Youth Engagement and Participation: Field-Building Across Research and Practice

Abstract

Over the last two decades, there has been attention to promoting meaningful youth “engagement,” “participation” and “voice” in adolescent health [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. UN and other investments in reports, network-building, and meetings like the Bali Global Youth forum raised the visibility of youth engagement as a priority, sharing principles, examples, and challenges across diverse contexts [ [2] , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Recently, the Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing provided an overview of youth engagement and health, including barriers to meaningful engagement [ [15] ]. Despite extensive theoretical, ethical, and practice work on youth engagement, particularly in the domain of sexual/reproductive health, we need more systematic evidence about fundamental process and outcome questions. Rigorous practice-based evidence [ [16] ], enabled by sustained research-practice partnerships [ [17] ], is vital for generating a knowledge base to guide the field. Here, we seek to provide further clarity in this underdeveloped research area, highlighting distinctions among youth participation approaches, and propose a research agenda moving forward.