Conceptualizing and measuring youth-adult partnership in community programs: a cross national study

Identifying Root Causes: Evaluation of a Program to Engage Youth in a Social Justice Approach to Tobacco Control

Movements designed to engage youth in tobacco control have been an important part of tobacco prevention for decades. Today, young people are increasingly diverse, and their primary issues of concern are gun control, racism, mental health, and climate change. To engage today's young people, tobacco control programs need to draw connections between youth's identities, top issues, and tobacco. UpRISE is a social justice youth tobacco control movement that engages diverse youth in identifying the root causes of youth nicotine use. In 2018-2019, 21 youth-serving organizations and schools hosted youth coalitions. Coalitions engaged in a six-session workbook called "Getting to the root cause," and adults were provided training and reflective supervision. Pre/post surveys with youth participants (n = 180) and end-of-year interviews with adult facilitators (n = 22) were used to assess outcomes. The primary outcomes were supportive adult relationships, youth voice in decision-making, anti-tobacco industry attitudes and beliefs, psychological empowerment, critical consciousness, and global belief in a just world. Quantitative measures of supportive adult relationships, youth voice in decision-making, psychological empowerment, and anti-tobacco industry attitudes and beliefs all increased significantly over time (p < .0001, p < .0001, p < .0001, p = .0034, respectively). Critical consciousness and global belief in a just world did not change significantly. During interviews, adults reported learning how: to engage in youth-adult partnerships, the tobacco industry abused its power, to engage in critical reflection about power. Adults also felt empowered. UpRISE may be a promising approach to increase racially diverse youth's engagement in social justice-oriented tobacco control efforts that advance equity.

"You can create a little bit more closure in your own story when someone really connects with it": exploring how involvement in youth peer support work can promote peer development

BACKGROUND

Peer support relates to the provision of social/emotional support that is delivered by individuals with lived experience of a key characteristic that is shared with clients. Although the main objective of peer support is to enhance client outcomes, through their involvement, peers derive a secondary benefit to their own personal development. This study applied a hybrid participatory-realist approach to identify what works, for whom, why and in what circumstances within the LOFT Transitional Age Youth (TAY) peer services. This paper presents findings related to the processes and possible benefits of being involved in peer work for the peer supporters themselves.

METHODS

Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were completed with peer and non-peer staff from the TAY program. A qualitative analysis applied a retroductive approach that involved both inductive and deductive processes to identify relevant themes.

RESULTS

Four program theories and one over-arching context were identified through the analyses. Program theories were related to: (1) enhancing self-efficacy and self-determination through peer involvement in program design, (2) increasing peer resiliency and self-care through effective supervision, (3) developing professional skills and opportunities for career advancement through peer practice and (4) overcoming stigma through the recognition of the value of peer lived experience.

CONCLUSIONS

Peer practice holds significant potential for the enhancement of the mental health system as well as to increase our understanding of stigma. The findings from this study offer critical new insights into the dynamics of how professional peer practice can support the personal development of youth peers and how programming can be intentionally designed to enhance these benefits.

Diffusion effects of a sexual violence prevention program leveraging youth-adult partnerships

The purpose of the current study was to examine the diffusion effects of a youth-led sexual violence prevention program (i.e., Youth Voices in Prevention [Youth VIP]). Specifically, social network analysis was used to measure the extent to which Youth VIP changed behaviors for 1172 middle and high school youth who did not attend program events but were friends with Youth VIP participants and completed the first and final survey (approximately 2 years apart). Findings suggest that there was considerable interpersonal communication about Youth VIP among the students generated by program participation. Specifically, youth with friends who participated in Youth VIP were more likely to report hearing their friends talk about Youth VIP and reported talking to their friends about Youth VIP compared with those not connected to Youth VIP participants. However, there were no diffusion effects found for behavioral outcomes (i.e., bystander intervention behavior, violence victimization, and perpetration). Given the mixed findings, further research is needed to determine the extent to which youth-led sexual violence prevention initiatives lead to changes in broader community-wide changes in youths' behaviors.

Formative research to develop an app to prevent dating and sexual violence and alcohol use among high school youth

The purpose of this study was to conduct formative research to inform the development of an app, that would simultaneously engage youth and adults, to prevent dating and sexual violence (DSV) and alcohol use (AU). Participants (N = 56) were high school students, parents/guardians, and professionals (e.g., school personnel) from across the United States who participated in online focus groups. Overall, participants had positive perceptions of the utility, helpfulness, and effectiveness of an app to prevent DSV and AU among high school students. Participants provided in depth information about both the content (e.g., local rates of DSV and AU) and features (e.g., skills-based, inclusion of incentives, help button) that the app should include. These preliminary data suggest that future research to develop and pilot an app for both youth and adults to prevent DSV and AU among high school students is warranted.

A scoping review of youth advisory structures in the United States: Applications, outcomes, and best practices

Although youth advisory structures (YASs) have proliferated internationally to facilitate the voice of young people, little is known about the practices of such groups, especially in the United States. To address this gap of knowledge, this study describes the findings of a scoping review of scholarly research on YAS in the United States. The review found that although the use of YAS is increasing, current scholarship offers little information about YAS processes or how youth are engaged. Most YAS in the review partnered with marginalized young people to inform research and programming around sensitive health topics, such as human immunodeficiency virus prevention. Youth who participated in YAS experienced positive outcomes such as leadership and skill development, healthier decision-making, and confidence. Although most studies involved youth in minimal ways, there is a growing body of literature where youth are engaged in long-term partnerships that support positive youth development. This review details other key characteristics of YAS and provides recommendations for best practices, such as building consensus around terms used to refer to YAS and promoting the dissemination of process details around YAS facilitation.

Pathways to Positive Youth Development in Malaysian Undergraduate Co-curricular Programs: A Moderated Mediation Model of Youth Voice and Psychological Hardiness

Youth voice is gaining more attention globally as a core feature of program quality within positive youth development programs. Few studies have examined the relationship between youth voice and positive youth development in high power-distance cultures, however, where young people often face psychological barriers to exercising decision-making in their work with program adults. Research is needed on the psychological mechanisms that might help youth thrive within settings that are less structurally and psychologically supportive of youth voice. Drawing on bioecological systems and hardiness theories, this quantitative correlational study evaluates the moderating effect of psychological hardiness on the relationship between youth voice, the mediators of program safety and engagement, and the 6 C’s of positive youth development. A moderated mediation model was tested among 436 first-year undergraduate co-curricular program participants from public universities in Malaysia (M = 21.192 years, SD = 1.191 years; 65.6% female). Youth voice positively predicted positive youth development; the relationship was partially mediated by program engagement, but not safety. The mediated pathway through program engagement was more predictive for hardier youth. By combining programmatic and individual psychological factors into the hypothesized model, this research identifies the potential importance of hardiness on the practice of youth voice for young adults in high power distance cultures. The findings highlight the need to identify other individual and programmatic factors that may contribute to the development of positive youth development in diverse cultural settings.

Positive School Climate and Emotional Engagement: A Mixed Methods Study of Chinese Students as Ethnocultural Minorities in Malaysian Secondary Schools

Past research on ethnocultural minority students indicates that persistent inequities require greater attention to the multiple learning supports needed to enhance school success. The present study was designed to extend research in this area by exploring school climate and emotional engagement among minority ethnocultural Chinese students in Malaysian secondary schools. We employed quantitative surveys with 724 students ( Mage = 16.1 years; 47.9% female), followed by qualitative interviews with a subset of 25 students ( Mage = 16.1 years; 52% female). Path analysis indicated that feelings of safety, socio-emotional support from teachers and peers, and student voice were predictors of emotional engagement for Chinese students, which further predicted cognitive engagement, academic performance, and school behavior. Thematic analysis further revealed that language and communication barriers and bullying negatively impacted students’ sense of safety and engagement. Caring, respectful relationships with teachers led to students having opportunities to direct their own learning and make decisions on schoolwide activities, promoting students’ feelings of engagement. Support from peers increased students’ emotional engagement by reducing school-related stressors. The findings suggest that a mutually respectful, caring school climate and opportunities for student voice can enhance critical school experiences for ethnocultural minority high school students.

Engaging young people within a collaborative knowledge mobilization network: Development and evaluation

Background

It is critical that mental health systems place a focus on prevention and early intervention focused on young people while integrating youth voice to guide priority directions.

Objective

This study was designed to better understand how youth advisories can be utilized to influence strategic directions within integrated knowledge mobilization networks operating within the youth mental health system.

Design

To support this objective, we reviewed the detailed stages of development in establishing a youth advisory within a national network designed to support the integration of youth services. We also engaged the advisory in a participatory evaluation process that examined the extent to which the network had created processes to include youth voice in decision‐making.

Results

Results from the surveys identified moderate to high levels of individual engagement as well as strong development of processes and procedures that support the inclusion of youth voice across the network.

Discussion

Major successes and challenges are presented and discussed with respect to the development of the advisory. The findings are useful for youth advocates and adult allies working to support youth engagement (YE) in knowledge mobilization to enhance the mental health services system. This study also contributes to research and evaluation efforts examining YE and represents an exemplar methodology for evaluating YE efforts at the system level.

Patient or Public Contribution

Young people as mental health service users and youth mental health advocates were involved in the design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of the data as well as the preparation of this manuscript.

Theorizing Organizational Learning to Enhance Youth-Adult Partnerships in Community-Based Youth Serving Organizations

Youth-adult partnerships are intentionally cultivated intergenerational relationships characterized by shared power among youth and adults. Although youth-adult partnerships (Y-APs) are widely adopted as a strategy to promote key positive development outcomes in youth service organizations, research documents various challenges that affect their quality implementation. This critical literature review presents a theoretical framework for how community-based youth service organizations may enhance youth-adult partnership quality through organizational learning. The main premise is that Y-AP implementation challenges are best understood as challenges of collective learning within an organization. As such, the review integrates theory and research in organizational learning with present scholarship on Y-APs to delineate how two learning processes-intra-group and inter-group knowledge transfer-influence Y-AP quality. These learning pathways exist in dynamic interaction at different levels of the organizational hierarchy, at the point of service and beyond. The theoretical framework provides a road map for effective functioning of Y-APs in practice and an interpretive lens for descriptive and intervention research to understand and address Y-AP challenges.

Participatory Research Approaches with Youth: Ethics, Engagement, and Meaningful Action

In this manuscript, we explore the promise and challenges of youth participatory action research (YPAR), paying particular attention to ethical issues and power dynamics that emerge in the context of research partnerships between youth and adults. We begin by reviewing the key tenets of YPAR and then go on to discuss how these tenets are often at odds with dominant approaches to research. We describe the tension between the values of YPAR and the systems and structures embedded in the academy. Further, we elucidate how adultism and the capitalist nature of the academy intersect with white supremacy culture, posing significant barriers to meaningful youth participation in community research partnerships. We then describe ways in which participatory scholars can disrupt these systems as well as larger paradigm shifts in the culture of academia that will be required to elevate youth voices and to amplify their efforts for equity.

Resistance Capital: Cultural Activism as a Gateway to College Persistence for Minority and First-Generation Students

This study provides a novel contribution by connecting two sets of literature, school engagement and multicultural university centers, in relation to late adolescent development. The aims of this mixed-method study were to: (a) quantitatively explore the relationship between student perceived cultural leadership experience and support within a multicultural center in relation to school engagement and (b) qualitatively address additional facilitators and barriers. Participants consisted of 134 college students, predominantly identifying as Latino/Hispanic (35.1%), Black/African American (34.3%), or Asian-Pacific Islander (23.9%), and first-generation (60.4%). Qualitative focus groups and a photovoice project engaged a subset of participants ( n = 57, n = 7, respectively). Regression analysis indicated youth voice, supportive staff relationships, and peer support were significant positive predictors of students’ perceived engagement within the multicultural center, however, some but not all of these predictors transferred toward sentiments of school engagement. Qualitative sources elucidated additional factors bolstering student engagement. Social, cultural, and resistance capitals were identified as key protective factors in relation to student perseverance. Findings also indicated institutional barriers against student engagement including a lack of cultural and ethnic representation throughout multiple levels of the university. Implications for expanding conceptions of social capital within late adolescent identity development theory are discussed.

Cluster Randomized Trial of Teens Against Tobacco Use: Youth Empowerment for Tobacco Control in El Paso, Texas

INTRODUCTION

This study examines smoke-free youth partnerships implementing the Teens Against Tobacco Use model developed by the American Lung Association. This innovative tobacco prevention strategy has not been evaluated rigorously. Students used peer teaching to educate youth about tobacco use and engaged in tobacco control advocacy activities. Participating high school and middle school youth were trained to develop and deliver tobacco prevention presentations to 4th-8th grade students in schools.

STUDY DESIGN

To evaluate the efficacy of the presentations, matched pairs of classrooms willing to have 1 presentation were randomly assigned to receive either the presentation first (intervention condition) or later in the school year (control condition).

SETTING/PARTICIPANTS

The study took place in a predominantly low-income Hispanic community. A total of 9 schools, 107 classes, and 2,257 students participated in the evaluation.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Tobacco susceptibility was assessed with a brief survey administered to students in both intervention and control classrooms in 2014 and 2015 after the completion of presentations in intervention classrooms. Analyses completed in 2019 compared intervention and control classrooms on tobacco susceptibility.

RESULTS

Intent-to-treat analyses indicated that classrooms receiving a tobacco prevention presentation had significantly lower tobacco susceptibility scores than classrooms that did not receive a presentation (12% vs 17%, p<0.01), representing a 37% reduction in the odds of tobacco susceptibility. Teens Against Tobacco Use presenters also completed tobacco retailer compliance checks and gained media coverage in advocating to regulate e-cigarettes in the same manner as other tobacco products.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest Teens Against Tobacco Use is an effective means of reducing tobacco susceptibility among 4th-8th graders in the immediate term. Longer-term outcome evaluations are needed to determine whether Teens Against Tobacco Use presentations can have a lasting impact on tobacco use.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

This study is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT02443025.

"We make a direct impact on people's lives": Youth empowerment in the context of a youth-led participatory budgeting project

Participatory budgeting [PB] is a democratic process whereby community members determine how to spend governmental funds. Youth-led PB is relatively new, occurring in select U.S. cities. During youth-led PB, youth collect ideas, develop proposals, and advertise community improvement projects for which they, citywide, cast deciding votes. The study examined opportunities for the empowerment youth at each stage of a youth-led PB project. Data collection included individual interviews with 31 youths and adult stakeholders, 3 focus groups with youths, and 7 observations of meetings. The data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research methods. Findings align well with the psychological empowerment literature and demonstrate several opportunities for empowerment throughout the PB project, including feeling in charge of the process, understanding and allocating resources, and influencing positive community change. Findings also demonstrate potential barriers to empowerment, including understanding bureaucratic decision making, and influencing policy. PB is relevant to furthering our understanding of the empowerment of youth. The youths who participated in the present study expressed feelings of competence, purpose, and an ability to use the skills learned to engage fellow youths in the PB process. Additional empirical research is needed to examine the dimensions of empowerment at each stage of the PB process.

"Be creative and you will reach more people": youth's experiences participating in an arts-based social action group aimed at mental health stigma reduction

Background: Starting in 2013, the Mental Health Youth Action Board, made up of 15 teens ages 15-18, was created to advise a large children's hospital on improvements in mental health care and produce social action projects to impact community perceptions of mental health.Methods: This participatory qualitative case study explored the experiences of 14 young people who participated in the Mental Health Youth Action Board between 2013 and 2016.Results: There were two higher order themes: process and outcomes. Process-related themes included how this was a unique leadership experience, the importance of the arts-based approach, and value of the intentionally constructed storytelling process. These processes led to youth growing as advocates for mental health.Conclusions: Arts-based approaches to social action that allow youth to share personal experiences of stigmatized topics can promote healing and support their growth as leaders.

How High Schools Become Empowering Communities: A Mixed-Method Explanatory Inquiry into Youth-Adult Partnership and School Engagement

Educational reform efforts emphasize empowerment and engagement, but these concepts are rarely translated into policy or classroom practice. This inquiry explores how schools can become places where students take ownership over their own learning. Phase 1 of this inquiry, a survey of students from diverse high schools, examines pathways to school engagement. Results indicated that youth voice in decision-making, particularly when the experience is situated within supportive adult relationships and a sense of safety, significantly predicts emotional and cognitive engagement. Phase 2, a case study of an exemplary high school, sought to explain these pathways. Grounded in the theoretical perspectives of "empowered community settings" and "youth-adult partnership," analyses highlighted the importance of a shared belief system and core instructional activities that were student-centered, affirmative, and strength-based. Within this context, the opportunity role structure allowed students to exercise voice in creating their own educational program. The relational environment offered partnership and safety for academic risk-taking. Teachers broke down traditional roles and power hierarchies in ways that helped students discover their own sources of engagement. The article identifies ways that community psychologists, as policy framers and as researchers, can help schools become places of empowerment and engagement.

A systematic review evaluating the psychometric properties of measures of social inclusion

INTRODUCTION

Improving social inclusion opportunities for population health has been identified as a priority area for international policy. There is a need to comprehensively examine and evaluate the quality of psychometric properties of measures of social inclusion that are used to guide social policy and outcomes.

OBJECTIVE

To conduct a systematic review of the literature on all current measures of social inclusion for any population group, to evaluate the quality of the psychometric properties of identified measures, and to evaluate if they capture the construct of social inclusion.

METHODS

A systematic search was performed using five electronic databases: CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, ERIC and Pubmed and grey literature were sourced to identify measures of social inclusion. The psychometric properties of the social inclusion measures were evaluated against the COSMIN taxonomy of measurement properties using pre-set psychometric criteria.

RESULTS

Of the 109 measures identified, twenty-five measures, involving twenty-five studies and one manual met the inclusion criteria. The overall quality of the reviewed measures was variable, with the Social and Community Opportunities Profile-Short, Social Connectedness Scale and the Social Inclusion Scale demonstrating the strongest evidence for sound psychometric quality. The most common domain included in the measures was connectedness (21), followed by participation (19); the domain of citizenship was covered by the least number of measures (10). No single instrument measured all aspects within the three domains of social inclusion. Of the measures with sound psychometric evidence, the Social and Community Opportunities Profile-Short captured the construct of social inclusion best.

CONCLUSIONS

The overall quality of the psychometric properties demonstrate that the current suite of available instruments for the measurement of social inclusion are promising but need further refinement. There is a need for a universal working definition of social inclusion as an overarching construct for ongoing research in the area of the psychometric properties of social inclusion instruments.

Toward Advanced Nursing Practice along with People-Centered Care Partnership Model for Sustainable Universal Health Coverage and Universal Access to Health

Objective:

this study developed a people-centered care (PCC) partnership model for the aging society to address the challenges of social changes affecting people’s health and the new role of advanced practice nurses to sustain universal health coverage.

Method:

a people-centered care partnership model was developed on the basis of qualitative meta-synthesis of the literature and assessment of 14 related projects. The ongoing projects resulted in individual and social transformation by improving community health literacy and behaviors using people-centered care and enhancing partnership between healthcare providers and community members through advanced practice nurses.

Results:

people-centered care starts when community members and healthcare providers foreground health and social issues among community members and families. This model tackles these issues, creating new values concerning health and forming a social system that improves quality of life and social support to sustain universal health care through the process of building partnership with communities.

Conclusion:

a PCC partnership model addresses the challenges of social changes affecting general health and the new role of advanced practice nurses in sustaining UHC.

Youth Civic Engagement: Do Youth Councils Reduce or Reinforce Social Inequality?

Youth engagement in municipal government has the potential to benefit both youth and the community. Yet, some forms of youth civic engagement may be related to social class and race resulting in benefits to select youth and communities, thus perpetuating a longer term trajectory of privilege or marginalization. Informed by theories of social capital and civic engagement, the present study examined how youth councils may reduce or reinforce social inequality among young people at the city level. Data collection included interviews with youth council members, interviews with adult allies, observations of youth council meetings, and a review of council documents. Thematic analysis identified four overarching themes related to social inequality: member representation, social networks, community engagement, and youth engagement in governmental decision making. Although the council was committed to diversity and authentic youth engagement, findings identified areas in need of further attention. One important area is recruiting diverse youth, including those who attend non-traditional school settings. Another key area is providing youth with ongoing training and support focused on effective strategies for community engagement. Finally, more emphasis should be placed on engaging socially disadvantaged youth in municipal government and assisting them in enhancing their social networks.

Youth-Adult Partnerships and Youth Identity Style

Youth-adult partnerships (e.g., youth leading programs, participating as members of advisory boards) are a common and widely recommended practice in youth work and youth-serving program settings. Although researchers have suggested that these opportunities contribute to youth's identity development, empirical evidence is lacking. In the current study, we tested associations between identity style and degree of youth voice, collaborative youth-adult relationships, and youth's program engagement in 194 youth participating in youth-adult partnerships (M _age = 17.6, 62 % female). We found that these characteristics of youth-adult partnerships predicted higher informational identity style, although only program engagement emerged as a unique predictor. Furthermore, exploratory analysis indicated that these associations were moderated by the type of organization. The findings suggest the need for more research on the multiple dimensions of youth-adult partnerships and their association with youth functioning, as well as pointing to the importance of the broader organizational context of youth-adult partnerships.

The Functions and Longitudinal Outcomes of Adolescents' Naturally Occurring Mentorships

Adolescence is a time during which positive adults outside the familial context may be most influential to development. A growing body of research on naturally occurring mentors has found favorable outcomes for youth who have these types of positive adult figures in their lives. Less is known, however, about how these naturally occurring mentors influence youths' development in the long-term. This study examines the long-term outcomes related to having a naturally occurring community mentor in adolescence. Results from longitudinal analyses of a nationally representative sample of adolescents revealed that having a mentor in adolescence was related to higher educational attainment, lower criminal activity, higher psychological well-being (i.e., optimism, self-efficacy, and lack of depressive symptoms), and greater romantic relationship satisfaction in adulthood. Additionally, a taxonomy of mentoring functions was created from qualitative responses and drawing upon the youth, work, and academic mentoring literature. This taxonomy aims to serve as a framework for understanding the functions of youth mentors to provide a foundation for future research. Implications of findings and future directions are considered.

Comparing the Functioning of Youth and Adult Partnerships for Health Promotion

Youth partnerships are a promising but understudied strategy for prevention and health promotion. Specifically, little is known about how the functioning of youth partnerships differs from that of adult partnerships. Accordingly, this study compared the functioning of youth partnerships with that of adult partnerships. Several aspects of partnership functioning, including leadership, task focus, cohesion, participation costs and benefits, and community support, were examined. Standardized partnership functioning surveys were administered to participants in three smoke-free youth coalitions (n = 44; 45 % female; 43 % non-Hispanic white; mean age = 13) and in 53 Communities That Care adult coalitions (n = 673; 69 % female; 88 % non-Hispanic white; mean age = 49). Multilevel regression analyses showed that most aspects of partnership functioning did not differ significantly between youth and adult partnerships. These findings are encouraging given the success of the adult partnerships in reducing community-level rates of substance use and delinquency. Although youth partnership functioning appears to be strong enough to support effective prevention strategies, youth partnerships faced substantially more participation difficulties than adult partnerships. Strategies that youth partnerships can use to manage these challenges, such as creative scheduling and increasing opportunities for youth to help others directly, are discussed.

Pathways to Youth Empowerment and Community Connectedness: A Study of Youth-Adult Partnership in Malaysian After-School, Co-Curricular Programs

After-school programs are prevalent across the world, but there is a paucity of research that examines quality within the "black box" of programs at the point of service. Grounded in current theory, this research examined hypothesized pathways between the experience of youth-adult partnership (youth voice in decision-making; supportive adult relationships), the mediators of program safety and engagement, and the developmental outcomes of youth empowerment (leadership competence, policy control) and community connectedness (community connections, school attachment). Surveys were administered to 207 ethnically diverse (47.3 % female; 63.3 % Malay) youth, age 15-16, attending after-school co-curricular programs in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Results showed that youth voice in program decision-making predicted both indicators of youth empowerment. Neither youth voice nor supportive adult relationships was directly associated with community connectedness, however. Program engagement mediated the associations between youth-adult partnership and empowerment. In contrast, program safety mediated the associations between youth-adult partnership and community connectedness. The findings indicate that the two core components of youth-adult partnership-youth voice and supportive adult relationships-may operate through different, yet complementary, pathways of program quality to predict developmental outcomes. Implications for future research are highlighted. For reasons of youth development and youth rights, the immediate challenge is to create opportunities for youth to speak on issues of program concern and to elevate those adults who are able and willing to help youth exercise their voice.