Annegreet Wubs
Annegreet Wubs, førsteamanuensis, UiB
Hovedinnhold
- Health Promotion
- Global health
- Social cognitions
- Salutogenesis
Research interests: My research interests focus on issues within the field of Global health and development, and Health promotion. My PhD study, which I finished in 2015, was on ‘Intimate partner violence among adolescents in Tanzania and South Africa’. High prevalence of violence in these settings, coupled with high prevalence of HIV, means that HIV prevention efforts need to also focus on intimate partner violence in order to be effective. This study also addressed another research interest: the applicability of Western-developed behavioural and social cognition models and theories in the global South, and the need for adapting such models to specific research contexts.
Another research interest is salutogenesis, or resource-based approaches to health. Traditionally, studies into health and health behaviour have focused predominantly on pathogenesis, or the study of ‘what makes people ill’. Salutogenesis on the other hand focuses on the origins and causes of what makes people healthy, and what makes them thrive, in spite of adversities. It looks at what resources individuals and communities have, for example mental, social, material, physical resources, and how these can help and maintain health and wellbeing. Currently I am involved in studies on salutogenesis with various foci: Occupational health in Norway, and what makes people healthy when looking at demands and resources in the work place; Childcare practices in Ghana and South Africa, looking at the resources some very poor families have and use, in order to provide good childcare and raise healthy children, while many other families in similar deprived social conditions unsuccessfully struggle to do so; Resilience among refugees in Norway, specifically young unaccompanied minors, focusing on sociocultural resources for refugee children, youth and families. Research aims for the near future are to include resource-based approaches to the study of intimate partner violence and adolescent sexual and reproductive health, and include this knowledge in developing effective interventions studies.
Contact information: annegreet.wubs@uib.no, https://www.uib.no/hemil
