# Photovoice, emotional health, and structural inequalities: adolescent voices from an intercultural neighborhood in the global south

## TL;DR

Adolescent girls in Santiago, Chile, use photos to share how their emotional health is shaped by personal and community experiences in a culturally diverse neighborhood.

## Contribution

This study uses Photovoice to explore how structural inequalities and cultural diversity influence adolescent emotional well-being in the Global South.

## Key findings

- Emotional well-being is connected to both personal and collective spaces like friendships and family.
- Unpleasant emotions like desolation are seen as part of emotional development.
- Nature is symbolically linked to complex emotions and ecological concerns.

## Abstract

The research is framed within the Latin American collective health perspective, which understands emotional well-being as a relational and situated phenomenon shaped by social determinants. We aimed explores how a group of cisgender and non-binary adolescent girls from Global South construct and give meaning to their emotional well-being in a context marked by structural inequalities, migration, and cultural diversity.

Using the Photovoice method, a participatory strategy was developed that enabled participants to express their emotional experiences through images and collective narratives. Intersectionality and adolescent agency were central to the analysis. The study was conducted between 2022 and 2023 in a single-sex public school located in an intercultural neighborhood of Santiago, Chile, during the return to in-person learning after 2 years of COVID-19 lockdown.

Findings show that emotional well-being is linked to both intimate spaces (e.g., solitude, bonds with companion animals) and collective ones (e.g., friendships, family, activism, and school). Additionally, unpleasant emotions, such as desolation, were interpreted as part of emotional development. Nature emerged symbolically to reflect complex emotions and as a source of ecological concern.

The study underscores the importance of creating spaces for participation, listening, and recognition, and calls for public policies that actively incorporate adolescent voices in shaping emotional of well-being.