Initially, health literacy was introduced as outcome measure to health education in school context aiming at both students and teachers (Simonds, 1974). However, for a long time adult centred research was dominating the field and it took more than three decades before children were given greater attention. Today, interest towards health literacy of children is evolving in health research and practice across Europe and beyond (Paakkari & Paakkari, 2012; Okan et al., 2015&2016; Bröder et al., 2016). Especially in contemporary school health education and promotion health literacy seems to be an important issue (St. Leger, 2001; Paakkari, 2015; Shih et al., 2016; Velardo & Drummond, 2016). Not surprisingly, the World Health Organisation recently has emphasised in the “Shanghai Declaration on Promoting Health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” that health literacy promotion could be best accomplished through school curriculum, quality education, and life-long learning (WHO, 2016). Educational health literacy policies can be found inter alia in the USA (Okan et al., 2015), Finland (Paakkari, 2015) or Australia (Velardo & Drummond, 2016). Generally most research in health literacy is exclusively adult driven, and only few studies are known to have conducted qualitative research with children to learn from them about their perspectives (Liu et al., 2016; Fairbrother et al., 2016). Child involvement is still a gap in many scientific fields although literature is shining light on the importance of child involvement in research, policy and practice for reasons such as enhancing child participation and empowerment, better knowledge of their views and priorities, more effective action, and self-evaluation of researcher`s impact and effectiveness (McLaughlin, 2016). Regarding schools and classroom practice, children`s opinions are considered to be important for the development of student appropriate learning and teaching materials as well as curriculum design and development (Grundmann et al., 2000; Bacher et al., 2007; Drexl, 2013). Scholars from childhood sociology (James and Prout, 2015), socialisation research (Hurrelmann & Bauer, 2015), education research (Bacher et al., 2007), or childhood studies (Bond and Agnew, 2013) agree and put emphasis on children as active actors. They understand child participation in research to be a precaution for enhancing better theoretical concepts, methodological designs, practice measures and research results. The concept of the active child is also well reflected in article 12 of the UNCRC emphasising that every child has the right to say what they think and that adults should take their opinions into account in all matters affecting them (Unicef, 2000). Consequently, it only seems plausible to involve children more frequently to health literacy research. Especially qualitative research is a way to achieve child participation and the key to accomplish the goal of valuing children`s voices in health literacy research and practice. Focus groups and interviews could serve this purpose well, but although becoming more popular, qualitative research with children is still rare due to several different reasons, such as cognitive, methodological, pragmatic and ethical issues associated with interviewing children (Gibson, 2007). However, by conducting focus groups and interviews with children their perspectives can be used to derive a child-centred understanding and elucidate the underlying tenets of “their” health literacy. Therefore the primary aim of this study is to develop a more nuanced understanding of health literacy articulated by children. The research question specifically serves the purpose to understand how children conceptualise health, literacy, as seen as the ability to apply necessary skills and knowledge in a given situation, setting or practice (Street, 1984), and the conditions that affect their health and well-being. Further, we aim at gathering insights on how they derive meaning from health communication and information.

Bacher J etal. (2007). Partizipation von Kindern in der Grundschule. In: Alt, C: Kinderleben-Start in die Grundschule. Bd:3.Wiesbaden,271-299. Bond E, Agnew S (2013). How one county council is taking young people’s views seriously. EJW,29:pp.13-29. Bröder J etal (2016). Health Literacy im Jugendalter-relevant für die Soziale Arbeit? ZKS,12,Heft:2. Drexl D (2013). Qualität im Grundschulunterricht: Der Einfluss der Elementar-auf die Primarpädagogik. Springer-Verlag. Fairbrother H etal. (2016). Making health information meaningful: Children's health literacy practices. SSM-PH,2:476-484. Gibson F (2007). Conducting focus groups with children and young people: strategies for success. JRN,12(5):473-483. Grundmann G etal. (2000). Schulische Partizipationsstrukturen und -möglichkeiten. In Jugendliche Lebenswelten und Schulentwicklung. VS Verlag. Hsieh HF, Shannon SE (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. QHR,15(9):1277-1288. Hurrelmann K, Bauer U (2015). Einführung in die Sozialisationstheorie. Das Modell der produktiven Realitätsverarbeitung. Weinheim und Basel:Beltz. James A, Prout A (2015). Constructing and reconstructing childhood: Contemporary issues in the sociological study of childhood. Routledge. Liu CH etal. (2016). Development and validation of the Taiwan Children’s Health Literacy Test. Global Health Promotion,doi:10.1177/1757975916656365. Mayring P (2015). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. Beltz Verlag. McLaughlin (2016). Involving Children and Young People in Policy, Practice and Research. National Children`s Bureau, London. Okan O, Pinheiro P, Zamora P, Bauer U (2015). Health Literacy bei Kindern und Jugendlichen. Bundesgesundheitsblatt-Gesundheitsforschung-Gesundheitsschutz:1;58(9):930-41. Okan O, Bröder J, Pinheiro P, Bauer U (2016). Health Literacy im Kindes- und Jugendalter - Eine explorierende Perspektive. In: Health Literacy: Forschungsstand und Perspektiven. Bern: Huber. Paakkari L (2015). Three Approaches to School Health Education as a Means to Higher Levels of Health Literacy. In: Schools for Health and Sustainability. Springer Netherlands. Paakkari L, Paakkari O (2012). Health literacy as a learning outcome in schools. HE,112 (2):133-152. Schreier M (2012). Qualitative content analysis in practice. SAGE, London. Shih SF etal. (2016). Health literacy and the determinants of obesity: a population-based survey of sixth grade school children in Taiwan. BMCPH:16(1), 280. Simonds SK (1974). Health education as social policy. HEM:2Suppl,1–10. St Leger L (2001). Schools, health literacy and public health: possibilities and challenges. HPI,16(2):197-205. Street BV (1984). Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge University Press. UNICEF (2000). Convention on the Rights of the Child. NY:UNICEF. Velardo S, Drummond M (2016). Emphasizing the child in child health literacy research. JCHC,doi:10.1177/1367493516643423. World Health Organisation (2016). Shanghai Declaration on promoting health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int.