Children, social capital and health: increasing the well‐being of young people in rural Wales

This paper explores the usefulness of employing the concept of social capital within a research project investigating the best ways of meeting the health and well‐being needs of young people living in rural Wales. The first part of the paper provides an overview of some of the current research exploring the relationship between social capital, health and young people. The second part provides an overview of findings from an action research project to illustrate how social capital is conceived and applied in this context. It concludes by stating that children and young people do actively generate, draw upon and negotiate their own social capital, and that this is an under‐utilised resource in terms of promoting health and well‐being.