ABSTRACT
To accommodate young people’s digital cultures of care, this chapter argues for a more careful consideration of peer support in health research and promotion. Peer influence is a dominant theme of youth research that informs health promotion and education interventions. Beyond simply learning from and informing each other, peers can offer vital social support. Therefore, greater research knowledge of peer support practices is necessary for health promoters and researchers to accommodate, rather than overlook, digital cultures of care. A formal health discourse of peer influence is underpinned by a risk focus on young people’s health – that is, the understanding that young people’s peers are likely to negatively influence their health behaviours. Health researchers and promoters have a tendency to find young people’s peer relationships problematic, typically positioning peers as a bad influence. Peer education has been heavily criticised, including common observations that it lacks evidence in being effective.
