Discourses on children and health in National Public Health Policy documents: examples from Sweden and Norway

Promoting the health of children remains a global and national priority, as reflected in the proliferation of public health policies, strategies, and guidelines over the past decade. While these documents aim to improve health outcomes, they also play a critical role in shaping how children and young people are constructed as health subjects. This study critically examines recent national public health policy documents from Sweden and Norway through a health promotion lens, focusing on the discursive positioning of children. Drawing on theoretical insights from critical childhood studies and public health policy research to frame our discourse analysis, we identify dominant narratives that frame children primarily as passive, dependent, and vulnerable. These adult-centric discourses, rooted in risk and knowledge paradigms, offer limited space for agency, participation, or rights-based approaches. Despite strong rhetorical commitments to equality and child health, the policies risk reinforcing hierarchical power relations and deficit-based views of childhood. We argue that aligning public health policy with health promotion principles requires reframing children not merely as future investments, but as present rights-holders and active contributors to their own health. Embedding participatory mechanisms and expanding comparative research across welfare contexts may foster more inclusive and empowering policy development. This study contributes to ongoing debates on child agency, policy framing, and the role of discourse in shaping health promotion practice.