Young adults’ perceptions about health

People’s perceptions about health are very complex. In today’s society there is a moral value in being healthy, and a healthy person is seen as a person with strong willpower and self-discipline. But people also tend to go against the norm in the society to experience autonomy and therefore choses to live unhealthy. The material used in this study was acquired through two qualitative focus groups interviews. The focus group interviews were semi-structured and lasting for about 50 minutes each. The interviews were afterwards transcribed and analyzed with the help of grounded theory’s coding schematics. The aim of this study is to shed some light on the perceptions young adults have about health. Our study shows that both groups almost had the same views of what is considered healthy and unhealthy. The members in both groups also confirmed that health both has a moral value and that people want to go against what is valued in the society. Some of the participants argued that they were healthy even though they did things that the group in general didn’t consider to be healthy. But overall they didn’t have any problems with saying that they were unhealthy