent populations. ..................................................... 10 Capabilities Approach ............................................................................................ 17 Social Justice Perspective on the Study of Well-being .............................................. 23 CURRENT STUDY ................................................................................................................ 30 Research Questions: ............................................................................................... 31 METHODS ............................................................................................................................. 31 Epistemological Approach ...................................................................................... 32 Ethics ..................................................................................................................... 36 Research Context ................................................................................................... 38 Sample and Sampling Strategy ............................................................................... 39 Interview Methodology ........................................................................................... 41 Interview Process and Protocol ............................................................................... 42 Trustworthiness ...................................................................................................... 48 Data Preparation and Organization........................................................................ 51 RESULTS ................................................................................................................................ 60 Part I: Well-being definitions. ................................................................................. 60 Part II: Life Domains .............................................................................................. 63 1. School ................................................................................................. 64 2. Family ................................................................................................. 75 3. Friendships and Partners ..................................................................... 84 4. Extracurricular .................................................................................... 89 Identified Capabilities in Stories ............................................................................. 94 Most Salient Capability: Safety .............................................................................. 98 Conditions that Facilitate and Constrain Safety .................................................... 100 Normalized violence: ............................................................................. 101 Institutional abandonment: .................................................................... 104 Unequal access to justice: ....................................................................... 107 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................ 110 The Relational Nature of Well-being ..................................................... 110 Life Domains ......................................................................................... 111 Well-being as a polyphonic concept ....................................................... 112 iii Well-being versus Well-becoming .......................................................... 112 The Unsafe Situation of Female Adolescents ......................................... 114 Implications of this study ...................................................................................... 115 Limitations of this study ........................................................................................ 117 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................... 119 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................ 120 APPENDIX A: Interview Protocol. .................................................................... 121 APPENDIX B: Example of Flipchart.................................................................. 123 APPENDIX C: Capabilities shown to participants.............................................. 124 APPENDIX D: Assent/Consent Forms .............................................................. 131 APPENDIX E: Individual Flipcharts .................................................................. 137 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 146 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Subjective Well-being Measurements ............................................................................. 9 Table 2: Well-being measurement instruments using life domains in adolescents. ....................... 12 Table 3: What are the factors that children identified as promoting their SWB? (Adapted from Camfield et al, 2009)- ........................................................................................................ 14 Table 4: Central Human Capabilities (Nussbaum, 2003)............................................................ 19 Table 5: Global Youth Well-being Index, from Sharma et al. (2007) .......................................... 21 Table 6: Research questions and related questions examples ...................................................... 46 Table 7: Capabilities within life domains according to Gema ..................................................... 57 Table 8: Well-being explicit definitions ...................................................................................... 61 Table 9: Life domains mentioned by each participant ................................................................ 63 Table 10: Summary of School life domain ................................................................................. 65 Table 11: Summary of Family life domain ................................................................................. 75 Table 12: Summary of Friendships and Partners ........................................................................ 84 Table 13: Summary of Extracurricular life domain .................................................................... 90 Table 14: Cross-case summary of Capabilities and Stories related to them. ................................ 96 Table 15: Stories on Safety and their impact on well-being ........................................................ 99 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Social Justice approach to studying and promoting well-being ..................................... 27 Figure 2: Categories of life domains ........................................................................................... 55 Figure 3: Number of stories related to each Capability ............................................................... 95 Figure 4: Conditions that impact safety .................................................................................... 101 Figure 5: Example of flipchart, Princess Kim ........................................................................... 123 Figure 6: Capabilities shown to participants. Economic Opportunity ....................................... 124 Figure 7: Capabilities shown to participants. Gender Equality/Inequality ................................ 125 Figure 8: Capabilities shown to participants. Education. .......................................................... 126 Figure 9: Capabilities shown to participants. Health................................................................. 127 Figure 10: Capabilities shown to participants. Communication ................................................ 128 Figure 11: Capabilities shown to participants. Safety ................................................................ 129 Figure 12: Capabilities shown to participants. Participation ..................................................... 130 Figure 13: Individual flipchart. Antonia ................................................................................... 137 Figure 14: Individual flipchart. Gema ...................................................................................... 138 Figure 15: Individual flipchart. Ivonne ..................................................................................... 139 Figure 16: Individual flipchart. James. ...................................................................................... 140 Figure 17: Individual flipchart. Jesse......................................................................................... 141 Figure 18: Individual flipchart. Kathy ...................................................................................... 142 Figure 19: Individual flipchart. Princess Kim ........................................................................... 143 Figure 20: Individual flipchart. Tessa ....................................................................................... 144 vi STUDY OVERVIEW Well-being is a positive state that individuals and communities experience when their aspirations are fulfilled on personal and collective levels (Evans & Prilleltensky, 2007). It is a positive mental, physical, and psychosocial state of being (Sears et al., 2014), which emerges from the intersection of objective material and immaterial conditions and the subjective assessment of those. In addition, well-being has been called an umbrella concept that entails at least subjective and objective well-being (Gough & McGregor, 2007). Improving well-being is a means for enhancing quality of life, health, and longevity (Sears et al., 2014). High rates of well-being are shown when youth achieve holistic success in education, health, economic opportunities, and participation in civic life, shaping adolescents transition to adulthood (Sharma, Henneman, Asgar, & Vignoles, 2017). Additionally, improving well-being rates in adolescent populations has been negatively associated with violence, adolescent birth rates, unintentional injuries, mental health disorders, and abuse of substances (G. C. Patton et al., 2016). Researchers on well-being have recommended that “Investments in adolescents’ health and well-being bring a triple dividend of benefits now, into future adult life, and for the next generation of children” (G. C. Patton et al., 2016, p. 2424). Well-being has emerged as one of the most targeted goals in community and international development efforts in the past decade. It has become a stated goal for public policies, interventions, and social programs of multiple countries around the world (Bache & Scott, 2018), and is one of the keywords within the mission statements of the main international development agencies (Wright & Mcleod, 2015). For example, the World Health Organization has defined health within its mission as a “state of complete physical, mental and social well-being” (WHO, 2018); the United Nations Sustainable 1 Development Goals identify well-being as its third goal: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” (United Nations, 2018). ECLAC guidelines to Latin American policies for gender equality indicate well-being as a goal for all citizen: “Understood as the entitlement to rights, equality requires the State to play a role in attaining thresholds of well-being for the whole population” (ECLAC, 2017). In addition, the Chilean Ministry of Social Development states as it goal “To contribute to inclusive social development, increasing the opportunities (…) and access to better life conditions and social well-being” (Ministerio De Desarrollo Social, 2018, p. 62). Although a widely adopted concept, there is no agreed upon definition of well-being. None of the above organizations offers a definition of well-being or clarifies its meaning within their specific contexts. Moreover, definitions and operationalizations of well-being vary across disciplines. Two relevant approximations of well-being are proposed within psychology and economics: Within the field of psychology, research on well-being has been focused on subjective assessments of life quality (White & Blackmore, 2015), and in economics, there is an effort to understand the material factors that makes well-being possible from an objective perspective (Gough & McGregor, 2007). These two approaches compete with each other: whereas the objective approach views the subjective assessment as irrelevant to establish well-being (Robeyns, 2017), the subjective one considers objective conditions to well-being impossible to determine (Diener et al., 2017). The lack of a shared definition of well-being is a major challenge for public policy. It means that different actors have stated well-being as a goal without noticing that they are talking about different things or even about competing concepts. As some authors have highlighted, different approaches to well-being give shape to different agendas, creating tensions and mobilizing resources in different directions, by different groups, to support different purposes (Bache & Scott, 2018; White & Blackmore, 2015). For example, these same authors have described different approaches to 2 conceptualize well-being in public policies. Following those approaches, public policies devoted to promoting adolescents’ well-being might be doing very different things — some of them focused on promoting healthy behaviors among adolescents, others evaluating the impact of programs on adolescent subjective assessment of their own lives, and others creating instruments to measure adolescents’ progress beyond GDP (Bache & Scott, 2018; White & Blackmore, 2015). A shared vision of what is well-being is necessary to coordinate the efforts of different actors towards a common goal. In addition to a shared concept, it is also crucial to understand that well-being can have different meanings for different sectors of society. Researchers have demonstrated that well-being is a culturally sensitive concept that depends on the meaning each culture assigns to concepts such as happiness (Diener et al., 2017). For example, part of what is considered a positive emotion that contributes to individuals’ well-being in the US is feeling pride, but in Japan or India, feeling pride is actually a source of discomfort (Diener et al., 2017). From an economics perspective, researchers have found important differences in what is deemed valuable in different countries (Camfield, Crivello, & Woodhead, 2009). For example, while people from the US and Europe give more importance to education or health to enhance their well-being, Latin Americans tend to value family and social relationships more (M. Rojas, 2016). The concept also varies depending upon intersecting factors such as age, gender, and social class (Alfaro, Casas, & López, 2015; D’Agostino, Giusti, & Potsi, 2018; Fattore, Mason, & Watson, 2007; Navarro et al., 2017; G. C. Patton et al., 2016). For example, female adolescents of certain cultures (e.g., Spain) tend to give more importance to academic achievements than males as a source of well-being (Casas et al., 2007), or adolescents living in poverty prioritize work as a source of well- 3 being describing a life domain that is absent among adolescents from other social classes that do not need to work (Arteche & Bandeira, 2003). For these reasons, it is important to understand well-being within a context and within a specific population. Yet, most research has focused on developed countries and adult populations (Dias, Bastos, Marzo, & García del Castillo Rodríguez, 2016; Joronen, 2005; Tomyn, Cummins, & Norrish, 2015; Vera et al., 2012), and policy makers and other scholars have mistakenly generalized from this research and applied these conclusions to developing countries. Not only has this led to the development of policies that are misaligned with the well-being priorities and needs of specific groups (M. Rojas, 2015), but it has also resulted in important gaps in well-being understanding for other sectors of the society, silencing and excluding them from the discussion on well-being. For example, although in Latin America most of the population living in poverty are youth and children, and Latin American women are poorer than men (ECLAC, 2018), the intersection between gender and age in poverty is ignored in the well-being literature, transforming female adolescents living in poverty as an invisible group. Yet research suggests that female adolescents as a group experience significant threats to their well-being in Latin America. According to UNICEF 4 of 10 Latin American girls aged 15 to 19 have experienced partner violence, and 1 of 4 were married or in a union before age 18 (Céspedes & Robles, 2016); Latin America as a region has the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy of the world, (17%) (UNICEF, 2016), and suicidality is also high; 25% of the girls between 13 to 15 years old has considered suicide (Céspedes & Robles, 2016). These alarming statistics contrast with the lack of specific research on well-being on this population. Focused research might give strategic information to policy makers to put in place tailored policies and programs aimed to support the promotion of well-being within female adolescents from low income families in Latin America. 4 A social justice perspective integrates the subjective and objective orientations of well-being, understanding that well-being emerges from the interaction between individuals’ assessments of their life and the conditions provided by society (Teo, 2014). Thus, defining well-being from a social justice perspective involve clarifying what is valuable in life, and creating equal access to what is more valuable, understanding well-being as the currency of social justice (Bache & Scott, 2018). This approach encourages the voices of silenced populations in the study of their own well-being because such understanding is needed to determine what is valuable and what conditions are needed. Within this frame and study, well-being was understood as resulting from a just society that provides appropriate opportunities for everyone to develop their capabilities and live the life they deem valuable. This study proposed that a social justice approach to well-being should hear the voices of the individuals and their subjective analysis of well-being, understand the conditions in which they live, and the way they experience those conditions. This study was focused on understanding well-being for female adolescents living in Coyhaique, Chile since this is a high-risk population that has never been studied before. The aim of this study was to understand how this population defined well-being in their own voice, and also how they understand their own well-being, particularly in life domains they deemed as relevant. In addition, this study also aimed to understand the conditions in which female adolescents live, how these female adolescents experience their life conditions, and how these contribute to or impede their well-being. Findings from this study can inform public policy by illuminating what is defined by this population as relevant conditions that affect their well-being. The research questions of this study explored how female adolescents from low-income living in Coyahique families understand their well-being. It was also focused on understanding how they 5 described their lives and the conditions in which they live, and how these conditions impacted their well-being, impeding or favoring them to live the lives they want to live. This study used qualitative methods to explore these questions. Authors have highlighted the need to use qualitative methods in the study of well-being, since they provide complex and socially embedded understandings (Camfield, Crivello, et al., 2009), and can give voice and relevance to the opinions of oppressed groups regarding their own well-being (Fattore, Mason, & Watson, 2009). This study used a narrative inquiry to explore participants’ wellbeing; by asking participants to tell stories about their lives, the narrative approach makes possible to study people’s experiences and how they make sense of them at the same time (Hiles, Ermk, & Chrz, 2017; Polkinghorne, 1988). Additionally, this approach restores participants’ agency by supporting their role as protagonists of those stories (De Fina & Georgakopoulou, 2015; Parker, 2005). 6 LITERATURE REVIEW Different conceptualizations of well-being have been developed by different disciplines, creating debates on well-being definitions. As mentioned before, within the field of psychology well- being has focused on subjective assessments of life quality (White & Blackmore, 2015), while economics researchers have focused on living conditions for well-being (Gough & McGregor, 2007). Some researchers have claimed the need to use these two approaches conjointly in public policy (Stiglitz, Sen, & Fitoussi, 2009), but when subjective and objective well-being approaches are used together in research, important incongruences emerge. For example, Lima & Morais (2016) found that youth living in high poverty in Brazil have shown higher rates of subjective well-being than expected. Likewise, some Latin American countries have consistently rated at the top on World rankings of happiness, although the region keeps showing high in-poverty rates and income inequalities. (M. Rojas, 2016). These examples illustrate one of the key areas of debate between psychologists and economists: should well-being be defined by using subjective assessments of people’s lives or should it be defined by the presence of minimum living conditions? Debates in the field Supporters of the “well-being is subjective” position argue that well-being should be measured by what people report about their own life satisfaction because well-being meaning cannot be imposed from the outside. (Diener et al., 2017; White & Blackmore, 2015). From this perspective, well-being is defined by life satisfaction and the experience of positive emotions. Because there are numerous factors that influence how people feel and assess their lives (Tomyn et al., 2015) and these vary from one culture to another (Diener et al., 2017; Dimitrova, 2017; Tomyn et al., 2015) 7 researchers using the “subjective” approach argue that the study of well-being can only rely on individual self-report assessments. Meanwhile, those supporting the objective orientation to well-being argue that subjective measurements are irrelevant, because people are biased when they assess their own life (Nussbaum, 2003; Robeyns & Sen, 2006). From this perspective, the definition of well-being cannot be based on how people feel about their own life but in the conditions that need to be in place so people can fully develop their capabilities (Stiglitz et al., 2009). In other words, well-being is not about feeling satisfied with one’s own life, but about having the opportunities to develop one’s capabilities and choose the life that one decides to live. In the following sections, both approaches to well-being are explored and these differences highlighted. Then a social justice perspective to studying well-being is proposed as a way to integrate these frameworks. The context and characteristics of the population targeted within this study were reviewed from a social justice lens. Subjective Well-being Subjective well-being (SWB) is defined as “people’s overall evaluations of their lives and their emotional experiences. SWB thus includes broad appraisals, such as life satisfaction and health satisfaction judgments, and specific feelings that reflect how people are reacting to the events and circumstances in their lives” (Diener et al., 2017, p. 3). According to this approach, well-being is the result of the absence of negative feelings, the presence of positive feelings, and an overall positive assessment of life satisfaction. These three elements -positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction- compose SWB and need to be understood as interrelated but separate (McCullough, Huebner, & Laughlin, 2000). The SWB approach proposes that individuals are the best judges of their own well-being, and thus, it 8 measurement should emphasize subjective self-reporting (Madonia, Cracolici, & Cuffaro, 2013). Researchers have demonstrated the beneficial outcomes of high levels of SWB, including but not limited to, better health and longevity, positive social relationships, and higher work productivity (Diener et al., 2017). This formula to study SWB -affect plus satisfaction- can be easily understood and measured, allowing researchers to study well-being in a clear and simple way (White, Gaines, & Jha, 2012). Thus, researchers typically use quantitative methods to measure the three dimensions of SWB - positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction- using one scale for the positive and negative affect (particularly the PANAS scale (Watson et al., 1988)), and another instrument for measuring satisfaction with life. Satisfaction with life can be measured using a single question about overall life satisfaction (Diener et al., 1985), or several questions to describe satisfaction in different life domains (Seligson, Huebner, & Valois, 2003). Table 1: Subjective Well-being Measurements SWB element Measurements Positive and negative affect schedule [PANAS] (Watson et Positive Affect The extent to which a person feels enthusiastic, active and alert, (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) al. 1988). e.g: From 1 to 5, to what have you felt: [+] Attentive, interested, proud… [-] Fearful, irritable, concerned… during the last [time frame] 9 Table 1 (cont’d) Negative Affect A general state of subjective distress or un- pleasurable engagement on a variety of aversive mood states (Watson et al., 1988) Life Satisfaction Global assessment of a person’s quality of life according to their chosen criteria (Diener et al., 1985) General Life Happiness1 How happy are you with your life as a whole? [0-10] (Single Question) Scales Students Life Satisfaction Scale 5 (Huebner, 1991)e.g. My life is better than most kids) [5 items, 1 Strongly disagree – 6 Strongly agree] Personal well-being index – School Children (Lau, Cummins, & McPherson, 2005) e.g. How happy are you with your health [7 items, 0 very sad-10 very happy] Satisfaction With Life as a Whole Scale (Diener et al., 1985) e.g. “In most ways my life is close to ideal” [5 items, 1 strongly disagree – 7 strongly agree] Subjective well-being in adolescent populations. Researchers have demonstrated the importance of high levels of SWB in adolescent populations, as it has been related to low risk behavior, self-care and health, overcoming adversities, 1 This question and slight variations on it and have been used by several authors (Hall, Haushofer, Hall, Hours, & Mccoy, 2015; Lardon, Wolsko, Trickett, Henry, & Hopkins, 2016; Yin Nei Cho, 2018) 10 academic success, and prosocial behaviors (Gutierrez et al., 2013). On the contrary, lower levels of SWB are related to violent behaviors (Valois, Paxton, Zullig, & Huebner, 2006), and the presence of pathologies such as depression and anxiety (Seligson et al., 2003). In addition, researchers have found that adolescents differ from adults in the ways they assess their SWB (Alfaro, Guzmán, et al., 2014); for this reason, some researchers acknowledge that specific instruments to assess SWB in adolescents are needed given this idiosyncratic understanding of SWB within this population (Alfaro, Guzmán, et al., 2014). However, in contrast with adults, few scales and instruments have been developed to address SWB in adolescents, suggesting the need to advance this field of inquiry (Alfaro, Castellá Sarriera, et al., 2014). For example, one important difference between adults and adolescents is that questions about overall life satisfaction that work well with adult populations create an inaccurate assessment of well-being for adolescents, while questions asking about satisfaction within different aspects of their lives provide more comprehensive and accurate responses (Arteche & Bandeira, 2003). Based on this finding, the more relevant instruments for measuring SWB within adolescents -the Brief Multidimensional Student’s Life Satisfaction Scale or BMSLSS (Seligson et al., 2003) and the Personal Well-being Index or PWI-SC (Cummins & Lau, 2005)- ask about satisfaction across different life domains such as family, friendships, and school, or health and personal safety, among others. Table 2 describes the items measured by these SWB instruments. 11 Table 2: Well-being measurement instruments using life domains in adolescents. Questions /Instruments Overall Life Satisfaction question BMSLSS (Seligson et al., 2003) PWI-SC (Cummins & Lau, 2005) [END] How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your life overall [FIRST] How happy are you with your life as a whole. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with... How happy are you… Your Family life? About the things you have? Like the money you have and the things you own? [domain: Standard of living] Your Friendships? With your health? [domain: Personal Health] Your school experience? With the things you want to be good at? [domain: Achievement in Life] Domains Yourself? About Getting on with people you know? [domain: Personal Relationships] Where you live? About how safe you feel? [domain: Personal Safety] About doing things away from your home? [domain: Part of the Community] About what may happen to you later on in your life? [domain: Future Security] 12 Researchers have found that the study of SWB using life domains among adolescents gives deeper and more accurate answers (Arteche & Bandeira, 2003). In specific, it can diminish the vital optimistic bias; a tendency to have positive evaluations of one’s life, that is particularly high during childhood and early adolescents years (Casas, Bello, González, & Aligué, 2013; Rees & Dinisman, 2015). However, there is no consensus on which life domains to study within adolescents. Table 2 above shows the wide differences between life domains used by the two instruments. This opens the discussion on which life domains should be considered when assessing well-being within adolescents and calls into question the use of previously defined life domains to guide the study of well-being on different populations that might understand well-being in a different way. In addition, it is important to mention that none of these scales where developed with Latin American adolescents. The BMSLSS (Seligson et al., 2003) was originally designed and validated in the US, with students between 8 to 18 years old, and the PWI-SC was originally designed for adults but modified and validated for adolescents (Cummins & Lau, 2005). Both scales were developed based on literature from western, developed countries (Cummins, 1996; Seligson et al., 2003) and then validated in other countries, including Latin American countries like Chile (Alfaro, Castellá Sarriera, et al., 2014; Casas et al., 2014). Considering the vast majority of literature on well-being is based on studies conducted in developed countries (Dias et al., 2016; Joronen, 2005; Tomyn et al., 2015; Vera et al., 2012), exploratory research is still needed to understand how less studied populations understand their well- being, what life domains exist for that population, and what life domains matter to them for their SWB assessments. Without this knowledge, the use of pre-defined life domains assumes that the lives and experiences of female adolescents living in a Latin American country are similar or comparable to those living in developed countries from the western world. 13 For example, the following table summarizes the perception of factors that matter for well- being, as described by female and male children and adolescents living in poverty in Ethiopia, India, Vietnam and Peru (Camfield, Crivello, et al., 2009). As this table illustrates, different life domains matter more, depending on the country from where the individuals originated. Ethiopian children were the only ones that mentioned religion and recreation as part of the life domains that affect their well-being; Vietnamese children/youth were the only ones that highlighted access to social services. These findings also illustrate how much variation exists within each life domain in relationship to SWB, clarifying the need to understand life domains in relation to specific contexts. For example, while Indian, Peruvian and Vietnamese children described material goods as life domains that contribute to well-being, which goods mattered varied across these cultures: Indian children highlighted books, for example, while Peruvian children highlighted motorbikes. Table 3: What are the factors that children identified as promoting their SWB? (Adapted from Camfield et al, 2009)- Factors/Countries Ethiopia Basic Needs fulfillment Education Good Health Money Material goods x x (have access to education) x India x (Food) x (being a good student) x Perú Vietnam x (have access to education) x x x (books and consumer goods) x (Fashionable clothes; TV) x (Motorbikes) 14 Table 3 (cont’d) Family relationships/support Access to social services Religion Recreation (Others) x x x x (Family love and support; parents relationships) x Being good looking; being joyful; look clean Have work to support family. Being able to study abroad. It was particularly notable in this report that female and male adolescents from Peru were more concerned about family than participants from the countries: family love and support, their relationships with their parents, and their ability to work as a means to support their families where all identified as important factors contributing to their well-being. Among threats to well-being, Peruvians adolescents also identified losing their parents’ support and protection as the main ones, followed by being victims of violence, loneliness, and lack of social support. This findings are not surprising considering that other studies on Latin American female and male adolescents have shown the high importance given to family within Latin American population (Luna, Laca, & Mejía, 2011; M. Rojas, 2016; V. Rojas & Cussianovich, 2013). Overall, the findings on Latin American populations have highlighted why the preexisting SWB measures are not designed to capture the meaning of SWB within a Latin American adolescent population. As these findings from Luna, et al. (2011) indicate, positive family relationships are a 15 major source of SWB for Latin American female and male adolescents, yet the PWI-SC does not address relationships as one of its life domains. In addition, the BSMLSS instrument pays attention to dimensions like “where you live”, and “yourself”, that do not seem relevant for Latin American adolescents, since they have not been mentioned in any of the few studies devoted to understanding this particular population (Castaños & Sánchez, 2015; V. Rojas & Cussianovich, 2013). Other studies have shown other contradictions between the literature on SWB of Latin American adolescents and the mentioned instruments. For example, the BSMLSS separates friendships from school experience, although studies on adolescents from Brazil and Chile have showed that these two life domains are conflated within this population (Casas et al., 2014). In addition, other studies on Latin American adolescents have shown similar results, highlighting that this population emphasizes family and social relationships as the major sources of SWB, and violence and isolation are major threats to it. For example, a study in Brazil reported peer-violence as a major threat to the SWB of female and male adolescent students, and family and social support as fundamental protective factor (Alcantara & Vin, 2017). In Mexico, a study among students between 15 to 19 years old highlighted the importance of family satisfaction to high rates of SWB (Luna et al., 2011), and studies conducted on economics have found that Latin Americans tend to value family and social relationships more than health or education access as important factors of well- being (M. Rojas, 2016). Overall, these findings suggest that the existent instruments – BMSLSS and PWI-SC- might be misrepresenting what matters the most for Latin American adolescents, since these scales are not designed to assess the life domains that are relevant for this population. More studies are needed to understand the reality of adolescents from other Latin American countries. In addition, the mentioned instruments assume that adolescents will assess life domains as unitary categories of analysis. On the contrary, prior research has shown that while adults can assess 16 their satisfaction with “work” or “health” as unitary categories (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999) adolescents see life domains as more complex; for example, youth assess “school” as including several different categories–e.g. peers from school, academic performance, relationship with teachers (Casas et al., 2014) demonstrating again that they have their own unique way of understanding and assessing well-being (Alfaro, Guzmán, et al., 2014), which is substantially different from adults. A key aspect of the SWB approach is that social determinants are seen as less important in the study of well-being, since people who live in conditions of objective well-being can report low levels of SWB, and the opposite can also be true (Bradshaw, Martorano, Natali, & Neubourg, 2013). For example, in a study with Brazilian children living in the streets, female and male participants described themselves as smart, happy, strong, and other confident attributes such as autonomous and resilient, rating their SWB as surprisingly high considering their life conditions (Lima & Morais, 2016). This suggests that sole reliance on reported levels of SWB risks a misrepresentation of the context of an individuals’ life since it overlooks potentially unjust contexts. This approach to SWB creates a potential quandary for public policy makers: if Brazilian kids living in the street feel highly satisfied with their lives, what should public policy makers do? Based on that critique, some authors have stated the importance of studying the life conditions as well as the subjective assessment of well- being (Camfield, Woodhead, & Streuli, 2009). Capabilities Approach Another approach to studying well-being has been developed by economists, who primarily focus on life conditions. The “capabilities approach” (Sen, 1999) states that well-being is a 17 multidimensional concept based on the possibility of exercising different kinds of capabilities, -what the person is able to do or be- (D’Agostino et al., 2018), which are related to social, economic, and political conditions (Deneulin & McGregor, 2010). A capability is the extent of their opportunity set and their freedom to choose among this set, the life they value”(Stiglitz et al., 2009). Researchers and theorists using the capabilities approach have proposed basic or central human capabilities (Nussbaum, 2003; Robeyns, 2003), stated as minimum conditions that everyone should be able to enjoy in order to achieve well-being (e.g., see Table 4), very similar to the idea of human rights. Measurements on well-being using the capabilities approach compare country levels on well- being by assessing income plus factors such as education, nutrition and health (Robeyns & Sen, 2006). The instruments differ from each other, but usually, they tend to draw items from what has been stated as central human capabilities (Nussbaum, 2003) (see Table 4), assessing if these capabilities exist or not. Nussbaum (2003) argues that such an approach is critical because some individuals, due to their circumstance, are not aware of the basic capabilities they should have the freedom to enjoy. 18 Table 4: Central Human Capabilities (Nussbaum, 2003) Capability Definition Life Worth living, normal length of life, no premature death. Bodily Health Good health, adequate nourish and shelter. Bodily integrity Freedom of movement, security, sexual satisfaction opportunity. Senses, imagination and thought Emotions Practical reason Affiliation Other species Play Control over one’s environment Literacy, basic mathematics, free expression and religious exercise. Love, grieve, longing, gratitude and anger. Critical reflection in planning one’s life. A. Recognize and show concern for others. B. Self-respect and non-humiliation, dignified treatment. Live with concern for animals, plants and nature. Laugh, play and recreation. A. Political: participate in political choices. B. Material: hold property, have property rights, employment opportunities. To illustrate this point, Nussbaum gave an example of how women living in extreme poverty did not react to the fact that they lacked a clean water supply. However, after a governmental consciousness-raising program, they started to assess their life conditions as unhealthful and became frustrated with their circumstances. In other words, before the campaign, people did not have a critical assessment of their own lives, and afterwards, they had a better sense of what matters for life quality. But this critical consciousness also gave them more discomfort, that is to say, less SWB. Based on this argument, Nussbaum emphasizes the importance of having a universal list of central capabilities, that serves as a reference to well-being assessment independent from the reported SWB. 19 Therefore, according to this approach, it is not enough to feel satisfied with one’s own life, or to have more positive affect than negative. Even when people can differ in the assessment of the elements that guarantee a good quality of life, such elements need to be available because they represent freedoms that people can enjoy (Stiglitz et al., 2009); “The core claim of the capability approach is that assessments of the well-being or quality of life of a person, and judgements about equality or justice, or the level of development of a community or country, should not primarily focus on resources, or on people’s mental states, but on the effective opportunities that people have to lead the lives they have reason to value” (Robeyns & Sen, 2006). In addition, this approach states that when people live in poverty conditions, they may show high levels of SWB because they do not dare to desire better or more things (Sen, 1987), or shift their priorities (Robeyns, 2017) preferring what they believe are achievable things: “The defeated and the down-trodden come to lack the courage to desire things that others more favourably treated by society desire with easy confidence. The absence of desire for things beyond one’s means may not reflect any deficiency of valuing, but only an absence of hope, and a fear of inevitable disappointment” (Sen, 1987, pp. 10–11). According to this idea, the high levels of SWB reported by the Brazilian adolescents living in the streets (Lima & Morais, 2016), would be due to the fact that these adolescents do not dare to wish for better lives, and not because there are truly satisfied. Therefore, the capabilities approach focuses on the conditions that can offer people freedom to choose what they deem valuable, despite the subjective assessment of those conditions (Robeyns & Sen, 2006; Stiglitz et al., 2009). An example of an operationalization of the capabilities approach is the Global Youth Well- being Index (Sharma et al., 2017). The capabilities and indicators of this index are described in the following table (Table 5). This index has been used as a tool to compare well-being among different countries. It is guided by the following definition of well-being: Well-being is a multidimensional concept that includes a person’s physical and mental health, educational status, economic position, physical safety, access to 20 freedoms, and ability to participate in civic life. It is, in a sense, the abundance or scarcity of opportunities available to an individual (Sharma et al., 2017, p. 14). This conceptualization of well-being provides a practical framework that integrates and guides the analysis of different contextual factors to understand well- being in a comprehensive way. Table 5: Global Youth Well-being Index, from Sharma et al. (2007) Capability Indicators Gender Equality Restricted civil liberties for women Female early marriage rate Women's fear of walking alone Youth perceptions of gender quality Economic Opportunity GDP per capita Global competitiveness Youth not in education, employment, or training (NEETs) Youth unemployment Early-stage entrepreneurial activity Youth borrowing Youth expectations for future standard of living Education Health Youth literacy Public spending on education Lower secondary enrollment Lower secondary completion Youth satisfaction with education. Adolescent fertility rate Youth self-harm fatalities Youth stress Youth perceptions of health Youth tobacco use. 21 Table 5 (cont’d) Safety and security Citizen Participation Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Youth road fatalities Internal peace Youth interpersonal violence Human trafficking Youth perceptions of violence. Democracy Youth volunteering Youth policy Age for office Youth perceptions of government. ICT development Youth internet access at home Internet usage Mobile phone subscriptions. Using this index, researchers have studied and compared 30 countries worldwide, and found that only 11% of youth are experiencing high levels of well-being, all from high income countries (Sharma et al., 2017). This study also reported high rates of youth not in employment, education, or training (NEETs), which is particularly notable among Latin Americans and Sub-Saharan Africans. In addition, 97% of the Latin American youth surveyed support equality between women and men, which is the highest rate in the world. Finally, regarding government support, 75% of the youth believe the government does not care about them, which is particularly high in Latin American countries (93% in Brazil, followed by 91% in Colombia) (Sharma et al., 2017). This index proposes a reference of minimum capabilities that should be considered for understanding the well-being of adolescents, and can serve as a guide for public policies to define what life conditions should be changed and how. However, this index was developed based on the opinions of adult experts and stakeholders, (Goldin, 2013), without including youth’s opinions. 22 Without the input from the youth, there is a risk of implementing changes that do not affect the SWB of the individuals, or that are not relevant for their daily lives. As mentioned before, researchers have found evidence that supports that youth perceive things in unique ways, different from adults (Alfaro, Guzmán, et al., 2014). For example, other studies have found that youth have a unique understanding of leadership and what it means to be a leader, which is different from adults (Mortensen et al., 2014). Therefore, if youth are not directly consulted on their opinions about what matters to them, it cannot be assumed that the capabilities proposed in the Global Youth Well-being Index are actually relevant to adolescents’ well-being. In that sense, it is important to highlight that imposing well-being meanings can be considered a way of oppression, an injustice derived from not asking and excluding the knowers from generating knowing that is relevant for them and their lives (Kidd, Medina, & Pohlhaus, 2017; White et al., 2012). Social Justice Perspective on the Study of Well-being Different actions and agendas to promote well-being can be proposed depending on what definition of well-being is adopted, mobilizing resources and actions in different directions. A social justice approach to well-being is understood as a positive state of collective, organizational and personal affairs, based on the transactions between the individuals and their environment (Evans & Prilleltensky, 2007; Nelson & Prilleltensky, 2010). Using this definition to develop public policies that promote well-being, the focus should be on transforming oppressive and unjust conditions, guided by the subjective assessment of the individuals that are actually experiencing these conditions. As mentioned before, the majority of the literature on well-being is based on studies with adult populations from developed countries (Dias et al., 2016; Joronen, 2005; Tomyn et al., 2015; Vera et al., 2012). From a social justice perspective, this creates several ethical tensions when 23 working to understand and promote well-being in adolescents in Latin American countries. First, the current literature mostly represents a colonialist approach to well-being, since it assumes Western conceptions of well-being are the correct ones to guide policies in developing countries (Copestake, 2008). Second, the existing SWB and capabilities measures were developed from an adult perspective and did not consider how adolescents understand their own well-being and life domains; thus existing measures risk misrepresenting adolescents’ wellbeing since their perspective and experience is unique and different from adults (Alfaro, Guzmán, et al., 2014). Third, findings comparing SWB in different countries (Camfield, Crivello, et al., 2009) highlight the importance of recognizing that well-being looks different for Latin American adolescents. As a result, the use of research findings based on populations living in other, more developed countries to develop public policies for this population could result in resources and supports that are significantly misaligned with the real experiences of the targeted population. In addition, although international agencies particularly highlight the importance of promoting and improving the well-being of Latin American adolescent women (ECLAC, 2018), there is a dearth of research on the well-being of this population: only one published article to date has specifically assessed female adolescents’ well-being within a Latin American country2 (Castaños & Sánchez, 2015). The lack of information about the well-being of female adolescents from Latin America has important social justice implications, since their exclusion in the research domain has also excluded them in the conversation regarding their own well-being. It represents a form of 2 Using ProQuest and Google Scholar, in indexed publications, with the words on the abstract and/or title: well-being, wellbeing, bienestar (sp), bem-estar (pr), and adolescen* (eg-pr-sp), and filtering by location. 24 epistemic injustice -excluding the knowers from generating knowing that is relevant for them and their lives- (Kidd et al., 2017; White et al., 2012), making it highly relevant to decolonize the gaze on well- being. For that purpose, researchers have highlighted the importance of studying well-being within underserved populations and using methods that ensure their voices are present in academic and public policy discussions (Camfield, Crivello, et al., 2009; Gough & McGregor, 2007). The lack of research on female adolescents’ well-being in Latin America might be one of the reasons behind the scarcity of public policies dedicated to specifically promoting their well-being. In Chile, the only national efforts specifically dedicated to female adolescents are focused on preventing adolescent pregnancy. These pregnancy prevention efforts are not working with the lowest socio- economic quintile within Chile, which maintains the highest rates of teenage pregnancy despite the public policies in place (CEPAL, 2017). This demonstrate the lack of suitability of Chilean public policies on teen pregnancy prevention, particularly within the population living in-poverty, or the insufficiency of that policy alone to address this problem. Overall, this illustrates the need to design and implement new public policies devoted to promoting well-being among female adolescents living in poverty from other fronts as well. In contrast, no energies are centered on other issues highlighted in the few studies regarding well-being in Latin American population (Camfield, Crivello, et al., 2009; M. Rojas, 2016) such as promoting a life free of violence and supporting positive family relationships. For example, although young women from Coyhaique, Chilean Patagonia, face the highest national rates of femicides, violence against women, and sexual assault (INE, 2017, PDI, 2017; Gobierno Regional de Aysén, 2018), no public policies currently promote well-being through gender-based violence prevention. This highlights the disconnect between the current public policy arena in Chile and the lived experiences and threats to well-being experienced by these youth. 25 In addition, it seems very possible that female adolescents from Latin American countries have a different experience and understanding of well-being than male adolescents, but there is almost no research done to specifically address female adolescents’ well-being. Within the capabilities literature it is frequently asserted that women all over the world face a myriad of obstacles that determines their freedoms, and therefore well-being levels (Nussbaum, 2000). A gender lens of well-being is imperative for social justice, since it would help to identify the obstacles that are hindering female adolescents to reach well-being. No research has been done to understand how these obstacles impact their lives in their own voices, again silencing the voices of an oppressed population. Nussbaum (2000) theorized that the removal of certain items from each women’s list of capabilities is actually the product of oppression and should be understood that way: “there is something wrong with not seeing oneself in a certain way, as a bearer of rights and a citizen whose dignity and worth are equal to that of others” (Nussbaum, 2000, p. 113). From this perspective, oppression, social injustices, or ignorance, have a particular impact on how people’s preferences are shaped, impacting their very notion of well-being (Robeyns, 2017). Although this is a theoretical idea, this should be considered in the study of well-being, since to explore the material conditions from where the definitions and assessment of well-being emerge is imperative from pragmatic, ethical, and human rights standpoints (Camfield, Woodhead, et al., 2009), in concordance with a social justice approach to well-being. This study used a social justice framework to study and promote the well-being of female adolescents living in Coyhaique. This framework integrated the subjective well-being assessments of the participants with an analysis of their context using the capabilities approach. A third element was included to complement this analysis: understanding the relationship between the individuals and their context to make sense of the individuals’ experiences of their life conditions. As this 26 framework highlighted, it is necessary to hear the voices of the individuals, understand their context, and promote changes on the interaction patterns between them to promote well-being. This framework is explained in the following pages. Figure 1: Social Justice approach to studying and promoting well-being Hear the individuals Change the interaction patterns Understand the context Public policy understands how the objective conditions are experienced Individuals think critically about their lives. Hear the voices of the individuals: The proposed social justice perspective on well- being emphasized the need to hear participants’ points of view regarding their own well-being. From 27 a social justice perspective, using pre-conceived meanings of well-being in research conducted with under researched populations is considered a colonizing exercise of power (White et al., 2012). For example, the current literature on SWB pre-defines SWB as affect plus life satisfaction (White et al., 2012), and then ask the participants how they rate well-being using those parameters. It also uses pre-defined life domains that are not necessarily relevant for different populations (Arteche & Bandeira, 2003). In order to provide relevant information for public policies, a social justice perspective needs to ensure that the voices of the subjects are present in well-being discussions (Camfield, Crivello, et al., 2009). When their voices are excluded, the potential for epistemic violence is heightened as their voices are deemed irrelevant and relegated to a secondary or lesser place. In this study, participants defined well-being from their own perspective, selected the life domains that matter to them, and describe their experiences within these domains. The use of qualitative methods ensured the voices of the participants were captured (Camfield, Crivello, et al., 2009). Understand the context: A social justice perspective recognizes that participants exist within economic, class and gender patterns of social relationships that create inequitable distributions of power and resources (Teo, 2014). If research only focuses on participants’ subjective reports about their well-being, unacceptable living conditions may be ignored (Nussbaum, 2000; Robeyns, 2017) reinforcing inequities and giving a dangerous and confusing message to public policy makers. This is important because, as some scholars have highlighted, there are dangerous effects of the myth “poor but happy” on public policy and the achievement of social justice (Kay & Jost, 2003). It is an ethical imperative to study the effects of poverty and inequity on the well-being of affected individuals (Camfield, Woodhead, et al., 2009). 28 From a social justice perspective, information about living conditions was necessary to understand well-being. This study asked participants to describe stories that include the settings in which these experiences happened. Examine changes on social patterns of interactions (a transactional component): In addition to hearing the voices of the individuals and understanding their conditions, a transactional component was incorporated to highlight that the opinions of the participants regarding their well- being are influenced by their context, and that life conditions are experienced by the participants in a particular way. The transactional component highlighted the importance of critical thinking to evaluate and carefully examine the participants own voices in relation to their context, like Nussbaum illustrated in her example of women living in extreme poverty. In that study, the critical consciousness raised by the governmental program gave the women a new perspective on their own well-being. This was particularly important for a social justice perspective since it has been asserted that raising critical consciousness within an oppressed population promotes agency and resistance to unjust conditions (Dutta, 2018; Freire, 1970). In this study, the participants were invited to critically analyze their lives through questions where they can relate their own stories to larger social conditions. The researcher asked the participant to find connections between their stories and this a set of capabilities deemed relevant to life. The researcher engaged participants in a dialogue that can promote critical thinking in both researcher and participant, using a Freirean approach to critical consciousness development (Freire, 1970). The social justice perspective also recognized that different people will have different ways to experience their life conditions, and can interpret and evaluate the impact of those conditions on 29 their well-being in different ways (Diener et al., 2017). From a social justice perspective, this means that how life conditions are understood and experienced by the individuals is more important that the external assessment of what constitutes a good life, or not. This problematizes the idea of creating absolute measures of acceptable and unacceptable living conditions to guide public policies. On the contrary, it is expected that the participants can inform public policy makers on why some conditions are acceptable or unacceptable, based on their own experiences and analysis. In this study, data were collected through participants’ stories since, as the narrative approach has asserted, telling stories is the way people make sense and analyze their own experiences (Clandinin, Caine, Lessard, & Huber, 2016; Elliot, 2005; Webster & Mertova, 2007). This transactional approach was necessary to a social justice perspective, because while a SWB analysis by itself will be focused on just hearing the voices of the participants and nothing else, the transactional component invites participants to critically analyze their own experiences and voice; such an examination may potentially motivate them to change their own circumstances and define what they want to have changed. From a social justice perspective, well-being needs to be located in the transaction between individuals and their contexts, instead of being understood as something inherent to the individual. As White et al. (2012) argued “to identify wellbeing as something that inheres within the individual and is his or her own responsibility, could be used to justify the reduction of state services or to argue against affirmative action policies” (p.769). By centering the conversation around this transaction, the social justice approach to well-being can potentially inform a shift of focus of well-being from an individual responsibility to a societal one, which is fundamental for creating accountability within the public policy arena. CURRENT STUDY 30 This study explored well-being from a social justice perspective within a particularly silenced population, specifically, female adolescents from low income families living in Coyhaique, Chile. As mentioned before, the study framework included three components to studying well-being: hear the voices of the individuals, understand the context, and propose changes in the interaction between the individuals and their context. As a research process, this study provided a silenced population with an opportunity to engage in the conversation about their own well-being. The narrative methods used in this project also invited participants to critically think about and claim their own agency related to their well-being; as a result, some participants may become motivated to shift adverse life circumstances affecting their well-being. The results of this research will be used to raise awareness of the conditions that threaten or protect young women’s well-being and informed recommendations and potentially create accountability for public policy makers around providing the conditions needed to enhance well-being. Research Questions: 1. How do female adolescents from low income families living in Coyhaique define well-being in their own words? How do they describe their own well-being? Which life domains do they include when describing their well-being? 2. Which capabilities do the adolescents identify in their stories about their own well-being? 3. Which capability is the most salient across their life domains and how does it impact their well-being? 4. What conditions facilitate and constrain this capability for female adolescents living in Coyhaique and impact live the lives they want? METHODS 31 Qualitative methods were used to answer the research questions. The use of qualitative methodologies resonates with the belief that many community psychologists share regarding the importance of hearing directly from individuals about the realities of their lives (Orford, 2008). The nature of the research questions is descriptive and exploratory and demands the use of qualitative methods to examine the context. Qualitative inquiry seeks to understand a socially constructed reality, trying to answer questions about how social experiences are created and given meaning to, instead of establishing causality as quantitative methods intend to do (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000). Its aim is to understand how individuals see and experience the world, understanding their interpretations, thoughts and processes to give meaning to experiences (Given, 2008). Moreover, qualitative inquiry has been deemed as particularly appropriate to researching well-being, since it can overcome the common criticism of well-being research as individualistic and politically naïve, by providing complex, socially embedded accounts of well-being (Camfield, Crivello, et al., 2009). Overall, the use of qualitative inquiry is particularly useful to hear the voices of a silenced group, giving importance to their standpoints and opinions (Fattore et al., 2009). Epistemological Approach Qualitative methods can be used for researchers using different epistemological approaches. The methodology of this work was based on a critical approach to community psychology. Critical community psychology seeks to change the existing structures to ameliorate harsh conditions, challenging the status quo by analyzing and transforming oppressive institutions and unjust systems (Prilleltensky & Nelson, 1997). It is a perspective and a practice that works towards the emancipation of oppressed groups and social justice promotion (Nelson & Evans, 2014). As some authors have described it, the critical/transformative paradigm is centered on the study of a reality that is shaped by several social conditions -political, economic, cultural, historical- (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). These 32 conditions create a structure where the subject is positioned, giving the subject particular experiences, perspective and values that construct their subjectivity. However, this structure is not fixed and the conditions can be changed by the individuals themselves. For some authors, this happens through raising critical consciousness and promoting agency, and by other actors such as policymakers and academic researchers through transformative action to change the status quo (Gokani & Walsh, 2017). These theoretical approaches underpinned the study methodology. Critical approaches are devoted to making the familiar strange, by “critically reading, problematizing, questioning and re-illuminating what we have thus far considered in our own environments as natural, neutral, taken for granted” (Segall, 2001, p. 582). The research itself is seen as a process of development of critical consciousness in the researcher and the participants, by carefully observing the everyday context, looking for different forms of oppression (Freire, 1970). The results aimed to raise awareness of oppressive social conditions and propose ways to transform them. The narrative approach is coherent with this idea, by challenging the truth claims that have been pervasive in well-being studies. Instead, this research presented knowledge produced by an ignored and silenced population, as a way to overcome the epistemic injustices that have been present in the study of well-being. It highlighted the right of the participants to define and decide what should be studied and promoted in terms of well-being. Narrative Inquiry: This study used a narrative inquiry design since it aligned well with the three elements of the proposed social justice approach (Figure 1). Narrative inquiry focuses the attention on the individual lives and experiences as a primary source of data (Bloom, 2002). By hearing their voices and experiences, the research is better positioned to understand how the participants make 33 sense of their lives and context (Creswell, 2007). In addition, this type of inquiry gives value to temporality, sociality, and place in how people make sense of their experiences, understanding the studied phenomenon in its natural context (Clandinin & Huber, J., 2010). In narrative inquiry, attention is given to personal and social conditions simultaneously, and to the specific place where the stories happened (Clandinin & Huber, J., 2010). Two elements of narrative inquiry -sociality and place- were particularly suitable for studying well-being from the proposed social justice approach, since they highlighted life conditions of the participants, and the transactions between the participant and their context. Therefore, narrative inquiry provided a holistic approach to studying well-being (Hayes, Steinberg, & Tobin, 2011). The stories illustrated how people make sense of their context, conditions, and experience (Elliot, 2005; J. O. Woodiwiss, Smith, & Lockwood, 2017), and how they interacted with their context and evaluated those interactions (Patterson, 2016; J. O. Woodiwiss et al., 2017). Secondly, narrative inquiry aligned with the values and goals of this project, as narrative researchers are devoted to using the stories of the participants as a tool to generate advocacy and social critique (Bloom, 2002). The story format that emerges through narrative approaches provided a way to organize and communicate participants’ experiences and connect individual experiences to larger social and cultural events (M. Q. Patton, 2015). Many authors have highlighted the important function of narrative inquiry in social justice endeavors, such as challenging truth claims in academia that can represent colonizing views on well- being (Lewis & Adeney, 2014). This type of research promoted epistemic justice by producing locally specific knowledge that can potentially challenge dominant narratives (Lewis & Adeney, 2014; Toolis, 2017). In addition it can contribute to raising awareness within participants and the general 34 population regarding unjust social conditions, advancing the liberation of the oppressed and promoting social movements (Riessman, 2012). The narrative approach also challenges the idea that identity is fixed and instead views identity as a dynamic story that is produced and performed in the stories told about one’s own life (De Fina & Georgakopoulou, 2015; Parker, 2005): the narrative is "the performance of the self as a story of identity" (Parker, 2005). Thus, narrative inquiry was particularly useful for understanding individuals without essentializing their identities and instead understood them as dynamic and susceptible to be changed. Within the process of data collection, using a narrative approach, individuals had the opportunity to change and reshape their own self as they crafted their own story. Therefore, within this study the narrative approach served the dual purpose of understanding participants’ well-being and empowering the participants by restoring their agency as protagonists of their own lives (Parker, 2005). The model of narrative interview, as the chosen data collection method, challenged the traditional interview that positions the researcher as the dominator of the conversation (Gubrium, Holstein, Marvasti, & McKinney, 2012). On the contrary, to resonate with the social justice perspective, this research was done using a methodology that promoted the participants as active individuals. The narrative approach maintained the voices of the participants until the final product, highlighted them as the major source of knowledge, and used their stories to illustrate how they experience their life conditions. 35 Ethics Power dynamics between the participants and the researcher were also considered. For a genuine dialog to take place, a horizontal relationship between the researcher and the participants was necessary. However, usually researchers hold more power than participants, because they depict themselves as having more knowledge about the research topics. Power was balanced by recognizing that the participants are expert knowers of the topic and that the experiential knowledge was equally and sometimes more valuable than the academic perspective of the researcher. Both the scientific and the popular knowledge held by the participants were articulated in this study, so they can become agents of social change and protagonists of their own advancement as a group (Fals Borda, 1987). To maintain transparency, participants were able to see the interview protocol during the whole interview. To capture the voices of the participants, as the protocol was filled, the participants were able to confirm or refute the accuracy of the information that was being registered in this protocol. To depict the participants in the way they want to be depicted, participants were the ones that defined the meaning of the stories. No material incentives were offered to the participants, since that kind of practice is not part of Chilean culture of research. Furthermore, incentives can be interpreted as coercive by the participants. Written assent and consent forms (Appendix 4) were given respectively to the participants and their parents. These forms made explicit the objective of the research, the possibility of withdrawal at any point of the study, the confidentiality of the data, the reason why they were selected for this study, the form the final report of the data will be made, and the expected uses of the report. The forms were discussed in person with the participants, to be sure that they were fully informed on what the research involves. 36 The critical analysis that was expected to happen during the interview represented a possible iatrogenic effect that was part of the consent and assent forms, and was clearly communicated to the participants to avoid any kinds of harm during the research. The research was done using an ethic of care: to hear attentively, with empathy, and focused on not provoking any harm. During any of the stages of the interview, when participants showed signal of distress, the procedures stopped and the possibility of withdrawal, suspension, or pause was offered, proportionating an adequate time for its considerations. A list of resources was prepared in advance in case any of the participants might needed to be referred to a particular service, although this did not happen. In addition, the narratives avoided the reinforcement of stereotyping that results when only negative aspects of a narrative are highlighted. As Dutta (2018) noted, many researchers have privileged voices from the margins, but only to the extent that they convey pain and suffering (Dutta, 2018, p. 274); such a practice is considered colonizing since it reproduces the relations of structural domination and dehumanizes the study participants. A responsibility was taken in this study of sharing stories that are complex and true, avoiding stripping participants of their dignity and voices (Fairey, 2017). The narratives depicted complexity so the “the danger of a single story” could be prevented (Adichie, 2009). To reflect on positionality and power issues, all the procedures were documented in a field journal. Understanding that the narrative inquiry is an exercise of dialogue, and there are many ethical issues on how to talk about the stories of others, notes regarding the overall research and the specific relationships built with each participant were taken, aiming to maintain respect, solidarity and ethics of care during the whole process. 37 Research Context The research occurred in Coyhaique. Coyhaique is the capital of Aysén Region, the central part of Chilean Patagonia. Coyhaique has a little less than 60.000 habitants, which is 56% of Aysén’s population. Based on income, 6.5% of the regional population is living in poverty and 1.6% in extreme poverty (GORE, 2017), which is below the national average. Approximately 7% of the overall population is between the ages of 15 to 19, 8,7% of these adolescents are living in poverty in Aysén (GORE 2017). Seventy-two percent of Aysén’s adolescents receive secondary education, and have the second lowest schooling rate in Chile (11.9 years average). On the other hand, they have the lowest rate of unemployment in the country: only 7% for individuals between 15 to 24 years old (GORE 2017). Although there are many job opportunities, they do not require finishing school, being in general of poor quality. According to the Public Health Department (SEREMI Salud, 2013), there is a shared feeling of hopelessness and lack of opportunities among Aysén’s adolescents, which is translated into unfavorable mental health rates -i.e. depression, suicidality, and substance abuse- which are particularly high comparing to the national average. Additionally, the same study notes that while teen pregnancy is lower than the national average, it is also planned. In other words, female adolescents decide to start having children at an early age in Aysén. The income gap between men and women in Aysén is -25.4%, although still very high it is lower than the national average (-31.7) (INE, 2017). Aysén also has the highest rate of femicides of the country, being 5 times higher than the second highest region (INE, 2017), and an overall normalization of violence and violent behavior among the adolescent and youth population (PDI, 38 2017). As a result, there are many behaviors that adolescents do not deem as violent, which are normalized and therefore not reported to the police. Sample and Sampling Strategy The participants in this study were adolescents living in Patagonia, aged 15 to 19 years old - according to the age range for being considered an adolescent under the Chilean government definitions (Subsecretaria de Salud Pública, 2018)-, who identified themselves as female, and as part of low-income families. The participants were selected using a purposeful sampling strategy, since its power lies in the possibility of selecting cases that are rich in information that is relevant to the research questions and can be studied in depth (Coyne, 1997). The sampling procedure involved theory based sampling using intersectionality theory to inform the participant selection in order to look for intragroup distinctions among participants (Creswell, 2007), recognizing that the intersection of several oppressed identities can create specific spaces of exclusion, making them currently invisible for public policies. The explored intersection in this case was related to gender, age, class, and nationality: women, adolescents, low income, from a Latin American city (Coyhaique). Participant recruitment was done by using the following rationale: 1. Teachers and directors from six public schools of Coyhaique were informed via email about the research, explaining the goals of the interviews and attaching the consent and assent forms so they could find further information and the description of the selection criteria. They were asked to talk about the research with their students in their classrooms and give further details to interested students, or offer to be contacted by the researcher by their preferred means. The Chilean Ministry of Education has described that in 39 Coyhaique, 71% of the high education students is considered “in priority”, meaning, pertaining to the 30% with lower income in the country3. This made the recruitment of participants that met the requirements very effective (7 of 8 participants came from this source of recruitment). 2. Facilitators of free workshops taught to adolescents from the region outside schools were also informed in the same way as point 1 above. This was done looking for participants that would be willing to participate if the study was not promoted by their schools (1 participant came from this source of recruitment -Jesse-). 3. Teachers and staff from universities were asked to talk about the study with their first- year students that met the selection criteria. In this case, communication of the research was through emails and then phone to clarify the selection criteria avoiding them to invite participants that would not met the conditions (no participant came from this source of recruitment). The recruitment started a month before the researcher arrived in Coyhaique. Within that month, the study was explained and initial contacts with participants that expressed their interest was made via Whatsapp. Whatsapp is a very popular way to communicate in Chile, and also gave the participants the possibility of not answering or changing their mind regarding their participation in a safe way. When adolescents wanted to know more about the study, they were contacted via phone to further explain and clarify questions. From 12 potential participants who expressed interest 3 This information is based on the Chilean Vulnerability Index, available as a resource for researchers and citizens on the government site http://junaebabierta.junaeb.cl/mapas/indice-de-vulnerabilidad-por-comuna/ 40 and had initial contact with the researcher, 8 interviews were actually conducted. Two of the four potential participants who did not participate at the end did not meet the age criteria, and two did not show up for their interview. Authors have recommended not to use saturation as a criterion for determining sample size in narrative studies (Dworkin, 2012). While some qualitative methodologists have recommended sample sizes of 2 – 3 participants for narrative studies (Creswell, 2007), those numbers are based on rules of thumbs that do not follow an explicit rationale (Sim, Saunders, Waterfield, & Kingstone, 2018). For this research, the sample size was decided using the information of the pilot study. The pilot was conducted with four participants with the same inclusion criteria that this study used. In the pilot study, it was possible to recognize a high level of homogeneity in the participants experiences with a small sample. Homogeneity of the sample allows small sample sizes (Sim et al., 2018). According to the literature, qualitative studies with small samples sizes are about 5 interviews (Sim et al., 2018). The proposed sample size was larger than that (6 to 10) to avoid the risk of not having enough information to answer the research question. The final number of interviews was eight. Interview Methodology The interview used a narrative approach and thus used story-based questions to understand how well-being is experienced by the participants. Following Holstein & Gubrium (2011), the interview was faced as an interpretative practice of co-construction of meaning, a conversation where the interviewee was recognized as fully human. This means that the answers (and the silences) were interpreted as manifestation of conscious or unconscious decisions based on numerous factors, including power dynamics, feelings, or setting characteristics. For these reasons, the interview 41 protocol was flexible and dynamic, with the goal of having an interview that looks like an organic conversation that was responsive to participants remarks and open to the participants’ choices to not respond. The interview was therefore a conjoint production of knowledge between participants and researchers (Gubrium et al., 2012). One-on-one interviews in Spanish were conducted with the participants in person in July 2019. The protocol shows a list of topics and examples of story-based questions, illustrating the kind of questions included to elicit extensive and detailed personal stories from the respondent (Olson, Cooper, Viola, & Clark, 2016). With the participants' authorization, these interviews were audio recorded, and transcribed verbatim, using a pseudonym decided by the participants. As mentioned before, in December, 2018, a pilot of the data collection methods was done. Four female adolescents from low income families living in Coyhaique were interviewed with great success. Lessons from the pilot interviews were considered in the development of the final version of the interview protocol. Two main lessons learned were: 1) During the pilot, participants used different objects and images to talk about their stories; for the full study an instant camera was provided to capture these images and use them during the interview process, and 2) The pilot interview asked participants about specific life domains based on the BSMSLSS (i.e. family, school, friends and work) but the pilot participants did not use the proposed life domains. No initial life domains were proposed to the participants in this study. Interview Process and Protocol An interview protocol was designed that answer the research questions in ways that elicited the participants stories of well-being. (See Appendix A for the proposed interview protocol). During the sessions, both participants and the researcher recorded and mapped key data points onto color 42 coded material pasted onto flip chart paper, which provided a visual documentation of the emerging stories. (See Appendix B for example of the visual structure of the flipchart and color code notes). This is used to allow participants to see their data as it is collected, and make immediate sense of how it is going to be coded and used for analysis. This section explains the followed process step by step. 1. Orientation to the interview. The researcher sent a copy of the consent form to the participants’ parents. Individual interview sessions were conducted in two well-known public spaces (cafeterias) in Coyhaique, selected because they are neutral places, with enough privacy to talk but public enough for the participants to feel safe. During the sessions, assents and consents forms were reviewed with each one of the participants. Participants were offered to have a parent or any other adult present during the interview, although all of them decided to stay by themselves. Participants also were encouraged to order food and coffee, creating a relaxed environment before start. 2. The researcher explained the nature of the conversation and highlighted their right to skip questions or change answers. To protect confidentiality, each participant selected a pseudonym. Interview materials were placed in front of the participant and their purpose explained (The flip chart (see Appendix B); colored post-its and pens to make notes of stories, instant camera to add images). 3. Initial questions on well-being definitions were explained to the participants: a. Question 1: When you hear the word well-being, what comes to your mind? How would you define it? Definitions were written by the participants in a space provided for this question on the flip chart. 43 b. Question 2: How would you define your own well-being? It is the same or is it different from what you said before? Definition were written on the provided space. 4. Capturing life domains and stories: The researcher explained why it is relevant to talk about the different spaces in their lives, and how those are not the same for everyone, then asked: a. Question 3: For example, tell me how a regular week looks for you? While the participant was talking or after she ended, the researcher used the example to name one life domain, and asked the participant if she agreed. This started the conversation. Sometimes life domains were identified and named by the participant at the beginning and then they told stories about them; others gave several stories about one of the life domains, and then moved forward naming and talking about a second one. The life domain names were written on the flip chart space for life domains. i. The researcher asked for stories that described what contributes to or impedes their well-being in each life domain. The researcher asked the participant to define a post-it color for stories that contribute to well-being and stories that impede it. b. Question 4: Can you tell me a good story about your [life domain]? Some moment you enjoyed or you remember as a happy moment? We will take notes of this story on the [color for well-being contributions] post-it. Notes on the story were written in the corresponding post-it and placed by the participant in the life domain she identified. This process continued with positive and negative stories, until all life domains were discussed, or until the participant deemed it was enough. If instead of writing in a post-it the participant wanted to add an image to tell a story, she was able to use the camera and the images were color-coded in the same way as the post-its. This only happened two times (Tessa and Princess Kim) although all of them showed pictures during the interview. 44 5. Reviewing stories. After all stories were collected, the researcher asked if the participant was comfortable with her data. For example: if there are life domains that have only negative stories, the research asked if the participant could think of any good stories in that life domain. 6. Identifying relevant Capabilities: a. The researcher showed the list of capabilities of the Global Youth Well-being Index (Sharma et al., 2017) -Gender Equality, Economic Opportunity, Education, Health, Safety and security, Citizen Participation, Information- with a little explanation so the participant could have an idea of what these capabilities meant (Appendix C) b. Question 5: If you need to think about the stories in this life domain, do you think it has something to do with any of these things? If yes, how? Probing was done to clarify the connections they identified between the stories and the capability. Once the participant identified one story related to one capability, the researcher asked Question 6 - Are there any other examples of this capability across any of the other life domains? - to identify more stories in the same capability, or to identify stories in other capabilities. 7. Reviewing Well-being definitions: After the connections between stories and capabilities were explored, the researcher asked Question 7: Looking at all this information you just gave me, how do you feel about your previous definition of the word well-being? 8. Critical Thinking Check: Question 8: How was this process for you? How did you feel during this interview? The following table (6) shows the rationale for the interview questions 45 Table 6: Research questions and related questions examples Research Question Examples of interview questions and topics. Objective How do female adolescents from low income families living in Coyhaique define well- being in their own words? How do they describe their own well-being? Which life domains do they include when describing their well- being? [At the beginning and end of the interview] Q1 Beginning: How do you define the word well-being? Q2 How do you define well-being for yourself? Q7. Looking at all the replies you just gave me, how do you feel about your previous definition of the word well-being. Q3. Can you describe how a regular week looks like for you? What do you do? [Probing questions]: For each life domain mentioned by participant, examples of probing: Family: When you say “family”, who are they? What do you do when your family gets together? How do you feel about your family? Are you close/have good relationship? Why/why not? How would you like it to be? What don’t you like about it? Friends: When you say “friends”, who do you think of? Tell me an example of what you do with your friends. How do you feel about your social life? Do you have good friends? Why/why not? School: What school are you attending to? Do you like your school? What do you like about it? What do you like about going to school? What don’t like about it? Have a definition in their own words. Naming life domains during the interview (Code 1). Understand the life domain 46 Table 6 (cont’d) What conditions facilitate and constrain this capability for female adolescents living in Coyhaique and impact live the lives they want? Which capabilities do the adolescents identify in their stories about their own well-being? Which capability is the most salient across their life domains and how does it impact their well-being? FOR EACH LIFE DOMAIN: Q4. Can you tell me a good story about your [life domain]? Some moment you enjoyed or you remember as a happy moment? - Why do you think you felt that way? These things happen to you often? If no, why? Can you tell me a story about your [life domain] that made you feel bad? Some moment you feel very sad, angry or disappointed? - Why do you think you felt that way? This happen often? If yes, why? If participant only have negative or positive stories in a life domain: I’ve notice that you only said negative/positive stories on this domain, is anything else you’ll like to add? For each life domain: Q5. If you need to think about the stories in this life domain, do you think it has something to do with any of these things? If yes, how? [show capabilities from Global Youth Index list with brief graphic explanation: Gender Equality; Health; Housing: Safety and Security; Economic Opportunity: Education: Citizen Participation] Q6. Are there any other stories about these things I just showed you? Collect data on positive and negative lived experiences (Code 2) Invitation to participants to critically analyze their lives. Determine relevant capabilities (Code 3) Q9. How was this process for you? How did you feel during this interview? Invitation to participants to critically analyze their lives. 47 Trustworthiness In qualitative methods, trustworthiness is the main criterion to ensure good quality of interpretation, and it means that the research needs to persuade its audience that the findings are believable and worth paying attention to (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Following trustworthiness guidelines proposed by Lincoln & Guba (1985), this study included a number of steps to ensure credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability: Credibility: Member checking processes with the participants are largely recommended to make the findings and interpretation credible (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). However, time constraints and other limitations of this study did not make this process feasible. Because this limitation was expected, the data collection included several moments to check assumptions and interpretations of the findings made by the researcher. For example, this is a fragment of one of the interviews: Tessa: No one treated me on the hospital. I went there three times, and they said it was a gastroenteritis. E: Why didn’t they treat you? T: I didn’t have priority. I was there for 2 hours. I felt terrible, I needed to go to the bathroom too often. We decided to leave, and my mom, because she works at the hospital, was able to see a doctor and they made me a scan. Then they realized I wasn’t ok and I was hospitalized that day. I: I would say this is a negative story, but is your choice to keep it within the things that contribute to your well-being. But, considering none treated you and everything…? T: They treated me, but they thought it was gastroenteritis. E: You mean, on top of everything they gave you the wrong diagnosis…? 48 T: Yes E: Well, I still see this as a negative experience, but the decision is yours T: I don’t see it as negative. I feel it was a way for me to realize that I wasn’t ok. In addition to this, one of the interviews was translated to English and handed to a qualitative analysis group for peer-debriefing. The analysis group worked together for a whole semester as a part of a qualitative analysis class, maintaining weekly conversations on findings and coding strategies. This helped the researcher gather new perspectives on the analysis. The translated transcript was also reviewed by Dr. Pennie Foster-Fishman to deepen the analysis. Dependability: the objective of dependability is to entrust that the researcher give the findings accuracy and transparency to the process (Given, 2008). To do that, transcripts, interpretations and methods were discussed in their original language with Dr. Jaime Alfaro on a regular basis. Dr. Alfaro is a Chilean community psychologist, expert on adolescents and children well-being, faculty of Universidad del Desarrollo, and director of CEBCS (Center of Studies on Well-being and Social Coexistence). Bi-weekly meetings were conducted with Dr. Alfaro from before data collection started. In each one of these meetings, notes and impressions regarding the data and process were shared, and additional literature on the topic was reviewed and connected to the findings. These conversations were tracked in a researcher journal. Journal entry, July 23th, 2019 I asked Jaime about sources of information regarding safety. I have no idea who can talk to me about safety the way that the participants are thinking about it in the interviews. I had prepared a list of possible sources (Police Department, Municipality, Violence research, Ministry of Woman). He asked me why I wanted to 49 talk about those things, if that has nothing to do with any of my research questions. I realized I wanted to have “objective” information to contrast with what they have been saying. In addition, regular meetings with Dr. Pennie Foster-Fishman were maintained. In those meetings, reports on progress were made, discussions of specific problems and doubts, and methodological issues were solved with high scrutiny. Dr. Foster Fishman also reviewed a translated interview (Antonia). Translated fragments of coded interviews (well-being definitions) were also given to her to discuss and refine codes. Those meetings were tracked in the research journal, to make decisions on analytical strategies: Journal entry (August 2019) Pennie made the following observation today: It seems like well-being never happens in isolation; it happens in interaction. Others impact our own senses of what constitutes well-being, so, what should be understood as well-being? The task here is to integrate those opinions and decide what each one would care the most. – I should work this idea using versus coding. Transferability: Results were written with the intention of providing enough description and context to offer the experience of “being there in the field,” ensuring transferability of the findings (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). This is called “thick description” of the findings (Geertz, 1973), based on methods from anthropology to make the information rich enough so other researchers can gain enough clarity of the particular context that sustained them (Creswell, 2014). Confirmability: To avoid and control research bias, all the data were strictly organized using participants’ criteria. This was done to avoid building a narrative that did not pertain to the participants’ rationale. In addition, the researcher maintained a journal to encourage reflectivity 50 and check for bias on interpretation, writing and modifying entries during the whole process. The following journal entry shows a comment that was wrongly attributed to a participant: Journal entry, September 25th, 2019 This is the pattern: Gema has friends, then she is bullied, someone else maybe steals something from her, and then she leaves, she escapes, doesn’t confront. This is connected with how her mom is. Her mom works too much and that’s why she didn’t protect Gema when she was in need, so she doesn’t feel she has that safety net. [*NOTE TO MYSELF: Go check the transcripts, Gema’s mom doesn’t work at all! Where is this coming from? She never talked about being abandoned by her mom, her issues with her mom were different] Data Preparation and Organization The interview recordings were transcribed verbatim and the transcription imported into Nvivo. Data from the flipcharts used in the interviews were scanned, reorganized into tables and the images and tables were imported to Nvivo. Well-being definitions from all participants and one full interview were translated to English. Individual flipcharts can be found in Appendix E. An initial coding was done with all data to reflect the categories and organizing frames used by the participants during the interviews. This data organization step helped to ensure that the way the participants’ wanted their stories to be understood was the ground for subsequent analytical steps. The following categories were used: 1. Life domains. All of the stories were organized into the life domains according to how the participants grouped them. 2. Capabilities: All of the stories were linked to the capabilities identified by the participants. 51 3. Contribute/impede: Each story was coded as contributing to or impeding well-being, as identified by the participants. Understanding Well-being definitions: Research question 1. Explicit well-being definitions written by the participants during the interview were translated into English and recorded into a table which is included in the results section. To identify implicit definitions of well-being, each interview was reviewed and places where participants discussed well-being either directly or indirectly in their stories and comments were noted. Those implicit definitions were compiled and coded using a simultaneous coding strategy that analyzed the data using descriptive coding and versus coding (Saldaña., 2013). A first cycle of coding was done by creating codes that simply described what the participants are talking about. This helped to structure data organization and to produce an answer to this research question. For example, in the following quote, Princess Kim talked about what constitutes well-being for her, illustrating it through a story. This was coded as “being able to love oneself:” PK: It’s funny, when I had to perform in this play, I’m so shy, to perform in front of everyone… I had goosebumps! But it made me feel so good, it was so fun trying (…) So, my role (in the play) was to say like “you can do it, you will reach your goal!” and my classmate had to say “no, you can’t, you will never achieve anything.” So, there is some sort of fight between the two of us, but the whole idea was that the person needs to accept both parts, the good and the bad, to achieve balance in life. That was the whole point of the play. E: To achieve balance PK: And to love oneself!! With defects and everything 52 While reviewing the interviews, it was possible to notice that participants’ opinions on well- being were not always unitary, sometimes describing oppositional ideas on what constitute a good life. These oppositions were reviewed using a versus coding technique. Versus coding was useful to identify conflicts or oppositional ideas in the same narrative, recognizing different struggles for power, and proposing that people can have disagreements within their own narratives (Saldaña., 2013). Versus coding was been a useful tool to maintain polyphony of the data, showing differences on dominant versus subjectively constructed narratives on well-being, and also allowing different voices to emerge within and between interviews. Polyphony is a concept taken from Bakhtin (1984) that establishes the existence of several voices within the same discourse, allowing the emergence of narratives that can be in conflict with each other. In the following fragment, the versus code used was “personal well-being versus family well-being” to understand the tension between being at home with the family, that is a source of both well-being and discomfort, and being alone, which is also giving her well-being and discomfort: A: (…) Sometimes being so positive or getting away from problems, I sometimes feel it's bad, but I don't know why I: Like avoidance A: Yes, sometimes I feel it is good, but sometimes maybe not so much. I feel that if there are problems at home and I walk away, it is as if I was not with my family. That is also uncomfortable for me. But I don’t what to feel bad, so it's also a selfish attitude, but I don't know. Understanding Life domains: Research Question 1 All the stories for each life domain were compiled and coded, using a descriptive coding as mentioned before. Then the descriptive codes were grouped into sub-codes. Those sub-codes were 53 used to understand the specific subcategories that can be seen within each life domain (Saldaña., 2013). For example, many participants talked about their relationships with their mothers within the family life domain. All the stories about mothers were grouped together and described as a subcategory of the Family life domain. The way the codes and subcategories were organized is illustrated in the following image. Blue boxes are for the life domains that participants used; yellow ones are the codes produced by the researcher. 54 Figure 2: Categories of life domains School Life domains Family Neighbors and parnters Extracurricul ar activities instituional context academic achievement teachers peers Nuclear Expanded Boyfriends/g irlfriends Friends from neighborhood Teachers and peers Internet Communities At home Mother Father Siblings Outside home Grandparent s Wellbeing definitions were reviewed with Dr. Alfaro and Dr. Foster-Fishman, looking to gather a second opinion on the accuracy of the analyses to maintain the meaning the participants gave to the information, and hearing their interpretations. Edits were made based on their feedback. Identifying Capabilities: Research Question 2 To answer research question 2 (Which capabilities do the adolescents identify in their stories about their own well-being?) participants were asked to review 7 different capabilities (from the Global Well-Being Index), and then relate those capabilities to the stories they already told. Appendix C shows how each of these capabilities were presented to the interviewees. 55 In addition to showing the capabilities, the researcher also offered a brief explanation of each one, and answered participants’ questions. The capabilities were described to the participants in terms of its presence or absence. For example, when there is gender equality, “men and women have the same rights,” but when there is no gender equality there is “Unequal or unjust treatment. Gender-based violence. Machismo.” Each time the participants related a capability within a story, they were asked to elaborate more, explaining their decisions and rationale. Some participants reframed the capabilities to include aspects that were not on the given definitions or changing the meaning of the capabilities to talk about things they care about. For example, Kathy commented during her interview: K: Participation… I don’t know what that means E: To vote, or to have spaces to tell your opinions if decisions need to be made. If those things matter for you and your well-being, then we will need to add it to your stories. Or you can tell me more about why you think those things matter… K: The government has nothing to do with my life E: But remember you have a government scholarship… K: Yes, partially… but I think this could be more linked to school. That’s partially related to the government too. They are always caring about us to participate on the decisions they make. Each class participated in those decisions E: And you feel that`s important? 56 K: Yes. For example, for the teachers’ strike. The teachers ask us for permission, they were on strike for two days and then they call us, and the students’ government participate in the decision of maintain the strike or not. They ask if we were agreeing. (…) and we agreed. As noted in the quote above, Kathy provided her own rationale to answer the question and explain how she would interpret the capability. These reinterpretations were important to study the way they experience the capabilities on their own terms and using their own language, as stated in the purpose of this study. A data table was created for each participant that summarized how participants related their life domain stories and capabilities. The following table (Table 7) shows an example of how these tables were constructed (Table 7 is based on Gema’s answers): Table 7: Capabilities within life domains according to Gema Life Domain/ Capabilities Family School Relationships Extracurricular Communication Economic opportunity Home reparations and money issues. Education Gender Equality School failure. Help other friends. 57 Art-based internet communities Need money to have hobbies. Table 7 (cont’d) Health Participation Safety Absence from school. Poor health. The tables across participants were then merged into one cross-case table that summarized all the stories within each capability. That table (Table 9) is presented in the results section for this research question. Identifying Salient Capability: Research Question 3. To answer research question 3 (Which capability is the most salient across their life domains and how does it impact their well-being?) the capabilities participants related to each well-being story were identified. Across all participants, the capability most identified in their stories was Safety. The stories participants linked to this capability were reviewed to recognize the way safety impacted their well-being, organizing the stories of safety as contributing or impeding well-being for participants. Understanding Factors Facilitating and Constraining Safety: Research Question 4 Only the stories told by the participants within the selected capability were used as data to answer research question 4: What conditions facilitate and constrain this capability 58 for female adolescents living in Coyhaique and impact live the lives they want? The stories were re-coded using descriptive coding (what are they saying about the conditions in these stories?). For example, the following fragment was coded as “Discrimination at judicial and societal level” I: To be part of the LGBTI community is a political matter. Chilean justice is behind, is late on issues about inclusion and justice for homosexual, bisexual and trans people. Consequently, there is a society that is impacted, where people are not accepted, they’re discriminated because their orientation. A second order coding of these descriptive codes was conducted, looking for more broader themes and to understand the relationships among the coded data. Three major themes were proposed to organize the coded data (normalized violence, institutional abandonment, inequality on access to justice). 59 RESULTS Part I: Well-being definitions. The objective of Research Question 1 (How do female adolescents from low income families living in Coyhaique define well-being in their own words? How do they describe their own well-being? Which life domains do they include when describing their well-being?) was to understand the perspectives of well-being within a group of adolescent girls from Patagonia. It needs to be remembered that there are no studies devoted to understanding how female adolescents from Latin American countries conceptualize their well-being. Therefore, reporting what participants of this study said sheds light on how well-being can be experienced and conceptualized differently by different groups of society. In this question, explicit definitions on well- being are reported, and then, their experiences are described to further illustrate their ideas on what constitute a good life, contributing therefore to the current incomplete literature on adolescent well- being. The participants explicitly defined well-being using three main approaches: 1) well-being is understood as having what they need (e.g., - having good health, spaces to develop their ideas, economic conditions-); 2) well-being involves a positive emotional state and feeling certain emotions such as happiness, comfortability, or calm; and 3) well-being involves relating in certain ways with the environment and social context, through positive social relationships, not having conflicts, and being at peace with others. Table 8 shows the explicit definitions they gave, and how those definitions can be organized into three elements of well-being: having, feeling, and/or relating. 60 Table 8: Well-being Explicit Definitions Participant Definition To have To feel To relate Tessa a When psychologically and fulfilled. person is happy Princess Kim To feel comfortable with myself, with the people around me and the environment. Happiness, Fulfillment Comfortability Comfortable social relationships Kathy Jesse James Ivone Gema Being balanced, being in peace. Comfortability, happiness, peace, love. freedom, Peace, feeling of balance. Comfortability, Happiness, Freedom, Peace, Love Physically: Mentally: calm health; Health Calm Well-being for me is to be able to recognize that I am calm with myself and with my social situation, and economic situation, and all the people that are around me. To have spaces share and develop my ideas. to Calm Economic situation Spaces to develop and share ideas. social and Calmed situation social relationships to Health, peace of mind, no be toxicity, comfortable, good relationships. Gender equity. Health, Gender equity Peace, Comfortability Good and non- toxic relationships 61 Table 8 (cont’d) Antonia Being good with myself. To feel comfortable with what I am. Well-being for me is to feel happiness, to some have angry moments (no excessive) shame, laugh, everything that make us to be ourselves, our own way of being and being able to regulate everything that is wrong. Comfortability, Happiness, Self- acceptance of wide range of feelings. Ability to regulate negative environmental conditions. The table illustrates that the participants have a complex and nuanced idea of what well- being means, integrating life conditions, subjective feelings, and relational aspects into their definitions. Importantly, they describe well-being as resulting from the way they interact with their environment and the interpretations they give those interactions; these interactions reflect the way participants experienced their context and highlight the social justice orientation to well-being proposed in this document The following analysis is centered on the relational aspects of well-being in each life domain, trying to understand what kinds of relationships contribute to their well-being and why, with particular attention on the stories they share to describe these relationships. As it will be described on the following section, it is very clear that well-being is implicitly defined as a positive state of affairs between the participants and their different life domains. What is described as positive is being able to spend time with people they care about, feeling supported and accepted for who they are, having friends and people they can trust. While they talked about well-being, they also talked about illbeing and how conflict, being ignored, excluded, isolated, 62 treated without respect, being bullied and treated unfairly are key elements that are detrimental for their well-being. Part II: Life Domains Participants were asked to mention different spaces of their lives, or life domains, and then talk about different stories that happened within these life domains. Participants talked about life domains as different spaces of relationships. The majority of the stories happened within family and school, suggesting these life domains are the most relevant for this specific group of participants. The following table shows all the life domains mentioned by the participants, using participants’ words. The columns on this table show the name of the participant and how she named each life domain. The rows of the table reference the way the life domains were grouped by the researcher to allow for integration across the participants stories. Table 9: Life domains mentioned by each participant Life domain Antonia Gema Ivone James Jesse Kathy Princess Kim Tessa School/ Academic School School Acade mic School Educati on 35 and B24 School School Home/Famil y Home Home Family Family Family (emotion al support) Family Family 4 In Chile, schools have names, and a number and letter assigned. Here, the participant named two different schools. 63 Table 9 (cont’d) Extracurricul ar Orchestr a Hobbie s Photo class and orchest ra Friendships and partners Relatio nships Social Social Life Karate and Music Son and partner Art Music Relations hips (emotion al support) Others Go out Rad Fem Work Music Fan As can be seen in the table above, “Others” is a heterogenic space where specific individual life domains are described. For this thesis purposes, these “other” life domains are omitted from the analysis, considering the amount and depth of information in this category was insufficient to recognize collective narratives on well-being. 1. School School is a very relevant life domain for the participants, being the setting for the majority of the stories they talked about. Participants described four different subdomains related to their well-being experiences at school: academic achievement and future life, institutional context, peer relationships, and teacher relationships. Across all of the subdomains, participants focused on the relationships within schools, evaluating them as positive when they provided them with calm, comfort and support, or negative when they created conflicts. Key to having a positive relational 64 experience was being respectfully treated by the educational institution, peers and teachers; when this respect was absent, participants described the relationships as a strong source of ill-being. In addition, feeling under pressure was an important source of illbeing, while having support to deal with the pressure was critical for their well-being. Table 10 summarizes what contributes and impedes well-being within school. Each of these sub-domains are described after the table. Table 10: Summary of School Life Domain School key topics: Contributes to Well-being Impede Well-being Academic Achievement and future life Support to deal with pressure and uncertainty about their future Pressure from parents and teachers to achieve Institutional context Supportive schools as comfortable and peaceful environments. Strict schools as not giving them respectful treatment Peer relationships Friendships and being accepted by peers Classroom conflicts and fights. Teachers Supportive teachers Violent, not respectful and machista teachers. . 1.1. Academic achievement and future life Academic achievement and future life are common themes discussed within school settings. Participants recognized that, within their schools, there is constant pressure for academic success and to make the right decisions for their future life, to achieve future well-being. Many participants identified this pressure as a source of illbeing, and the experiences described by the participants 65 within this theme are mostly negative. This is due to high expectations from teachers and family members. For some of the participants, the pressure for being an accomplished student is sometimes a product of having good grades in the past, because that history creates higher expectations on current school performance. These youth described how failure in the current school environment would disappoint families and teachers. Consistent with this, participants described how teachers and parents are constantly reminding them of the importance of having adequate performance and making smart decisions to ensure their future well-being: these messages make them fearful of making mistakes or regretting their decisions. For example, Princess Kim comments: PK: I think because I’m in my last year of school, that I have so much stress. And this is not only me, all my classmates are the same. It is hard, because we don’t know what are we going to do, and all the time it’s like “choose your profession, study” all of that, it is very stressful (…) all those talks about “have you decided what are you going to study? Are you leaving the region?” they were bad for all of us (…) it is a lot of pressure. I tried not to talk about this because it is very uncomfortable (*she cries). A similar form of pressure is based on the fear of the consequences of having low grades. Specifically, some participants talked about how maintaining good grades was motivated by the desire to avoiding problems at home and to not disappoint their families. Antonia talks about this noting how this is compounded by the problem of people having high expectations of her. A: I always tried to not lower my grades. I had good grades since I was very little. I tried not to lower them because I don’t want to have problems at home, those kinds of things, so I wouldn’t get much attention (…) and everyone has this expectation of me never lowering my grades. And that sucks because anytime I make a 66 mistake, and my grades drop, (…) I don’t like when people have too high expectations of me, because I know I can commit errors, I can disappoint, but it is like “no, Antonia wouldn’t.” And I am not perfect. For some participants, the constant pressure to succeed is interpreted as a demonstration of teachers’ and parents’ lack of confidence in their skills or abilities to make decisions that are beneficial for their future. Regarding this, Ivonne talked in several sections of her interview that she does not need to have someone telling her what she needs to be doing, implying that these remarks are made by people who considered her irresponsible. I: On academic things, I will always have the same performance, because I know what I need to do. So, I didn’t need someone to tell me “do this,” “have a better grade here,” that pressure was unnecessary. In terms of well-being, participants noted that being accepted by their families and teachers, with failures and imperfections on their academic achievement, is critical for them to deal effectively with the academic pressures. Moreover, parents and teachers who tell participants it is okay to have a bad grade sometimes, or that it does not mean that their future is ruined by a bad grade, are a major source of emotional comfort. Regarding this, Antonia also commented: A: I wanted to hear that everyone commits errors, that I can have a bad grade sometimes, and no one is going to crucify me for that. I would like to hear my mom telling me “no problem, you will have a better grade next time” something like that., 1.2. Institutional context Institutional context is defined here as the different norms and strategies that are used by the schools to teach their students within and outside the classroom. These norms and strategies define relational patterns between students and principals, assistant principals, and teachers. For example, 67 Chilean schools are usually very strict around personal presentation and dress code. The majority of the schools use uniforms and have dress codes, and high-school students are usually confronted when breaking those rules. Overall, participants described this context as unsupportive, and criticized schools for treating them unfairly or disrespectfully. Regarding this type of environment, Ivonne commented: I: (…): I had my hair colored green. I was at the school, walking in one of the hallways, and the assistant principal saw me and pulled my hair. E: He pulled your hair! I: Yes, that happened once. Another time, a teacher sent me to the assistant principal’s office, to call my dad regarding my colored hair. The assistant principal demanded me to cut my hair right there, or take off the colored hair. He said I wouldn’t be able to go inside the building again with colored hair. E: But… why?! I: That school is all about the rules. They just keep bothering students “cut your hair,” “take off that sweater,” “don’t use makeup,” “no nail polish.” (…) I always have good grades. My haircut has nothing to do with that. (…) it is just ridiculous being so stressed by something like that. I was taken out from the classroom. They also suspended me once because of my ear stretching. On the contrary, other schools that are more focused on students’ being able to express themselves or develop their own talents, were recognized by participants as environments that promote well-being. After the episodes in which Ivonne was harassed by her look, she asked her parents to switch to a school that is well-known for having a less strict, and more supportive 68 environment. She highlights how the new school can give her the environment she needs to study and learn: I: Regarding the environment outside classes, I think my (new) school is really comfortable. It is a familial environment, not a strict one as the other one was. And above everything, all those insignificant things like how my hair looks, or if I’m using all the uniform, or if I have a piercing, don’t matter. Is much more relaxed in that aspect. They support students, and that is the main thing. Participants that attend supportive schools noted they are actively supported by their academic institutions. They highlight having workshops to improve the climate within the classroom, having professionals available that would talk to them to provide academic and emotional support, and help to address conflict with peers, among other things. Principals, as the main authority within a school, are recognized as supportive too. For example, James was talking about a situation in which she saw the principal talking to a conflictive student. Jm: The director needed to talk to him, in person. I was really upset about that, because I know the principal, and he is incredibly respectful to talk to students, he is calmed. And that other student, I hate him! (…) E: Do you like the principal? Jm: Yes! (*she laughs) E: Everyone knows him? Jm: Is not like “I know him” is more like “hi.” I know is not ok to tell someone is good before really know them. But still, I believe (that he is good). 69 Similarly, Princess Kim commented on how she is really worried about the future, and how she finds support and help within her school. She commented during the interview that this pressure regarding her future was a major source of illbeing for her, and towards the end of the interview she made a comment about how she plans to access support from the school to solve this problem and ameliorate her stress. P: Everything has to do with that (the pressure). I don’t know, I have to figure it out somehow. I have to talk about this with someone from school. E: From school? P: Yes, they offered help. They are on a strike now, but when we have class again, I will go to talk to someone. I think I will talk to the school counselor. E: Do you like the school counselor? P: Yes, he is very nice. 1.3. Peer relationships All of the study participants described how peer relationships at school -including spending time with friends at school- positively affected their well-being. They particularly highlighted the value of having peers accept them for who they are, and having a network of peers who support each other when they have problems, or feel stressed. The participants noted that their well-being is negatively affected when they have fights with their peers or see others fighting too. It is particularly annoying for some of the participants that the classes cannot be held when conflicts exist within classrooms. For example, James was telling a story 70 that made her very upset during the interview. In that story, she was explaining that because some classmates were distracting the class, she did not want to go to school anymore. She said she hated those students, and she wishes they would leave her school. While describing the kinds of behaviors those students have, James was very frustrated and irritated: E: Why is this so annoying for you? Because it sounds like you’re very upset, and I can understand that, but they didn’t do anything to you directly, they were affecting the environment overall, correct? Jm: Yes, the environment is what is annoying. Is stressful. I don’t know. But I know is not only me who is annoyed by this, the majority of the class is against that group (of students). We can’t have class as they should be, because of them. In these stories, James referred to the critical importance she gave to peer relationships. As she talks about the negative impact of having conflicts between peers for the overall class dynamic, she also talked about her own experience with some of these “conflictive students.” In her stories, she described a group of peers that are aggressive towards everyone, including herself. During the interview, she was very stressed talking about these issues. Jm: I was happy when classes were over, because I knew some people would be disappearing. Not forever. But disappearing from my life. (…) But then, I saw those girls again. E: Why did you want those girls to disappear? Jm: Because I hate them. They are not the kind of people I would talk to. They are always doing annoying things, and still… If I somehow do something that is annoying for them they would insult me, they would be very violent against me. 71 Overall, participants concede great importance to respectful relationships between peers. In this case, respect means peaceful coexistence. In other words, everyone has space to learn and be in the classroom without being interrupted by classmates who are not interested in being there. Antonia reflected on her story explaining that what was stressful for her was how affected her classmates were by this situation. A: I would like not to have conflicts within the classroom. That would be it. So, the classmates were ok and the environment was nicer. I: Why would you say “classmates”? A: Because some of my classmates are more sensitive than I am, and this time three of them were crying just because that guy wouldn’t leave the room. Regarding peer relationships, friendships with school peers was described as fundamental for participants’ well-being. Friendships were characterized by trusting each other to talk about the things they care about. Princess Kim calls her friends from school her “chosen family” as she can be entirely herself, transparent. She noted that her friends from school understand more of what is going on in her life than her mom, so she trusts them with more of her worries. She also talks about what it means to feel supported, which is closely related to what friendship really is for her, and how her friends respond when they share issues and problems with each other. As she explains, she cares about having spaces to be heard and trusted by people who face similar issues: PK: We talk. With friends you don’t miss communication. If they tell you an intimate problem it is like “you trust me.” 72 E: And, what do you do when you share intimate problems? You give each other advice? Or you stay quiet and just listen? PK: It depends on the friend. Sometimes it is like “damn, that sucks” and give you a speech about it. And sometimes they just distract you, like “don’t think about that anymore, let’s do something else, something fun.” 1.4 Teachers Relationships with teachers are also particularly important to participants’ well-being. Participants talked about the importance of having teachers that help them develop their arguments and opinions, teaching them to critically think about their context, and giving them abilities to operate in the world. Those teachers provide advice when they have problems, are interested in their overall well-being instead of only being focused on academic performance, and have conversations with the participants, in which they feel they have been genuinely listened to. This type of social support is recognized as very important for their well-being. Some examples of good teachers are described by Ivone, who described a Math teacher that she appreciated because he gave her resources to learn things that she was interested in, even when those were not related to the subject -i.e. for learning English -. She also talks about her History teacher that helps her develop her opinions, asking her questions during class to promote critical thinking. Regarding this, she reflects: I: My history teacher. I like history, I like to share my opinions, have my own posture in every aspect that is possible. And he has always recognized that of me. He notices me as a “woke” person, and tells me either jokes or serious things about my clear ideas on society. E: What do you mean with “woke”? 73 I: Like I’m aware of what is going on, on the things that happen. Like I’m conscious. Jesse also commented on the importance of receiving support from her teachers. She notices that the support she receives is a consequence of her class behavior and her motivation and interest for being a good student. She said: Js: One of my teachers, he is helping me find a job. He sees me as a future engineer. He recognizes the motivation in me, that I really want to accomplish my goals. And all the teachers are like… I would say they’re proud of me. They like the way I do things, the way I’m, all those things. They see me as someone organized and as a good student. I have proof of that, is not only one teacher, is several. On the contrary, when teachers are not supportive, the impact of their behavior on the participants’ well-being is highly detrimental. Tessa talked about one Sports teacher that keeps humiliating her in front of the class, yelling at her and being mean. She reflected on this as maybe related to the way this teacher understands how to impose discipline, which is harmful and which makes students lose motivation to learn the subjects. Specific attitudes towards some of the participants are also described as painful for participants. Kathy and Jesse talked about teachers that insulted them, were machista, and sometimes even violent. K: I was only 13 years old, and I received a comment from this teacher. I had a best friend and she thought he was my boyfriend. She said to me that she was expecting I was going to be pregnant by the end of the year. (…) I felt very bad, I didn’t even have a boyfriend, not even a first kiss, I was a child! and hearing that… I thought she was being machista. Jesse said that when she was pregnant, one teacher was openly violent against her in class: 74 Js: Once, that teacher told me “you never going to achieve anything, like this, pregnant, what are you going to end up doing? Sweeping streets, that’s the only thing that you will be good at.” Although she reported this behavior, the teacher continued to be abusive against her and other classmates. One of the things she mentioned as being more detrimental to well-being was that this teacher told many students that they will never succeed, showing low expectations and sometimes discriminatory behaviors towards the students. 2. Family Within family as a life domain, participants descried their mother as the most important figure. Positive relationships with their moms were identified as important sources of well-being. On the other hand, poor relationships with their moms were sources of illbeing, although participants did suggest they are a way to gain autonomy. On another note, family as a life domain is fundamental for participants, as they deem conflicts within their family as a major source of ill-being. While these conflicts may not necessarily involve them, it is fundamental for them to be listened to by their family members when they try to avoid and solve those fights. Table 11 summarizes the key topics discussed in this life domain: Table 11: Summary of Family life domain Family key topics Contributes to Well-Being Impedes Well-Being Relationships with mothers Spent time together Not giving appropriate support. 75 Table 11 (cont’d) Conflicts and agency 2.1 Relationships with mothers Open communication Not available, absent. Being supportive Fights and conflicts participants cannot stop Parents listened and stop conflicts. Participants are heard and opinions are deemed as important. Participants who have positive or supportive relationships with their mothers were explicit about its importance to their well-being. A positive or supportive relationship with the mother was associated with feelings of protection and unconditional love. Importantly, many stories related to quotidian situations where the participants hang out with their moms, do something together, laugh or are just around them (e.g., being seated next to each other, sleeping in the same room, or being at home at the same time). Specifically, they described activities such as having “once5” together, or other meals, watching television, cooking, seeing funny memes on the Internet, among other quotidian activities. It is in these very general situations when they feel connected with their moms, and enjoy each other’s company, where they also experience well-being. Some participants talked about situations like this when their moms were laughing, identifying it as well-being experiences 5 Specific for Chilean culture, at around 6-7pm, after work, Chileans drink tea and eat bread (usually with butter or something else) and share with their families or friends. 76 that have happened many times. For example, Princess Kim talked about a specific Instagram account that shares funny videos about moms, and how much she enjoyed watching it with her own mom. She explained that she feels it s common that moms are “good at laughing.” She commented: PK: It is so funny when moms are laughing. I don’t know if you have seen when they start laughing, when they hear something funny and they just laugh and laugh, nonstop. Moms’ laugh is so contagious. In general, participants described their relationships with their mothers in terms of everyday activities and patterns, explaining they are close and she is significant in their lives. Some of them described open communication and highly supportive behaviors in general. To understand what it means to have highly supportive relationships and open communication become clearer when key episodes that have had contribute to their well-being are described. For example, for participants, a key aspect related to open communication is the extent to which they can talk to their mothers about their intimate relationships, particularly their sex life and options. The possibility of being honest and understood by their mothers is a significant source of well-being for them. They feel immediately supported and comforted in case they are in distress. As an example of this, Kathy told a story about when she asked her mom for contraceptives. She needed a gynecologist consult and the public health system provided one, but it was going to be one year later. She said this to her mom, and she offered to make a financial effort and pay for a private appointment right away. After the doctor appointment, her mom bought her the pill. Kathy appreciated how her mom was financially supportive, also considering that private medicine is very expensive. In addition, she was impressed by her emotional support too. K: It is scary to tell your parents that you had sex for the first time, but I feel that to tell her was a good decision. 77 E: Were you surprised by her reaction? K: Yes, I was expecting to be scolded, but she didn’t. Kathy is grateful and proud of her mom, and how supportive she has been for her, respecting her decisions and options. Similarly, Ivone talked about a hard episode in which her mom was very supportive and her dad was not. Ivone defines herself as bisexual, but her dad was not aware of that. Once, he saw her on the street with her girlfriend and got upset and aggressive. She named this story “the homophobic attack from my dad.” When this happened, after insulting Ivone, he gave her a ride home where she lives with her mom. While this was very painful for her, she talked about her mom’s reaction as something deeply significant and positive for her, calming her dad and acting naturally. Then she reflected: I: I don’t have a good connection with my dad now, only with my mom. But that is enough for me. Between my mom and my sister, I feel I receive all the support of the world. They never had a prejudice, I didn’t even feel like coming out. It was like “hey, I am dating someone” and that was it. (…) I feel grateful for my mom, I don’t know anyone else of her age that is as open minded as she is. Or that disposition of “I don’t care if it is a woman or a man, invite her over,” or “tell me more, who is she, what’s her name.” I am grateful for all that. The support of the mother is very relevant for participants’ well-being, while the lack of support is a source of sadness and distress. Regarding these kinds of situations that are impeding well-being, participants talked about feeling ignored by their mothers when they needed help as key episodes that were source of illbeing. Gema referred to a series of stories in which her mother did not stand up for her when she needed it. In those stories, it is possible to see a pattern that is described as her mom not confronting what is harming Gema, and then avoiding future similar situations 78 without talking about that anymore. For example, Gema talked about when she was 8 years old, the daughter of one of her mom’s friends stole her cellphone. When I asked what happened she said her mom did not do anything other than never inviting them back to the house, or seeing those people again. Then she talked about a different situation; she was visiting a friend and her friends made a circle, placed her in the middle, and told her hurtful things. She locked herself in a bathroom to wait for her mom to pick her up. Again, I asked what happened next, and she said her mom did not do anything. This happened several times during the interview, so I asked her what she thought about it: E: So, your mom never faced any of those things… G: Oh, no! E: Would you have liked it if she would have done something? G: Of course, I mean, my mom supports me, but she never said anything, she never did anything. For example, that thing with the school, I always asked her to move me to a different school, and she never did that. In Gema’s reflection, her mother supports her, but she does not seem to know what is the best or more appropriate way to do that. She explained her mom has several health issues, she cannot work, and had had a difficult life that was impacted by violence. Gema reflected on how this passive attitude of her mom was detrimental to her well-being, but she knows this is not her mom’s fault, explaining she did the best she could in her circumstances. During a period of her life, Gema did not want to go to school, and kept missing class until she failed two consecutive years. While she assumes this as her own fault, she also attributes responsibility to her mom, because she did not put enough effort in sending her to school. While not having a mother who actively advocated for and 79 acted to support her has affected her life in a negative way, it has also given her a sense of resilience and control on her own life, compelling her to fix problems and develop autonomy and agency. However, this situation still has important emotional consequences for her and she talked about it with pain. E: You’re saying you would prefer she would’ve insisted on you going to school G: Yes! Or maybe talked to me, because it was like, “go to school” and that was it. E: Do you think you were depressed? G: I don’t know, I still don’t understand what was going on during that time… Maybe yes. (…) E: I bet that was a hard time for you G: Yes. But I’m more stable now. E: What made you go back to school? G: I’m not sure yet. Maybe I started to feel more comfortable with myself, things like that. I decided to motivate myself. And ignore people. Similarly, Antonia reflected on how her mom was not available or spending time with them due to extensive work hours, and how she developed a sense of autonomy and self-efficacy that she would not have now if her mom would have been more present. She takes care of her sister, and has good grades at school. She explained that her mom worked outside the city when she was younger, so she and her sister barely spent time with her during their childhood. 80 A: She (mom) was working on a fishing company, outside Coyhaique. So, when I came back from school, she wasn’t at home. My sister was there, we used to get home together, because during that time we attended the same school. My mom used to be at home by 10 pm, when we were already asleep. We went to bed every day at 8, 8:30, by ourselves. (…) It wasn’t so different after (when she switched jobs), I was already used to be alone, to do my own stuff. Antonia and Gema talked about how they have had to learn to be autonomous and take care of their needs, but those seem to be skills for their future well-being (i.e. being a responsible adult) not current, and not past. Although they value this knowledge, they talked about it with acceptance and resignation, not pride or satisfaction. Altogether, participants gave much importance to having close relationships and time they spent with their moms, and their families in general. Not having their families around was a threat to their well-being. All of the participants talked about their parents being exhausted from working too much, and almost all described excessive workload that was detrimental for family life. 2.2 Conflicts and agency Conflicts and fights inside their homes were also a source of illbeing. They described conflicts and fights as depressing and stressful. Many of the stories they told were about fights that they have with their families themselves, and also between other family members. This creates a tense environment within their homes, and a feeling of not being able to solve or control anything that is happening around them. Antonia talked about how her sister and her mom have several fights. She described her participation in these discussions as not being able to intervene much. A: Sometimes my mom is spiteful, and I know my sister, I know those things hurt her. E: What kind of things your mom tells to you sister? 81 A: I don’t know, ugly things… E: What do you do when this happens? A: I don’t know. I tell my mom to stop, and to go to sleep, to relax. Sometimes she does that, and sometimes she doesn’t. Antonia talked about these fights as “problems at home,” and as a major source of illbeing. Although she has tried to intervene, many times, her opinions are ignored which is described as hurtful. Not having the ability to control or modify this conflictive environment is a major source of discomfort and illbeing. Since these fights are so damaging for the participants, those whose parents are separated agreed about the positive outcomes of that decision. Ivone commented that she and her sister talked to their parents, and asked them to separate, and how that was beneficial to the overall environment, giving them peace. I: They were married for 26 years. And they divorced when I was 8. E: Was that sad for you? I: No, in fact, I always knew that it was for the best, for a family environment without conflict, it was the right thing. In fact, it was like a request that me and my sister made. We asked them to divorce, so we can end all the problems we had, and I think it was good, because even now I feel they have a good relationship. There is no rivalry, no discomfort on the fact that I am still living with my mom. In that sense, everything is calmed and it never was something traumatic for me. It was only a change. When their opinions are listened to, even if they are in situations of conflict within the family, they described feelings of power and agency that contribute to their well-being. These situations were clearly framed within respect, and they highlighted their own assertiveness and strategies with 82 pride. Tessa told a story about this, about a time when she faced her grandfather for talking about her dad: T: I heard that and I got upset. We were eating and I said, always respectfully, that I didn’t appreciate that comment, that he shouldn’t say those things, and told him why he shouldn’t. And he started changing the topic, and I got very upset, and left. And then he was really impressed, because he was surprised that I stopped him. Similar to Tessa, Gema described several conflicts in her extended family that she was actively trying to fix. She talked about her mom having poor relationships with her own parents, and in-laws. Although this did not affect her own relationship with her grandparents, she was worried about her mom. For Gema, having a conflict with someone is a synonym for not being in peace, and therefore, not having well-being according to her own well-being definition: E: What do you think about those fights? G: I don’t know. I’m worried, because she (mom) can’t have peace. I would like that she would be in peace with my grandparents. E: Like everyone having good relationships with everyone. G: Yes! E: Why do you think that is important? G: Because that is to have good family relationships. 83 3. Friendships and Partners Participants also talked about friendships and partners outside school. Within the stories told by the participants, relationships were described in terms of their ability to connect with others, and the illbeing that derives from being isolated or excluded. In this life domain, friends were usually neighbors and peers they met in spaces different from school (or family). Less stories were shared about partners, who were recognized as important sources of support, and feeling accepted, included and supported. Table 12: Summary of Friendships and Partners Friendships and Partners key topics Friendships Partners 3.1 Friendships Contribute to Well-being Impede Well-being Unconditional love and acceptance from friends Being isolated or excluded, not having friends. Helping friends when they are sad or having problems Unconditional support from partners Being included as part of partners’ family Friendships were recognized by participants as a source of well-being. To explain this, they talk about true friendships, that are less frequent but very important for their well-being. True friends 84 are the ones who would accept them as they are. They feel authentic and genuine around them, and are not afraid of being rejected if their ideas or interests are not shared within the groups. Antonia talked about this when she explained that she would not tell anyone the kind of music she liked, until she met a friend that told her she listened to the same music. Although this sounds superfluous, it illustrates how they navigate friendships, negotiating how much they expose themselves and their own interests and thoughts depending on the way they perceived this is going to be received by their friends. Being honest and authentic with friends is not always easy. About this, Ivone had a powerful reflection. This participant was highly worried about social justice issues, and defined herself as a radical feminist, recognizing how this is a source of conflict with peers who are less aware of injustice: I: I think I usually feel misunderstood and lonely with my ideas. (…) Sometimes I start discussions about situations, and speak from my standpoint, that is radical, and that is conflictive, because my ideas are very different from those my friends have. After saying this, she talked about a very well-known episode that happened in Coyhaique in 2017, where a woman was brutally attacked by her boyfriend. She heard a friend justifying this attack by saying this woman was a prostitute, implicitly saying that she may have deserved being attacked. Ivone was profoundly offended by her friend’s comment, to the point of feeling her friendship was jeopardized: I: I was upset. I even want to say she wasn’t my friend anymore, because her opinion was so horrible. We decided to keep our distance during that day, but that tension remains. 85 For Ivone, defending her ideas is an ethical pursuit: she cannot stay silent when she faces injustices and oppression. However, she knows being isolated is detrimental for her so she decided to actively modify her environment by maintaining conversations with her friends, contributing to their education on what she considers as important and fair. She talked about how she already has been noticing changes in her friends, many of them abandoning ideas that are related to patriarchy. Other participants talked about key episodes of their lives and evaluated the presence and absences of their friends. True friends are always around, checking on them and cheering them up when they need to. For example, Tessa told a story about her being at the hospital for several weeks. She was not able to go to school, but no everyone seemed to have noticed her absence. Then she highlighted that her best friend did and how important that was for her: T: She is my friend. We have been together since preschool. I can tell her anything. She can tell me anything. If I ever feel bad, she would always call me. When I was at the hospital, she was one of the few who visited me. Moreover, some participants described that being a true friend themselves was also a source of well-being. This again highlights the contribution of agency and control to well-being for these participants. Being able to actively do something to help others is highly appreciated and a source of emotional ease and comfort for themselves. For example, Gema commented that she had been depressed and how lonely and isolated she was during that time. Then she highlighted a story that contributed to her well-being: her ability to know how to help others that are facing the same issues. She explained her best friend was having problems similar to those she had some years ago, and that she enjoyed being there for her and supporting her in the way she would have like to be supported. Since friendship is a very important 86 source of well-being for Gema, to be there for her friend, even if doesn’t have the effect she expects, is a relevant thing she can do to actively contribute to her own well-being. I: How have you tried to help her? G: Don’t know, instead of pressure her I just spend more time with her. I’m not asking all the time why and those kinds of things. I try to distract her, because I want her to feel good, and for her to know she has a friend here. I: Does that help? G: It hasn’t. She stills skips class, maybe she has a plan. I don’t know. (…) But I like doing it, I don’t like to abandon people. If I can do something to help her… On the other hand, Gema also recognized the extent of being isolated or rejected as detrimental to her well-being. The reason behind her depression was that she was suffering bullying at school for many years, because she has a disease that affects the way she walks and how her feet look, so classmates started to make fun of her from early age. She had friends outside school, neighbors and daughters of her mom’s friends that represented her only social network during that time. Some of those friends rejected her too, leaving her isolated: G: One of our neighbors has three daughters. The youngest was my friend. We get along, and we were good friends. One day they (the three sisters) started to be mean to me. I wasn’t comfortable around them anymore. But my mom and I still visit this neighbor, and one day I was alone with them and they did a line and started telling me things like “you are a bad dancer” things like that. I didn’t feel ok around them anymore (…) I didn’t want to come back to that house anymore after that. (…) But she was my only friend at that time. 87 After telling this story, she made a remark that she still looked happy and positive on the outside, but she was unhappy inside: G: I always look like positive, like the happy little girl, but in reality, I was sad too because of those things. 3.2 Partners In terms of relationships with boyfriends and girlfriends, these stories were shared less frequently by the participants. Many possible reasons can be given to explain why this may have happened. Although only 2 of the 8 participants currently had a partner, it is also possible that they had no rapport with the interviewer to share stories regarding how they feel and think about a dimension that is directly related to their sex life. Both participants that have partners talked about the importance of those relationships to their daily lives, particularly in terms of projecting their future and daily support. For example, Jesse talked about her boyfriend, and how she is happy with his attitude when he knew about her pregnancy. She recognizes the importance of his support in material terms (buying fuel and diapers for their baby) and in emotional terms: Js: The father of my kid, he never, ever left me unsupported. And he is young, he is 22, is not like he is a 30- year-old grown man. He is a kid! But he has been responsible and takes care of things. My baby has diapers, there is always fuel for the heat to maintain his bedroom warm (…) When I told him, it was like a shock for him, “I’m going to be a young dad” but the first thing he said was “you’re not going to be alone in this” and I thought, there are so many guys that would run away if they hear this. Kathy talked about her current relationship comparing it to the one she had before. She explained that her former boyfriend was abusive and violent. She described how he did not want 88 her to meet his parents and family, and how he did not want to be seen with her in public spaces. On the contrary, her current boyfriend is very open about their relationship. They go to the movies and walk downtown together. She was impressed when he introduced his whole family to her: K: My boyfriend introduced me to his family. E: That was important for you. K: Yes. I never met my boyfriend’s family before. Not even his mom. Now I was meeting his grandparents! That’s another level! Overall, Kathy talked about these gestures as feeling supportive and loving by her boyfriend. In her flipchart, when she talked about this during the interview, she wrote “my second boyfriend, mother-in-law and family: Emotional support,” adding it as a source of well-being 4. Extracurricular Almost all participants had extracurricular activities where they practiced or learned something outside school. Sometimes participants used these spaces to develop their own talents, although in general all recognized the value of their extracurricular activities to distract themselves from their problems, manage stress, and find social support from peers and instructors. The following table summarizes the key topics on this life domain: 89 Table 13: Summary of Extracurricular Life Domain Extracurricular key topics Contribute to Well-being Impede Well-being Distraction and dealing with problems Social support for dealing with problems at home Express feelings and ideas Safe environments for participants to develop ideas and elaborate feelings Find friendships and love Being able to connect with others on a common interest. At this point, it is important to point out that the fact that all the participants have extracurricular activities is partially due to the availability of cultural offerings in Coyhaique, and that these activities have no cost for the participants. This is not the case for the rest of the cities in Patagonia Aysén, where the cultural offerings are scarce. 4.1 Distractions and Dealing with Problems Extracurricular activities were described as very positive spaces where participants find other forms of support from peers and teachers, particularly when they have problems, or experience sadness or anxiety. For example, Antonia described how helpful it was for her to go to be part of the orchestra to deal with things that worried her. At orchestra, she could think about things not related to family issues, as well as have support and spaces to talk and elaborate her feelings and problems with trustworthy adults. She described being very fond of her orchestra teacher, who listened with empathy and offered solutions and friendship to her troubles. About her orchestra teacher, she commented: 90 A: The teacher knows us. I know that because sometimes she only looks at our face and knows when we are not ok. She is like “what is it?” “what’s going on?” I love her very much. (…) When she talks to me, she gives me advice, she is so nice, and warm. I really like her (…) I told her we had some issues at home and she said that was something that I can talk to her about if I wanted to, and that she maybe can help me. James also participated in the youth orchestra. In fact, she described this life domain as the most relevant one. It was only in this space where she found possibilities to channel her sadness and anxiety. In this space, she has found the support she needed from peers and teachers, and sees how others are supported too. In one of her stories, she talked about an orchestra class in which she left the room crying without reason, and the orchestra teacher offered help and advised her to talk to a psychologist. She described how she felt supported even without saying what was wrong: Jm: He asked, do you want to talk to me? And I said no, don’t worry. He insisted, are you sure? And I was like… I don’t know E: You didn’t want to tell him what was wrong? Jm: No. E: But you felt ok, because he offered to help you…? Jm: Because I noticed that he really wanted to help me. In this reflection, the fact that she has the freedom to choose not to talk is an interesting aspect of social support. Extracurricular activities are based on not being compulsory, and participants committed to these spaces as a personal choice. This space was deemed by participants as highly positive for their well-being, as they can have control and exercise their agency. In the way 91 these spaces are described, they seem like a place for letting off the steam from their regular lives. Again, James reflected on this in this comment: Jm: Many times, in orchestra they told us it is ok to feel bad sometimes. And then music helps us, you can put all those bad feelings in the music, it helps you for letting it go. It helps you and makes you feel better. Sometimes you feel bad, and you can leave that aside for a while to be fully focused on the music, and that helps. I like to be there. 4.2 Expressing Feelings and Ideas While orchestra was defined as being a highly social activity, plastic arts (called by the participants as “art workshop”) were also described as spaces for communicating with others and finding social support in a non-stressful environment that allowed them to express their feelings and thoughts. Gema, Ivone, and Kathy shared their artwork during their interviews, and stories related to their art. In addition to being highly talented, they described how they use these skills to express their ideas and opinions regarding society and show support about their referents in popular culture. For example, Gema talked about doing fan arts of Steven Universe, a cartoon that challenges family and gender stereotypes, discriminatory behaviors, and different forms of violence. She participates in an internet community to talk about art in relation to societal issues and to make friends with other artists. About this, Gemma explained that when she was depressed, she started drawing and sharing her drawings on the internet, she commented she made a friend from Spain that gave her strength to come back to classes. Then she talked about a story she wrote on political issues and class differences, and at the end she reflected: G: About drawing and such, that really helped me. To have a website, and to be able to show what I do. 92 Princess Kim explained that she likes K-Pop because they give to the youth a positive and powerful message of love and self-acceptance that she strongly values: PK: They never sing about mainstream things like reggaetón does. (…) I like they sign about self-acceptance and love, that before loving someone else you need to learn how to love yourself. E: Do you follow that advice? PK: Sure, although it is complicated. But they sing about that too, that it will be a difficult path but we need to follow it. Princess Kim explained how this message was helpful for her to deal with the pressures from the environment. She also shared these ideas with other friends, and they meet to listen, watch videos and dance together. To show me the relevance of their messages for the youth, she explained that this K-pop group was invited to talk to the UN, promoting the idea of grow love for oneself as fundamental for youth well-being: PK: I have liked this band for a long time, (…) and I always tried to get other friends to listen to the band “watch them, watch them” and this other friend, we are very close, she also became a fan. I showed to other classmates, and they started to watch them too! (…) they started following the band because of their message. One of them spoke at the UN about the same message (of self-acceptance). 4.3 Finding Friendships and Love On another note, Jesse practices karate, and explained that the best part of going to class is being able to share with their classmates. In karate, she said, the practice is full of nice moments, support, friendship and love. This space helped her expand her networks, meeting new people and 93 developing friendships that she would not have expected. She explained that the collective nature of karate practice is functional to those encounters: Js: I’ve met so many good people at karate. I like them. Sometimes you see how other classes (“workshops”) work, like ballet, gym, football, and it is always groups, they separate people in groups. But in karate, we always practice altogether. (…) We are all the same there, we talk with everyone, there is no “this one is poor, this one is wealthy,” we all weigh the same, we are equal. Antonia, too, highlighted the importance of orchestra to finding friends and being around people with similar interests. A: For example, having common things like, liking music, going together to orchestra, I don’t know how to explain it, but they are my friends (…) at orchestra, we have rehearsals and the Director would make us laugh, and then we would talk during rehearsal, we whisper jokes, we are there together. In conclusion, extracurricular activities are both spaces for talent development and social encounter, being a highly relevant contribution to participants’ well-being that is free of competition. In comparison to the rest of life domains, this seems like a fundamental space for self-care and social inclusion. Identified Capabilities in Stories Regarding research question 2 (Which capabilities do the adolescents identify in their stories about their own well-being?), participants referenced all the capabilities identified in the Global Youth Well-being Index in their stories and recognized them as important to well-being. The capability most mentioned within these stories was safety, followed by education, gender equality 94 and economic opportunity. The least mentioned capability was information and communication technologies. The following image shows the number of stories associated with each capability. Figure 3: Number of stories related to each Capability 11 5 9 7 19 Information Safety Education Economic Oportunity Participation Health Gender Equality 10 16 The following table shows the definitions of each capability that were given to the participants, and a summary of the stories they mentioned for each one of the capabilities they identified. Stories on safety are further discussed on Research Question 3 and 4. 95 Table 14: Cross-case summary of Capabilities and Stories related to them. Capabilities Life Domains and Stories Family: Having fluent communication at home, with family members, contributes to well-being. No communication create stress within households and family. Internet and phone bills cost money to the household, which in turn can be financially stressful. Extracurricular: Art-based internet communities support well-being. Communication Having access to internet and phone/ not having internet or phone. Economic opportunity Having a good economic situation. Being able to cover expenses /Not having enough money to cover expenses. Education Have access to education. Good quality of education. / Not being able to attend to school or university. Receiving education of bad quality. General financial stress within households negatively impacts home environment. Home reparations in some cases cannot be afforded (house is at risk of fire, lack of insulation for cold weather) Participants need to work at early age to support parents. It gave participants autonomy and agency. Having money implies access to education, particularly to superior education. This is stressful for participants whose parents struggle with money. Neighbors and partners: Friendships are negatively impacted by the resources of households (social and cultural capital of families determine the ability to make friends with different groups). Family: School School: School failure is major source of stress. Social support at school level is source of well-being. Education of social skills within schools is valued by participants. Being able to develop talents and skill within school is valued by Help friends that are struggling with academic issues is valued by Workshops and extracurricular activities as a space for learning things that are different from school is considered source of well- participants. participants. Extracurricular: being 96 Table 14 (cont’d) Gender Equality Men and women have same rights/ Unequal or unjust treatment. Gender-based violence. Machismo. Health Being healthy/ Being ill, stressed, depressed. Smoke. * Include teen pregnancy Participation Democracy. Being able to participate in decision making. Human rights respect. Government is respectful with youth. / Government is authoritative, don't care about youth. Human rights are violated. Family: source of illbeing. School Homophobia and other forms of violence at home are Supportive family environments that challenge machismo are recognized as important for well-being. Machista teachers are recognized as source of illbeing. Sexual abuse at school is source of illbeing. Neighbors and partners: Friends and society in general is recognized as misogynic, which is source of illbeing. Participants recognizes aggressions towards LGBTQ+ community, which is detrimental to their own well-being. Mental and physical health of people at home affect their well- being (i.e. alcoholism and depression) Being treated with respect on the health system is deem as source of well-being. The opposite is also true. Emotional support is recognized as supporting mental health, which in turns contributes to well-being. Absence from school due to poor health affect achievement and peer relationships negatively. Negative effects of academic pressure on mental health. Neighbors and partners: Emotional support from partners is recognized as source of well- being as positive for mental health. Family: School: Being able to discuss societal matters at home and being listened by family members are recognized as contributing to well-being. Being able to participate on decision making within school, and the kind of education they receive is positive for well-being. Family: School: 97 Table 14 (cont’d) Safety Live in peace, have justice and accountable institutions / Live in conflict, not being safe. Not having justice. Safe environment at home, free of conflicts among family Sexual harassment within family. Having family members killed, including femicide Family: members. School: Safe environment for learning and sharing with friends. Supportive teachers. Conflicts with family due to high expectations on academic achievement. Bullying. Sexual abuse within school. Uncertainty on future and academic prospective threat future economic safety. Neighbors and partners: Being harassed on the streets for being a woman. Being discriminated for being gay. Participate in protests on a safe environment. Extracurricular: Nice and safe environment. Understanding and supportive instructors. Most Salient Capability: Safety Regarding Research Question 3 (Which capability is the most salient across their life domains and how does it impact their well-being?), participants connected safety to more of their stories than the other capabilities, making it the most salient capability among this group of adolescent women. It was presented to the participants as “Live in peace, have justice and accountable institutions” or “Live in conflict, not being safe. Not having justice”, and it was recognized by the participants as related to stories within all life domains. The following table summarizes the stories related to safety by the participants, and the type of impact they gave to each one of them in terms of contributing to or impeding well-being. As this table highlights, very few stories about safety were 98 identified as contributing to their well-being. Instead, the participants’ stories indicated significant threats to their safety – such as harassment, rape, femicides of family members, and unfair treatment because of one’s identity (being a woman or lesbian), Participants explained that these issues occurred because of lack of accountability from institutions, patriarchy, and general unfairness. Being under pressure by family members who have too much expectations on their academic achievement is also understood as lack of safety, as it is viewed as an unjust situation that made them feel insecure. These results are explained in detail in Research Question 4, below. Table 15: Stories on Safety and their Impact on Well-being Life domain Family: School: Neighbors and partners: Story Impact Home environment / conflicts among family members. Sexual harassment within family. Participant did not receive support from legal institutions. Having family members killed, including femicide, and perpetrators not being appropriately prosecuted is understood as not having justice for the crimes. Unsafe environment for learning and sharing with friends. Supportive teachers provide safe environment to learn and develop. Conflicts with family due to high expectations on academic achievement is considered unfair. Bullying and sexual abuse within school, and not receiving support from school. Uncertainty on future and academic prospective are threats to future economic safety. Being harassed on the streets for being a woman make participants felt unsafe. Being discriminated for being gay as source of feeling unsafe Participate in protests for political matters on a safe environment Impede Impede Impede Impede Contribute Impede Impede Impede Impede Impede Contribute 99 Table 15 (cont’d) Extracurricular: Nice and safe environment on extracurricular activities. Contribute Understanding and supportive instructors have positive effect on participants’ life and provide safe environments. Contribute. Conditions that Facilitate and Constrain Safety Regarding the conditions that facilitate and constrain safety, (Research Question 4: What conditions facilitate and constrain this capability for female adolescents living in Coyhaique and impact live the lives they want?) three key issues emerged in the participants’ stories. All referred to conditions that impede this capability. First, the participants’ stories highlighted how violence seems to be normalized in Coyhaique. Participants described experiencing or witnessing abuses and that these abuses were understood as foreseeable or normal, remaining unchallenged either by the participants or by other members of society. Second, they recognized an abandonment by the institutions that should pursue justice and protect participants from violence, and that is experienced as highly detrimental to their well-being. Of course, this is related to violence normalization, since the institutions do not react to certain types of violence that have been normalized. Third, participants recognized that this normalized violence and institutional abandonment have affected some groups more than others, describing unequal access to justice for certain groups of people, including themselves as adolescent girls. In summary, lack of safety is seen and understood by participants as forms of violence and injustice. The following image shows the three major issues on safety based on stories shared by the participants: 100 Figure 4: Conditions that impact safety Normalized violence Institutional abandonmment Unequal access to justice Normalized violence: Normalized violence represents the acceptance of violent behaviors as normal. Within such a context, participants noted situations in which they are unable to clearly see what represents violence because society does not regard something as violent when it is. Concerning normalized violence, Ivone easily understood how this impedes safety. She talked about street harassment, reflecting on how much this was embedded within the Chilean society in general, and in Coyhaique in particular. She said: I: When I’m walking in Coyhaique during the summer, me and my friends, I can notice how men look at us. They are too evident. They are too awkward for me. And then is when I recognize street harassment as an invisible topic, totally normalized. I know is right there, and I know it affects all woman. 101 She gave an example of this. She remembered walking at night in Coyhaique with a friend, when various adult men outside a house started harassing them. She was furious, her face was red, and she was heated. She stopped and yelled back to these men full of rage. Her friend, apparently, did not see the point of speaking back and wanted to leave: I: My friend was like “no Ivone, they are men” and all those stuffs, instead of defending herself and speaking back E: She thought it was normal? I: Yes, she was normalizing that. And I’m sure she realizes that is not, but she is always telling me “what for?”, like what is the point in speaking back, like I should leave it that way.” E: And you feel different about that? I: There is no reason why I should leave it that way. That is something that simply needs to be change. To be treated that way is not tolerable. As if I was there on the streets thinking “Oh please, look at me and tell me how I look,” or “tell me your opinions.” She also recognized it as an example of how patriarchy affects the way that people understand what constitutes violence. Without seeing clearly what is violent, she recognizes it is difficult to change the status quo. On that idea, she felt that education, and particularly radical feminism, is a way to become aware of these abuses: I: I realized that there are so many things in my context, things that men do, that you can think about as normal things. But then you realize they have a machista origin, you realize why they do that, and start thinking “this should be changed.” And there you have radfem ideology telling you: we need to kill the root of patriarchy. And all those things that were invisible before, now you can see them. 102 While Ivone is clear in what needs to be done to stop violence, normalized violence is not always clear for participants. Some of them recognized that they have experienced violence, but struggled to name it or identify what was wrong in those situations. For example, Kathy talked about her ex-boyfriend, who was abusive and harmed her in many ways. She remembered this with deep sadness. She talked about an episode in which this ex-boyfriend raped her, although without using those words. I asked if she ever told anyone about this. She replied she told a friend who also had a similar story of rape. While comparing those two stories it is possible to see how she was normalizing violence in her discourse: K: My friend’s experience was even worse. My first time was consensual. (…) I told him to stop and he didn’t, and, even if I yelled he didn’t stop. I was trying to escape, but I couldn’t. It was horrible. But for her, it was more like they broke up, and then the guy did something to her without her consent. (…) She never told her mom, and I asked why, and she said “why you wouldn’t say anything to your mom?” But my thing was consensual. Even if I asked him to stop, I wasn’t sure if they (parents) would understand me. Because still, in part, I consented. Her individual interpretation of what constitutes coercion and consent reflects dominant discourses on heteronormativity and patriarchy that make violence seem like normal (Hlavka, 2014). As can be seen in this quote, Katie did not believe she experienced a “real rape” (Hlavka, 2014) which made her reluctant not only to take actions against the ex-boyfriend, but unable to find help and support for herself. As she explains, the fact that she felt she partially gave consent, made it hard for her to talk to her parents about what happened. Similarly, Jesse told a story about her cousin, threatened by her boyfriend, and ultimately killed by him. No one acted to prevent this, and the killer is now incarcerated for 25 years: 103 Js: My cousin, she was stabbed. That was the only femicide that happened in Puerto Aysén. It was her boyfriend. He was drunk, and my cousin, she never said anything before, she never filed an accusation or anything. She said several times “he always threatens me, that he is going to kill me, but I know he is joking,” she never really thought… and she also said “what is the point of accusing him, no one is going to do anything? he can actually come here and kill me.” And that was exactly what happened. My cousin was sleeping, and he was drunk and killed her while she was there, in her bed. Stabbed her to death. In this story, she made links between normalized violence, as the cousin accepted that he could threaten her and she would not do anything about it, and the fact that no one was going to defend her if she said something (institutional abandonment). Institutional abandonment: Institutional abandonment is understood here as the situations in which participants feel they were not defended either by their schools, or by other institutions (police, law system) that are supposed to support them when they are victims of violence. This abandonment made them feel helpless and unsafe, as they feel no one would protect them if something happens to them. Most of the stories related to institutional abandonment happened within school settings. Some participants feltthe school was not adequately responding to their issues. As an example, Jesse talked about a specific unfair situation with a teacher, in which she needed to do fasting before a medical exam. After the doctor’s appointment, she went straight to school. The assistant principal gave her a sandwich before she entered the classroom. When the teacher saw she had a sandwich, he asked her to leave the room, because it is against the rules to eat in the room: Js: Once in the classroom the teacher told me “did you eat? If you’re hungry, leave my classroom right away.” And I was like “but I’m not even eating” and he said “no, you just can’t have food here” and I said I’ll put 104 it in my bag!” and he said “no, leave the room.” These kinds of things happened to me many times with that teacher, I couldn’t learn anything. If asked something, the answer was always no. This was told as an example of the many situations in which she felt this teacher did not want her to be at class. After this episode happened, she went to talk to the principal. Since the principal is the main authority within a school, she was expecting him to do something to protect her from this teacher. She explained that the principal ignored her concern and that the situation with the teacher escalated even more: Js: I told the principal. Do you think he did something? Nothing. He said “no, this is the best teacher we have, there is no way he did something like this.” They called three classmates, all the teacher’s favorite students (…) and the principal decided not to do anything. The next time I was late (…) I told the principal and he said to the teacher “why wouldn’t you let Jesse into the class?” and he replied “she is late.” And then (the teacher) called me outside and yelled at me “you, why would you treat me like that, coming here with the principal, are you playing with me?” He was really violent. Since the principal was not responding to her claims, Jesse filed a formal complaint against the teacher directly to the Ministry of Education. The bureaucracy within the Ministry caused the response to this complaint to be much slower than she expected. At the point the Ministry of Education decided in her favor, the school year was over already and she had failed the class. Js: They (Ministry of Education) created a protocol, in which everyone is able to express themselves or something like that. This was made because of this teacher and my complaint. E: What happened then? Did it work? 105 Js: He was forced somehow to change his mind about things, but when this happened, it was already the end of the school year, and I had a 1.0 in that class. That meant I failed the whole school year. I left the school, and entered a high school equivalency program. Then I left the city. In this story, Jesse was unable to receive support from the institutions that she trusted to take care of her. Even though she followed the formal protocol to protect herself and to try to improve her circumstances, the system did not react to help her; ultimately, this lack of support ended up affecting her life in a serious way. In another example, Kathy talked about being bullied by some classmates and not having responses from the institution. In one of the cases she reported bullying to the school, she thought she did not get any answers because of economic interests from the school that did not pursue her case. In Chile, there is a policy that charges schools with fees when the appropriate protocol in cases of bullying are not followed. Kathy thought that this was the reason why the school ignored her report. But the bullying persisted and she tried to report it again. In the second case, she said that the bully was the daughter of a highly ranked military officer, and the school said they would not move her accusation forward because they did not want to have problems with this officer. She recognized the despair of not having adults supporting and protecting her. K: I went to an adult, to my mom, and to the teacher. I told the teacher first. Everybody always tells us to go to an adult if you’re a victim of bullying. I went to my teacher, she didn’t do anything. I went to my mom, she talks to the teacher, still nothing happened. The only way to solve that was by leaving for a different school. Finally, Tessa talked about a teacher at her school who was sexually harassing some of the students. Eventually, he was filmed while inappropriately touching a female student. One of her classmates made a formal accusation against him to the Ministry of Education, and neither the 106 school nor the Ministry did anything. This teacher still works at her school. I asked how she felt about this and she said: T: Sad, because this is my gender. Too many things have happened to my gender already. To make changes, we needed a new feminist wave. And that wave still does not produce the changes that we expect. I think this only would happen when someone from my generation will be in the government. Someone with different ideas, because everyone within the government comes from older generations, when everything was machista. It is clear in these three stories that institutional abandonment not only helped perpetuate the violence, but also made these women feel hopeless and in despair. Overall, institutional abandonment reduced their agency and became a significant source of illbeing for participants Unequal access to justice: Participants recognized that not everyone has the same access to justice, and that is claimed as a source of illbeing. They recognized themselves and people they care about as being unable to find justice, impacting their own safety if they face abuses or violence. This is due to both normalized violence against them as young woman, and institutional abandonment of them as teenagers. They compared how some received a just treatment from the institutions and were entitled to have justice, while others were never able to receive justice, recognizing themselves as an unfavored group within the society. This is in turn a source of unsafety, as they know that if something happens to them, because of who they are, they probably will not be heard by the authorities. For example, Jesse was harassed by her uncle. She grew up very close to her uncle and at a certain point he made a sexual insinuation to her and she realized his intentions. Other insinuations followed, and he also started texting her pornographic pictures. She did not say anything to anyone 107 for about a year. When I asked her why she did not say anything, she said she was trying to avoid potential conflicts between the uncle and her boyfriend, and also did not want to spread rumors that could harm herself and her reputation. At the end of that year, when she was 16, she got pregnant and decided to talk because she wanted to protect her baby from any potential harm that her uncle could do to her. At this point, she explained how much she felt betrayed by Chilean police and justice institutions because this accusation was done 2 years ago, and still her uncle has not been prosecuted; “Are they going to wait for me to die to do something?” she commented. Jesse explained that because her uncle is recognized as a “good person” within the community, she anticipated that he would not to be prosecuted at all. In comparison, her point of view was less important for the police and the legal system. She was sure that part of that was because by the time she filed the accusation she was pregnant, making her unworthy of credibility: Js: So, who are you going to believe? To the pregnant girl that got pregnant at young age because she wanted to be annoying? Or to the faultless man? Everyone is going to believe him. I can tell my story, but people are going to say “no, you wild girl,” “the teenager, who got pregnant, and was trying to get everyone’s attention,” “the girl who was provoking.” Ivone talked about how much these things affect women in general, she recognizes there is a gap between women and men in access to justice: I: Women have no access to justice. Like those harassment cases I told you about, or the major forms of gender- based violence. E: And why is that? Is it machismo? 108 I: It is machismo, but the root is patriarchy. We are in a patriarchal system, and it is hard that that same system is going to be worried about the things that happen to women. They are worried about other stuff, like putting someone in jail because they sell marihuana, or whatever. While Ivone recognized that women receive less attention than men in terms of access to justice, as an overall issue, Jesse also talked about how specific groups receive more attention than others, and their claims are more likely to be listened to and receive justice. She talked about a time where she was bitten by a dog, but the owner of the dog was a member of the military. She was pregnant when this happened, and she presented a formal complaint to the police against the owner of the dog. She was shocked when she knew that did absolutely nothing. Js: What is the difference between a normal person and someone who wears a uniform? I don’t have anything against them, they are people, just like us. But if we are all people, that means we are all the same. There is no difference between us. If I’m an officer or someone who cleans up the streets, we have the same rights. Why if there is a member of the military in the room, do they receive services first? This is on society, not on people (…) If one kid makes an accusation, and his dad is poor, no one is going to pay attention to him. I have seen this many time at my school. In this reflection, Jesse recognized this is not a problem of particular individuals, but of the overall system that gives priority to certain groups of society above others. While the advantaged groups are the members of the military in this example, she described the disadvantaged as people who do not have money, and therefore, whose needs are more often ignored and whose rights are more often violated. 109 DISCUSSION The Relational Nature of Well-being The findings from this study highlight the importance of a social justice approach to well- being. The participants in this study – female adolescents in Chile – described how their well-being was primarily influenced by relationships across different life domains. Participants gave critical importance to relationships that allowed them to develop agency. Also, to their ability to be in control of their lives and circumstances, and to participate in decision making. These findings are supported by other researchers on well-being that have conducted qualitative studies on adolescents’ and children’s well-being. For example, in a study conducted in Australia, researchers found that relationships that promoted agency were a major contributor to well-being among children and adolescents (Fattore et al., 2009), particularly at the school level. In Chile, research on child well- being has shown the importance of being able to participate in decision making also at the school level (Ramírez-Casas del Valle & Alfaro-Inzunza, 2018). A study with a Spaniard adolescent sample found that higher levels of family participation was related to higher levels of subjective well-being, particularly for adolescent girls. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of contexts that hear and respect participants’ opinions and allow them to participate in decision making for adolescent well-being, particularly in the population targeted in this study. Given that women are consistently ignored from decision making at family levels and public spheres in several cultures (Nussbaum, 2000), more studies are needed to understand how to promote contexts that support agency and participation and if and how these transactions influence well-being. Relational approaches to well-being have been proposed by other authors (Camfield, 2012; Fattore et al., 2009; White, 2017) as a way to challenge the individualistic-neoliberal dominant 110 discourse that defines well-being as an individual phenomenon (Teo, 2014). Individualistic discourses propose that well-being is achieved by a focus on self-improvement, an aim for perfection, and an emphasis on one’s own self-interests (White, 2017), which implies individuals are responsible when lacking well-being. The findings from this study challenge these notions and highlight how well-being emerges from the transaction between individuals and their context. Further studies on the relational aspects that contribute to and impede well-being are necessary to clearly define and qualify what constitutes a “good” or “positive” relationship according to what different groups care about and confer importance to. This is fundamental for avoiding conclusions that reproduce western ideals and values concerning the different factors that influence well-being in adolescents (González-Carrasco et al., 2017). Life Domains The life domains described by participants in this study do not fully coincide with what has been described by prior researchers, particularly within the existing measurement instruments -e.g., BSMLSS and PWI-SC. This parallels current dilemmas in the well-being literature explained by Casas et al (2015): there is no agreement on which life domains are the most relevant for adolescents, current instruments differ on the level of abstraction they use to name different life domain, and the nature of a life domain differs depending on the instruments. The participants in this study had their own rationale for naming and explaining life domains, based on spaces in which relationships occur. This is different from the existing measurement instruments, that do not base life domains on relationships, but on other aspects (e.g. material goods, health, or being satisfied with oneself). Future research should explore if life domains and how they are defined vary depending on aspects like gender and culture. 111 Well-being as a polyphonic concept Findings from this study suggest that well-being means to have certain things, experience certain feeling and relating in certain ways to the context. It is therefore a non-unitary concept, and sometimes individuals can contradict themselves in the way they understand well-being. For example, they describe the importance of being accepted by their peers and have friends, and in the same interview, they say well-being is not about others’ acceptance, but themselves, and they do not care about others’ opinions. A polyphonic approach, proposed by narrative researchers, is often used to avoid the construction of dominant narratives (Herman & Vervaeck, 2001) and is useful for understanding the results of this study. Bakhtin (1984) described polyphonic texts as those that include different discourses, being all equally valid parts of a narrative that is ultimately not merged. Although no other researchers have portrayed well-being as polyphonic, many have agreed that well-being needs to be approached as a dynamic concept. For example, Diener et al (2017) proposed that subjective well-being differs depending on different life domains, and White & Blackmore (2015) have strongly advised against the reification of well-being, understanding it as an dynamic interplay between individuals and their spaces and places. A polyphonic approach to well-being could provide new directions in research and offer insights into the complexity of this phenomenon; by allowing participants to described well-being as a nuanced and non-unitary concept, researchers will be able to deeply understand the way well-being is imagined, and propose novel and contextually focused ways to promote it. Well-being versus Well-becoming Results of this study also indicated that while the participants recognized the dominant narrative of well-being as being fully responsible for their own future well-being, they also described 112 it as a source of illbeing, causing them to constantly worry about making bad decisions for their future life, and pressured by teachers and parents for academic achievement. In other words, the findings from this study highlighted clear tensions between current well-being and future well-being. While the former is constantly shaped by daily relationships and interactions with the environment, the second one is grounded in uncertainty. In other words, the sacrifice of current well-being is sustained by the promise of a future well-being, although the adolescents have no guarantee that this is going to be achieved, or clarity of when they will enjoy these benefits. The tensions between well-being and well-becoming has been treated by many authors specialized in child and adolescent well-being as primarily a matter of research ethics and methodological approaches (Bradshaw et al., 2013; Camfield, Crivello, et al., 2009; Domínguez- Serrano & del Moral Espín, 2018; Glatzer, Camfield, Møller, & Rojas, 2015; Jones & Sumner, 2009; Nordlander & Stensota, 2012). These authors have highlighted that many studies talk about child and youth well-being, but their concept of well-being should be called “well-becoming,” since it promotes future oriented investments: these studies give importance to fostering development, skills or behaviors in children and adolescents to achieve well-being as adults. Although well-becoming is important, these authors have explained that it neglects the study of the current experiences of well- being for adolescents and children. The findings of this study have shown that these tensions between well-being and well- becoming are also experienced by the participants themselves, affecting their daily lives. The participants shared stories in which they sacrificed and neglected their current well-being as an investment for the future, following the advice of parents, teachers, and other significant adults. For example, they do not follow their interests or develop their talents in activities that are not profitable (e.g., the arts). Instead, they focus on mathematics, science, or other subjects that allow them to 113 obtain careers that pay more money, even if they dislike these subjects. These findings provided new insights on the tension between well-being and well-becoming. As the participants of this study exposed, their decision-making involved a negotiation and balance between their current and future well-being, which are many times in conflict to each other, creating stress and discomfort. Teachers, parents, and other significant adults should be mindful of this stress, and avoid emphasizing too much in well-becoming, acknowledging and supporting participants in their pursuit of current well- being as well. The Unsafe Situation of Female Adolescents The results from this study also showed that participants are highly exposed to multiple forms of violence and these experiences have a detrimental impact on their lives in different levels; in fact, safety was identified as the most common capability highlighted by the female adolescents. Other studies have shown that safety is a fundamental, non-negotiable condition for well-being among South African adolescents (Savahl et al., 2015) and is a main theme with Australian adolescents (Fattore et al., 2009). Although these studies found safety as essential, safety was not tied to gender in these well-being studies. Yet, for the participants in this study, the nature of the safety risks they faced were gender-based (e.g. violence against woman, rape, harassment, femicide). Safety was not enjoyed by them because they are women. This suggests that safety as a capability does not mean the same, or is seen in the same way, by female and male adolescents. As the capabilities approach asserts, not enjoying the capability of safety hindered the participants’ freedom to live the life they want to live (Sharma et al., 2017; Stiglitz et al., 2009). The institutional abandonment, normalization of violence, and the unequal access to justice are ways in which the participants experienced lacking freedom. Among these three conditions, normalization 114 of violence seems to operate as a core root cause. Its origins are tracked to particular ideas of what it means to be a woman or a man (the heterosexual matrix (Butler, 1999) that dominates patriarchal culture). This is reflected, for example, in believing that by nature men are not able to control their sexual impulses, which gives them “permission” to commit violent behaviors such as harassment or rape (Hlavka, 2014). It is also recognizable in the way teachers and other adults treated participants by ignoring their demands for justice and protection, as participants were less entitled to receive them. Normalization of violence is also evident in the way adults were disrespectful or openly violent against participants; adults are less likely to suffer consequences from these actions, as the participants were not respectable subjects or did not deserve to be treated in equal terms. While researchers from the capabilities approach have noticed these different forms and levels of violence largely affect women and hinder their well-being (Nussbaum, 2000; Robeyns, 2003), much less has been said regarding safety and Latin American adolescent women. By noticing the way this group experiences this capability, this research can provide insight into the types of changes that need to be conducted at different levels, demonstrating a unique way of experiencing safety, and most likely others capabilities. Implications of this study This study can inform local policy makers about the specific ways that well-being is understood and experienced by female adolescents from Coyhaique. This awareness could guide them to develop more suitable interventions and programs that aim to promote well-being from a social justice perspective. As possible next steps, a focus on promoting safety in different life domains would be an important contribution for the well-being of this group. 115 Within schools, different strategies can be used to transform these institutions to safe spaces, improving mechanisms to stop bullying and conflicts between classmates, such as specialized work in conflict resolutions and scholarly climate. It is also necessary to maintain the accountability of institutions for the actions of the teachers, giving them tools to develop teaching styles that are non- violent, and clearly defining and describing sexist attitudes that should be banned so either teachers and students are able to recognize it. Providing more and better mechanisms for students to safely communicate with the Ministry of Education, and having prompt response to those communications, should be part of the priorities of the Ministry. These would encourage female adolescents to seek ministerial support if they are facing violence within their schools or other serious situations that threaten their integrity. This study also shed light on the urgency for developing educational programs that allow female and male adolescents to understand what is consent and coercion, rape, and dating violence, among other fundamental topics today absent from the educational curriculum. This study also highlights that the types of violence female adolescents face are different from adults. While protecting women from gender-based violence is the overarching goal of the Chilean Ministry of Woman, their programs and policies are mostly focused on adult women. Advancing specific research on particular forms of violence and violence prevention that affect Chilean adolescents could be a fruitful effort to avoid further victimization. For example, programs focused on families to fight gender stereotypes can contribute to make homes safer, where female adolescents are respected and have the opportunity to be involved in family decision making and express their opinions. Tackling gender stereotypes and making visible the normalized violence that female adolescents face are tasks that should be conducted within families and schools, as well as communities and institutions, such as neighborhoods, police departments, and hospitals, among 116 others. This is necessary to provide safe spaces where participants have access to justice; where they can be, believed, circulate freely at any time, wear the clothes they want, and are not discriminated or blamed in case something happens to them. While the programs promoted by the Ministry are devoted to fighting gender-based violence within particular settings (domestic violence), they do not prevent it by challenging cultural standards, and are not focused on other levels outside family, such as school, community, or institutions. Further research on how different forms of violence are affecting young women in Chile is fundamental to raise awareness about their detrimental impact on well-being and the importance of eradicating it. In addition, multilevel interventions across sectors need to happen in coordination with local actors who are willing to champion the promotion of female adolescents’ well-being as part of their goal. Limitations of this study The proposed research is exploratory, and no causalities can be established using qualitative methodologies. Therefore, no conclusions on what causes well-being or what does not can be drawn from this study. In addition, the nature of the proposed analysis only allowed for the study of a limited number of cases, which is not representative of a larger population: Narrative analysis uses a small number of participants who are studied in high depth and is not practical for understanding larger portions of the population. This study aimed to understand well-being experiences for a certain group within a very particular context. This means that this study is not suitable to generalize about the way female adolescents in other contexts may understand or experience their well-being. Quantitative research designs might be more useful to provide generalizable knowledge on well- being for female adolescents living in different countries, or in other regions of Chile. 117 Due to practical limitations, this study did not consider all the capabilities of the Global Youth Well-being Index -i.e. participation, education, health, gender equity, communication, economic opportunity. Further studies that integrate all these capabilities in the analysis would provide a more complete picture of how life conditions are experienced by these young women and offer new ways to promote well-being. 118 CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, the findings from this study highlight the importance of engaging female adolescents living in Latin American countries in defining and describing well-being from their perspective. Findings of this study show that these young women have a complex and polyphonic concept of well-being, and give critical importance to their relationships in different life domains to experience well-being. This is different from the dominant narratives of well-being present in the literature, either focused on individual assessments without paying close attention to the contexts in which these individuals live, or solely on material conditions without focusing on subjective assessments of quality of life. This study also shows that lack of safety is the main threat to these young women’s well-being. In order to design specific programs and public policies that foster well- being within this population, additional research is needed that explores how well-being is experienced by Latin American female adolescents, and attends to what they value as a good life, how they make sense of their living conditions, what are their life domains, and what types of relationships are deemed as positive or nourishing. To promote well-being within this population, public policy makers should be focused on ensuring safety by protecting them from violence and dismantling oppressive systems that affect their lives -e.g., holding legal systems and police accountable-, as well as promoting positive and healthy relationships with adults and peers, particularly through education. Further understanding of how different forms of violence are affecting this particular population is an urgent and fundamental task that would provide necessary knowledge to create conditions that contribute to their well-being. This includes dismantling negative images of female adolescents that treat them as inferior and make them unable to speak, to be heard, and have access to justice. 119 APPENDICES 120 APPENDIX A: Interview Protocol. 1. How do you define the word well-being? 2. How do you define well-being for yourself? 3. Can you describe how a regular week looks like for you? What do you do? [Probing questions]: For each life domain mentioned by participant, examples of probing: Family: When you say “family”, who are they? What do you do when your family gets together? How do you feel about your family? Are you close/have good relationship? Why/why not? How would you like it to be? What don’t you like about it? School: What school are you attending to? Do you like your school? What do you like about it? What do you like about going to school? What don’t like about it? For each life domain: 4. Can you tell me a good story about your [life domain]? Some moment you enjoyed or you remember as a happy moment? - Why do you think you felt that way? These things happen to you often? If no, why? 5. Can you tell me a story about your [life domain] that made you feel bad? Some moment you feel very sad, angry or disappointed? - Why do you think you felt that way? This happen often? If yes, why? If participant only have negative or positive stories in a life domain: I’ve notice that you only said negative/positive stories on this domain, is anything else you’ll like to add? 121 For each life domain: 6. If you need to think about the stories in this life domain, do you think it has something to do with any of these things? If yes, how? [show capabilities from Global Youth Index list with brief graphic explanation: Gender Equality; Health; Housing: Safety and Security; Economic Opportunity: Education: Citizen Participation] 7. Are there any other stories about these things I just showed you? 8. How would you prefer this to be? What would you change of the [capability] to make it better? Do you think that might also affect others? How/why? Do you feel this limits in any way to live the life you prefer? In what sense? 9. Looking at all the replies you just gave me, how do you feel about your previous definition of the word well-being. 10. How was this process for you? How did you feel during this interview? 122 APPENDIX B: Example of Flipchart Figure 5: Example of flipchart, Princess Kim 123 APPENDIX C: Capabilities shown to participants Figure 6: Capabilities shown to participants. Economic Opportunity Having a good economic situation. Being able to cover expenses. Not having enough money to cover expenses. ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 124 Figure 7: Capabilities shown to participants. Gender Equality/Inequality Men and women have same rights Unequal or unjust treatment. Gender- based violence. Machismo GENDER EQUALITY/INEQUALITY 125 Figure 8: Capabilities shown to participants. Education Have access to education. Good quality of education Not being able to go to school or university. Receiving bad quality of education. EDUCATION 126 Figure 9: Capabilities shown to participants. Health Being healthy. Being ill, stressed, depressed. Smoke. HEALTH *Include pregnancy 127 Figure 10: Capabilities shown to participants. Communication Having access to internet and phone. Not having internet or phone COMMUNICATION 128 Figure 11: Capabilities shown to participants. Safety Live in peace. Have justice and accountable institutions. Live in conflict. Not being safe. Not having justice. SAFETY 129 Figure 12: Capabilities shown to participants. Participation Democracy. Being able to participate in decision making. Human rights respect. Government is respectful with youth. Government is authoritative, don't care about youth. Human rights are violated. PARTICIPATION 130 APPENDIX D: Assent/Consent Forms Research Participant Information and Assent Form You are being asked to participate in a research study. Researchers are required to provide a consent form to inform you about the research study, to convey that participation is voluntary, to explain risks and benefits of participation, and to empower you to make an informed decision. You should feel free to ask the researchers any questions you may have. Study Title: Wellbeing from a social justice perspective. A narrative study on female adolescents from Coyhaique, Chile 1. PURPOSE OF RESEARCH My name is Maria Isidora Bilbao Nieva, I am PhD student at Michigan State University, Eco- Community Psychology program. This study is my Master Thesis. The purpose of this research study is to learn about the wellbeing of female adolescents from low income families living in Coyhaique. This is an invitation to participate in this research study. Participation is completely voluntary. If you agree to participate now, and your parent/guardian give permission, both can always change their mind later. There are no negative consequences 2. WHAT YOU WILL DO If you agree to be in this study and the parent/guardian give permission, I am going to ask you some questions about your family, school, work, and friends, so you can tell me some examples about how do you feels in those aspects of your life, and I can understand how your life looks like. For example, I will ask things like “what do you like to do with your friends?”. You can decide reply, not to reply this question and skip to the next one, or drop your entire participation at any time. This form does not compel you to do anything. 131 This interview will last about 2 hours. I will take notes of what is been said. you can take her own notes, correct mines, or tell me you do not want that story to be part of the study at all. You will see what I write about you and your stories and decide to change any of those things. 3. POTENTIAL BENEFITS You may not benefit personally from being in this study, other than having the opportunity to share your stories and examine your own life. In any case, other people might benefit from this study because I will use the results to raise awareness on things that are affecting other female adolescents’ wellbeing as well, and identify ways to promote it. 4. POTENTIAL RISKS Some of the questions I will ask might make you feel uncomfortable (for example, being too personal, or making you remembering painful episodes of your life). The you have the right to skip as many questions as you want, or decide to drop the whole study at any time. 5. PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY With your permission, I will record the interview. You can choose a pseudonym or a fake name. Your participation in this study is anonymous. I will not tell anyone what is discussed in the interview, unless you disclose something that make me think your life is at risk. In that case, I will discuss with you before break the confidence, and tell you what I am thinking to do with this information. All recordings will be transcribed omitting details that might identify you, and afterwards destroyed. No recordings will be stored. 6. YOUR RIGHTS TO PARTICIPATE, SAY NO, OR WITHDRAW (This is a required element of consent) 132 Participation is completely voluntary. If you agree to participate now, and your parent/guardian give permission, both can always change their mind later. There are no negative consequences. 7. COSTS AND COMPENSATION FOR BEING IN THE STUDY N/A 8. ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS N/A 9. CONTACT INFORMATION (This is a required element of consent) If there is any concerns or questions about this study, such as scientific issues, how to do any part of it, or to report an injury, please contact the researcher Maria Isidora Bilbao Nieva, bilbaoma@msu.edu If you have questions or concerns about your role and rights as a research participant, would like to obtain information or offer input, or would like to register a complaint about this study, you may contact, anonymously if you wish, the Michigan State University’s Human Research Protection Program at 517-355- 2180, Fax 517-432-4503, or e-mail irb@msu.edu or regular mail at 4000 Collins Rd, Suite 136, Lansing, MI 48910. 10. DOCUMENTATION OF INFORMED CONSENT. Your signature below means that you voluntarily agree to participate in this research study. ________________________________________ _____________________________ Signature of Assenting Child Date You will be given a copy of this form to keep. 133 Research Participant Information and Consent Form Your child is being asked to participate in a research study. Researchers are required to provide a consent form to inform you about the research study, to convey that participation is voluntary, to explain risks and benefits of participation, and to empower you to make an informed decision. You should feel free to ask the researchers any questions you may have. Study Title: Wellbeing from a social justice perspective. A narrative study on female adolescents from Coyhaique, Chile. 1. PURPOSE OF RESEARCH My name is Maria Isidora Bilbao Nieva, I am PhD student at Michigan State University, Eco- Community Psychology program. This study is my Master Thesis. The purpose of this research study is to learn about the wellbeing of female adolescents from low income families living in Coyhaique. This is an invitation to your child to participate in this research study. Participation is completely voluntary. If your child agrees to participate now, and you give your permission, both can always change their mind later. There are no negative consequences. 2. WHAT YOU WILL DO If you give your permission, I am going to ask your child some questions about family, school, work, and friends, so she can tell me some examples about how she feels in those aspects of her life, and I can understand how her life looks like. For example, I will ask things like “what do you like to do with your friends?”. She can decide reply, not to reply this question and skip to the next one, or drop her entire participation at any time. This form does not compel her to do anything. This interview will last about 2 hours. 3. POTENTIAL BENEFITS 134 Your daughter may not benefit personally from being in this study, other than having the opportunity to share their stories and examine her own life. In any case, other people might benefit from this study because I will use the results to raise awareness on things that are affecting female adolescents’ wellbeing, and identify ways to promote it. 4. POTENTIAL RISKS Some of the questions I will ask the participant might make her feel uncomfortable (for example, being too personal, or making her remember painful episodes of her life). The participant has the right to skip as many questions as she wants, or decide to drop the whole study. 5. PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY With the participant permission, I will record the interview. Participant can chose a pseudonym or a fake name. Her participation in this study is anonymous. I will not tell anyone what is discussed in the interview, unless the participant discloses something that make me think her life is at risk. In that case, I will discuss with the participant before break the confidence, and tell her what I am thinking to do with this information. All recordings will be transcribed omitting details that might identify the participant, and afterwards destroyed. No recordings will be stored. 6. YOUR RIGHTS TO PARTICIPATE, SAY NO, OR WITHDRAW Participation is completely voluntary. If you give permission, you can always change their mind later. There are no negative consequences. 7. COSTS AND COMPENSATION FOR BEING IN THE STUDY N/A 8. ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS N/A 135 10. CONTACT INFORMATION If there is any concerns or questions about this study, such as scientific issues, how to do any part of it, or to report an injury, please contact the researcher Maria Isidora Bilbao Nieva, bilbaoma@msu.edu If you have questions or concerns about your role and rights as a parent/guardian of a participant, would like to obtain information or offer input, or would like to register a complaint about this study, you may contact, anonymously if you wish, the Michigan State University’s Human Research Protection Program at 517-355-2180, Fax 517-432-4503, or e-mail irb@msu.edu or regular mail at 4000 Collins Rd, Suite 136, Lansing, MI 48910. 11. DOCUMENTATION OF INFORMED CONSENT. Your signature below means that you voluntarily agree to participate in this research study. ________________________________________ Signature _____________________________ Date You will be given a copy of this form to keep. 136 APPENDIX E: Individual Flipcharts Figure 13: Individual flipchart. Antonia Name: Antonia Age: 15 Being good with myself. To feel comfortable with who I am. (EOI) Well-being for me is to feel happiness, to have some angry moments (not excessive) shame, laugh, everything that make us to be ourselves, our own way of being and being able to regulate everything that is wrong. Well-being definition: Well-being definition for others: N/A Life Domains: Go out Home Communication Health Orchestra School education H e a l t h S a f e t y Negative Stories My sister is not calm. My mom when she drinks. C o m m u n i c a t i o n S a f e t y – E c o n O p . - . S a f e t y Expectations Conflicts Positive Stories School strike Help my friend Go out with my friend We are 3 in the house: my mom, my sister and me. To be calm Cook. The friendship of the 3 of us. My teachers The instruments. To share with my friends. To learn The workshops 137 Figure 14: Individual flipchart. Gema Name: Gema Age: 18 Health, peace of mind, no toxicity, to be comfortable, good relationships. (EOI) Gender equity. N/A Well-being definition: Well-being definition for others: School Life Domains: Home Relationships Hobbies C A H e a l t h e d u c a t i o n . E c o n O p . - Positive Stories Help my friend to move forward. Super friends K-pop Draw, read, music, photo e d u c a t i o n c a t i o n C o m m u n i . E c o n O p . - Negative Stories 5º Attendance Classmates Health Finances Home- repairs Bad experiences with friends from childhood. 138 Figure 15: Individual flipchart. Ivonne Name: Well-being definition: Well-being definition for others: Life Domains: Social Ivonne Age: 15 Well-being for me is to be able to recognize that I am calm with myself and with my social situation, and economic situation, and all the people that are around me. (EOI) To have spaces to share and develop my ideas. N/A Negative Stories Positive Stories Academic To be able to relate maths that I like with art. P a r t i c i p . E d u c a t i o n B2 teachers value my skills, even when they don’t coincide with the classes they teach. P a r t i c i p a t i E d u c a t i o n o n Professor don’t let me finish my art work, it took it from me, imposing. To be sentenced because I have an expansion, because I resist and because I have green hair. Share a trip with my friends. We easily agree and I felt independent and free. I don’t always share my ideas. I am alone in this. Story about Nabila Riffo’s case. To feel harm and o p p E c o n o m i c E d u c a t i o n P a r t i c i p a t i E d u c a t i o n o n G e n d e r E q O p p E c o n o m i c S a f e t y G e n d e r e q S a f e t y discrimination against me because of my sexual orientation and to be out with my partner. LGBT Being a victim of street abuse with my friends. I wear clothes for myself. Dad’s homophobic attack when he found me with a woman. e q a t i o n P a r t i c i p G e n d e r 139 Rad Fem Family Being able to see and recognize behaves and traditions that are machistas within people Laugh with my mom while we had breakfast. Figure 15 (cont’d) My mom is very liberal, she always gave the same treatment to me, even after knowing my sexual orientation. I have the perfect space to be listened and understood with my sister… we share the same anarcho- feminist ideas. Figure 16: Individual flipchart. James Name: James Age: 15 Well-being definition: Well-being definition for others: Social life Life Domains: School Physically: health; Mentally: calm (tranquilidad) N/A Positive Stories Go to the march, make non-sense stuff and have a great time. Negative Stories S a f e t y Annoying classmates don’t let us do the class. S a f e t y E d u c a t i o n Photo Class Nice environment and we have a good time at the class. S a f e t y 140 Figure 16 (cont’d) Teachers’ support is felt. Orchestra S a f e t y Everyone’s work is delayed because some didn’t study and that’s annoying for a lot of people. S a f e t y Figure 17: Individual flipchart. Jesse Name: Jesse Age: 19 Well-being definition: Well-being definition for others: Comfortability, happiness, freedom, peace, love. N/A Positive Stories Negative Stories Life Domains: Family Gender eq Communication Economic Opportunity Excellent childbirth full of love. H e a l t h Abuse from my uncle S a f e t y My son and my partner My siblings brought Cheetos to home and they didn’t share with me. I have a mean sister Cousin Karina’s femicide S a f e t y Cousing Chacho was stabbed. S a f e t y 141 Figure 17 (cont’d) Education Karate Music INACAP (technical university): good teachers and lots of help. Bad teacher (machista) E d u c a t i o n School Lots of support, fellowship and love Unforgettable experiences, beautiful memories. Age: 18 Being balanced, being in peace. G e n d e r e q E d u c a t i o n Figure 18: Individual flipchart. Kathy Name: Kathy Well-being definition: Well-being definition for others: Family (Emotional support) Economic Opportunity Health Life Domains: N/A Positive Stories Mom’s support My dad always supported me. He always thought about me and my brother. Negative Stories 142 Figure 18 (cont’d) Relationships (Emotional support) Health Work Economic Opportunity Art 35 (school) Gender eq Second boyfriend, mother-in-law and family I save until I reach goals. Machista teacher Bullying story First boyfriend e q G e n d e r s a f e t y s a f e t y G e n d e r e q They always give solutions B2 S a f e t y E d u c a t i o n P a r t i c i p a t i o n Figure 19: Individual flipchart. Princess Kim Princess Kim Name: Well-being definition: Well-being definition for others: Age: 17 To feel comfortable with myself, with the people around me and the environment. N/A 143 Figure 19 (cont’d) Positive Stories Family Gender eq Videos with my mom Kichi (cat) Dance, K- pop Friend Dance friends (just Dance) Self-love Play Music Life Domains: School Gender eq New friends Negative Stories Fights with my brother Dad. S a f e t y Future S a f e t y S a f e t y H e a l t h E d u c a t i o n S a f e t y G e n d e r e q E c o n o m i c O p p Noise e q S a f e t y G e n d e r Pressure Figure 20: Individual flipchart. Tessa Name: Tessa Age: Well-being definition: Well-being definition for others: When a person is psychologically happy and fulfilled. To have a good economic position and more material things. 16 144 Positive Stories My dad paid for my dream and my mom made it happen. My brother was born when I was 11. To tell how I felt took the pressure off me. I felt happier and others notice it too. To improve the relationship with my classmates. 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