Identification of Cultural and Transcultural Health Assets Among Moroccan, Romanian and Spanish Adolescents Through Photovoice

The health assets model focuses on recognizing the strengths, capacities and resources of individuals and their communities to improve health control processes. This study focuses on identifying and comparing the transcultural and cultural assets in health as accounted for by 45 young Romanians, Moroccans and Spaniards living in southern Spain. The research uses a photovoice method to understand what young people consider to boost their health. Of all the photographs taken, each young person selected the six most relevant images, and individual interviews were carried out. Both images and interviews were analysed qualitatively using Atlas Ti. We identified 40 transcultural assets in health that were common among the 3 cultural groups and 7 cultural assets that were specific to cultural groups. The seven assets include religion and spirituality, cultural symbols, medicine, traditional food, thinness, freedom/autonomy and plants. The definition of transcultural and cultural health assets facilitates the development of educational health interventions that reinforce the strengths of others in a culturally sensitive manner.