Adolescent Health Research Research Articles

Trans and gender diverse identities in adolescent health research: making the most of imperfect data

Advancing adolescent health research necessitates deliberate design and analysis that accurately captures the rapidly evolving world in which adolescents live and the ways in which they understand and express themselves...

Knowledge on adolescent and reproductive health among secondary school students in Khulna City, Bangladesh

The main objective of this study was to investigate the depth and breadth of knowledge and ideas about adolescent health among secondary-level students. A concurrent mixed method approach, both quantitative and qualitative methods, was followed to carry out the study. Students enrolled in tenth grade under the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) in Khulna City, Bangladesh, were chosen as the respondents of the study. Kotwali and Khanjahan Ali Thana of Khulna City were rationally chosen as the areas of the study. A total of 40 schools were randomly chosen, and 400 surveys, 10 surveys from each school, ideally 05 boys and 05 girls, were carried out, including 10 in-depth case studies. Findings indicated that, on average, more than half of the adolescents have knowledge gaps about adolescents and reproductive health, for example, misconceptions about the adolescent period and age range of puberty, vague understanding of the first sign(s) of physical appearances, and face critical emotional and social challenges. Both qualitative and quantitative data further showed that they hardly get sufficient cooperation and support from family and social environments in dealing with their challenges, display risky health behaviour, and make major decisions based on their self-discretionary assumptions to deal with crises. The findings of this study would provide important guidelines to parents and guardians, local and district and regional and national level GOs and NGOs health professionals who work with adolescent and reproductive health services, policymakers, academics, and researchers to create an adolescent-friendly environment.

Empowering youths through citizen science to address health inequalities in adolescence

Abstract Citizen Science (CS) stands as a beacon of hope in the fight against inequalities in adolescent health, revolutionizing scientific research by involving individuals from diverse backgrounds. Unlike traditional methods, CS transcends academic boundaries, fostering inclusivity and collaboration irrespective of age, nationality, or social status. This approach has gained momentum in adolescent health research, empowering young people as co-researchers from project inception, thereby reducing disparities in health knowledge and access. Studies demonstrate its efficacy in enhancing empowerment and health literacy among participants. YouthChronic is an example of how CS can mitigate health inequalities among adolescents. The project ensures active participation in every research stage by engaging adolescents with chronic conditions as citizen scientists. Open-ended questions facilitate detailed responses, while participation in analysis and dissemination enhances their research involvement and sense of ownership. Through initiatives like YouthChronic, CS is reshaping the research landscape, making it more relevant and impactful to bridge the inequality gap. Young Citizen Scientists’ views on their participation: “As part of YouthChronic, we felt like our experiences with chronic conditions were finally being heard. The researchers were cool-they listened to us, let us be flexible with our participation, and even taught us some research skills. Learning from other peers’ experiences made us feel less alone and gave us new insights. But it’s frustrating that we’re limited by resources. We have big ideas, like running an advocacy campaign, but we need funding to make them happen”. In conclusion, by actively involving adolescents in the scientific process through CS initiatives like YouthChronic, we can reduce inequalities in adolescent health, empower marginalized voices, and pave the way for a brighter, more inclusive future in scientific exploration and discovery.

The relationship between future time perspective and suicide ideation in college students: Multiple mediating effects of anxiety and depression

BackgroundSuicide ideation has high prevalence in adolescents, better future time perspective is considered a protective role for anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation. However, the impact of future time perspective on suicide ideation remains unclear, especially when anxiety and depression as mediating roles. MethodsA cross-sectional study of college students was performed in Chongqing, China. There are 851 students enrolled in this study and we distribute questionnaires through the WeChat platform to obtain data in 2023. We conducted Pearson correlation analysis and descriptive statistics. Model 6 in PROCESS 4.0 was used to test the multiple mediating effect. ResultsCollege students who have higher future time perspective are associated with a lower risk of anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation. Future time perspective not only affects suicide ideation directly, but also influence it by means of two mediating pathways: ①depression, the mediation effect is 37.41 %; ②the multiple mediating effects of anxiety and depression with a mediating effect of 29.68 %. ConclusionHigher future time perspective functions as a protective role in anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation; future time perspective can affect and predict the occurrence of suicide ideation by influencing anxiety and depression in college students. This conclusion will be a novel and insightful part of adolescent mental health research, and provide a new perspective to prevent college students from committing suicide in the future.

Adolescent reproductive health in a post- Dobbs landscape: a review.

To summarize notable recent research in adolescent reproductive health, particularly with respect to a rapidly changing legal landscape surrounding health services that significantly impact adolescent health. Approval of the first over-the-counter contraceptive pill represented a major advance in adolescent reproductive health, which relied on research regarding its safety, efficacy, and potential to increase access for vulnerable groups. Despite this approval, disparities persist in equitable contraceptive access for adolescents of color and those from sexual and gender identity minorities. Legal changes in access to abortion care and parental involvement in reproductive health decision-making have presented significant challenges for young people across the U.S. Recent research points to the promise of telehealth abortion care and parental acceptance of confidentiality in adolescent reproductive healthcare. Misinformation remains a barrier to advancing adolescent reproductive health and points to continued opportunities for providers to create evidence-based online content. In this review, we discuss recent research regarding adolescent reproductive health and laws impacting the reproductive health of adolescents. As the legal landscape evolves, further research surrounding the effect of policy changes that both expand and restrict access to adolescent reproductive health services will be critical to advancing adolescent health.

Comparison of the impact of school environment on body mass index, physical fitness, and mental health among Chinese adolescents: Correlations, risk factors, intermediary effects

Schools offer prospects to enhance adolescent health by encouraging physical activity. This study contributes to the understanding of adolescent health research, drawing on data from physical fitness and mental health surveys conducted in 2015. The participants included 8,967 seventh-grade students across 45 junior high schools in Dalian, China. By employing multilevel analytical models, this research explores the effects of both the school environment and school neighbourhood environment on adolescents’ body mass index (BMI), physical fitness (PF), and mental health (MH). Additionally, we delve into how physical activities (PA) affect these relationships through stepwise regression analysis. The findings indicate that the school setting significantly affects adolescents’ health outcomes. Specifically, BMI is positively correlated with distance to the nearest amusement park. Conversely, it negatively relates to the extent of school green space and playground, the diversity of land use, and sidewalk density. In terms of PF, positive associations were observed with land use mix and the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI). However, PF demonstrates negative associations with distance to the nearest parks and beaches. Concerning MH, there is a positive relationship with the proportion of playground, land use mix, sidewalk density, NDVI, and the green view index (GVI). On the contrary, MH is negatively correlated with the distance to park, amusement park, and beach. PA, as an intermediary factor, moderates the relationship between the school environment and both adolescent PF and MH, with mediation effects of 3.713% and 25.193%, respectively. These insights offer valuable theoretical guidance for designing health-promoting schools and urban planning strategies.

Research Ethics of Involving Adolescents in Health Research Studies: Perspectives From Australia

PurposeAdolescent participation in health research studies is critical yet complex given the lack of clarity around issues such as consent. This study aimed to understand how those conducting research in Australia navigate research ethics in health research involving adolescents, through qualitative interviews. MethodsPurposive sampling was used to recruit 23 researchers involved in adolescent health research using semi-structured in-depth interviews. Interviews were conducted via Zoom and audio-recorded after obtaining informed consent. Thematic analysis was used to construct themes and data were organised using NVivo. ResultsTwo contrasting positions emerged from the data: (1) framing of adolescents as inherently vulnerable, their participation in research understood in terms of risk and protection and (2) adolescent engagement in research is understood in terms of empowerment, emphasising their capacity to make decisions about research participation. We traced these positions through three key themes, particularly in relation to the role of ethics committees: (1) competing positions as a result of inferior or superior knowledge about adolescent lives, (2) competing positions resulting in a risk averse or an empowerment approach, and (3) reflections on processes of obtaining consent which involves gatekeeping and tokenism. DiscussionOur study highlights the contentious topic of navigating ethics committee requirements for the needs of adolescents. Majority of participants felt the current research ethics establishment is not favourable for researchers or adolescents themselves. While it is imperative that perceptions of ethics committees also be studied in the future, our study provides preliminary understanding of how experiences and perceptions shape how researchers interact with the research ethics establishment.

Engaging adolescents in research: Home self-collection of biological samples and health questionnaires.

Adolescent health research with biomarker data collection is limited due to difficulties in recruiting and engaging this age group. Thus, successful recruitment, engagement, and retention of adolescents in translational research are necessary to elucidate factors influencing mental and physical health conditions, uncover novel biomarkers, and expand prevention and treatment options. This paper describes strategies for effective recruitment and retention of adolescents in a research study, using a project examining depressive symptoms and the microbiome to illustrate these approaches. This cross-sectional study collected electronic self-reported survey data and self-collected biospecimens (stool and salivary samples) from adolescents 13-19 years old. All but two participants completed the questionnaires, with few missing responses. 94% provided at least one salivary sample and 89% supplied a stool sample. Participants were able to adhere to the study instructions. Using a participant-centered approach, our study successfully recruited and engaged the targeted 90 participants in self-collection of electronic survey data and biospecimens. Successful strategies of recruitment and retention included: 1) on-site clinic recruitment by research team, 2) active involvement of parents as appropriate, 3) use of electronic surveys and self-collection of biospecimens to foster control and ease of participation while addressing privacy concerns, 4) noninvasive collection of data on biospecimen, 5) frequent texting to communicate with participants, 6) flexibility in the pickup and transferring of biospecimens to accommodate adolescent schedules, 7) developmentally appropriate research, 8) participant reimbursement, and 9) sensitivity toward discussing stool sample materials. As a result of these strategies, adolescent participation in the research proved feasible.

Manifold Learning Uncovers Nonlinear Interactions Between the Adolescent Brain and Environment That Predict Emotional and Behavioral Problems

BackgroundTo progress adolescent mental health research beyond our present achievements—a complex account of brain and environmental risk factors without understanding neurobiological embedding in the environment—we need methods to uncover relationships between the developing brain and real-world environmental experiences. MethodsWe investigated associations between brain function, environments, and emotional and behavioral problems using participants from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (n = 2401 female). We applied manifold learning, a promising technique for uncovering latent structure from high-dimensional biomedical data such as functional magnetic resonance imaging. Specifically, we developed exogenous PHATE (potential of heat-diffusion for affinity-based trajectory embedding) (E-PHATE) to model brain-environment interactions. We used E-PHATE embeddings of participants’ brain activation during emotional and cognitive processing tasks to predict individual differences in cognition and emotional and behavioral problems both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. ResultsE-PHATE embeddings of participants’ brain activation and environments at baseline showed moderate-to-large associations with total, externalizing, and internalizing problems at baseline, across several subcortical regions and large-scale cortical networks, compared with the zero-to-small effects achieved by voxelwise data or common low-dimensional embedding methods. E-PHATE embeddings of the brain and environment at baseline were also related to emotional and behavioral problems 2 years later. These longitudinal predictions showed a consistent moderate effect in the frontoparietal and attention networks. ConclusionsThe embedding of the adolescent brain in the environment yields enriched insight into emotional and behavioral problems. Using E-PHATE, we demonstrated how the harmonization of cutting-edge computational methods with longstanding developmental theories advances the detection and prediction of adolescent emotional and behavioral problems.

Manifold learning uncovers nonlinear interactions between the adolescent brain and environment that predict emotional and behavioral problems.

To progress adolescent mental health research beyond our present achievements - a complex account of brain and environmental risk factors without understanding neurobiological embedding in the environment - we need methods to unveil relationships between the developing brain and real-world environmental experiences. We investigated associations among brain function, environments, and emotional and behavioral problems using participants from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study (N=2,401 female). We applied manifold learning, a promising technique for uncovering latent structure from high-dimensional biomedical data like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Specifically, we developed exogenous PHATE (E-PHATE) to model brain-environment interactions. We used E-PHATE embeddings of participants' brain activation during emotional and cognitive processing to predict individual differences in cognition and emotional and behavioral problems, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. E-PHATE embeddings of participants' brain activation and environments at baseline show moderate-to-large associations with total, externalizing, and internalizing problems at baseline, across several subcortical regions and large-scale cortical networks, relative to the zero-to-small effects achieved by voxel or PHATE methods. E-PHATE embeddings of the brain and environment at baseline also relate to emotional and behavioral problems two years later. These longitudinal predictions show a consistent, moderate effect in the frontoparietal and attention networks. Adolescent brain's embedding in the environment yields enriched insight into emotional and behavioral problems. Using E-PHATE, we demonstrate how the harmonization of cutting-edge computational methods with longstanding developmental theories advances detection and prediction of adolescent emotional and behavioral problems.

Child and adolescent mental health services in Khartoum State, Sudan: a desktop situational analysis.

Sudan is a Northeast African country, with 61.7% of its population under 24 years. With a large youth population and significant cultural and linguistic diversity, Sudan, like most low-income countries, has contributed minimal data to global child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) research. This study aimed to perform the first ever situational analysis of CAMH services and systems in Khartoum State, Sudan. The study focused on Khartoum state and covered the calendar years 2019 and 2020. Using the World Health Organization Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS) version 2.2 adapted for CAMH, the study focused on the publically available data sources. Findings were described and presented in tables and figures using the WHO-AIMS template. The situational analysis found no CAMH-specific policies, no separate budget for CAMH, and no supervising body for CAMH services in Khartoum. Three tertiary mental health hospitals provided CAMH services, all combined with adult mental health services. Essential medicines were available in all facilities, except methylphenidate available only in 3 central pharmacies. There was no free access to essential psychotropic drugs for children and adolescents except in emergency settings. Data about training to primary healthcare providers and the process of referral to specialized services were limited. A school mental health programme existed which provided early identification and management of CAMH problems in schools. The workforce was small and variable across all levels of care. No formal public health awareness campaigns and little evidence of formal intersectoral collaboration on CAMH were identified. A health information system existed, but no CAMH-specific items were reported. Among a handful of publications on CAMH, no national studies on CAMH were identified. This situational analysis represented the first systematic collation of data and information about CAMH in Sudan. Findings highlighted some areas of strength, but also many gaps in CAMH services and systems. We acknowledge the need to complement the desktop analysis with in-depth data collection with stakeholders across multiple levels, but hope that this will serve as a first step towards strengthening CAMH services in Sudan and other low-income countries.

Menstrual symptoms and subjective well-being among postmenarchal adolescents

BackgroundMenstrual symptoms are predominantly studied among adults but may occur directly after menarche. Adolescent menstrual health care, however, faces specific obstacles and more research into menstrual symptoms as a determinant of adolescent well-being is therefore advocated. Objective(s)To study menstrual symptoms and their impact on everyday life and well-being among postmenarchal adolescents. Study Design: A survey was delivered to a random sample of 1644 schoolgirls, drawn from a population-based project involving 116 lower secondary education schools (7th-8th grade) in Stockholm, Sweden. Menstrual symptoms (i.e., dysmenorrhea; heavy bleeding; irregular periods; mood disturbance; other general symptoms) were investigated through multiple choice questions and defined according to their impact on everyday life as mild (seldom affected), moderate (affected but possible to cope) and severe (affected and difficult to cope). Subjective well-being was measured with the World Health Organisation Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5). Postmenarchal respondents were eligible for analysis whereas those with incomplete outcome data or using hormonal contraception were excluded. The frequency and severity of symptoms across different postmenarchal years (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th+ year after menarche) were studied with Chi-square and Kendall's tau statistics. Analysis of variance was used to study the association between menstrual symptoms and WHO-5 scores. A composite Menstrual Health index variable was obtained through principal component analysis and used to study the overall impact of menstrual symptoms on well-being in regression analyses. ResultsOf 1100 postmenarchal girls (mean age 14.1±0.7), 93.2% reported menstrual symptoms, 81.3% had at least one moderate symptom and 31.3% had at least one severe symptom. The most frequent symptoms were dysmenorrhea (80.4%) and mood disturbance (81.1%), followed by irregular periods (67.9%), heavy bleeding (60.4%) and other general symptoms (60.4%). Throughout postmenarchal years, there was a significant increase in frequency and severity (p<.001) of dysmenorrhea (τ=0.148), heavy bleeding (τ=0.134), mood disturbance (τ=0.117) and other general symptoms (τ=0.110), but not irregular periods (τ=-0.0201; p=.434). Girls with menstrual symptoms had significantly lower WHO-5 scores than those without symptoms (mean difference [MD] =17.3; 95%CI 12.3-22.4). Analysis of variance showed significant associations (p<.001) with WHO-5 scores for each of the examined menstrual symptoms. In post-hoc pairwise comparisons with peers without symptoms, the greatest reductions in WHO-5 score were found among girls with severe symptoms (MD for: dysmenorrhea -20.72; heavy bleeding -15.75; irregular periods -13.81; mood disturbance -24.97; other general symptoms -20.29) but significant differences were observed even for moderate or mild symptoms. The composite Menstrual Health index was significantly associated with WHO-5 scores in regression analysis, independently of age, age at menarche, BMI, smoking, physical activity, own and parental country of birth, biparental care, and socioeconomic status. ConclusionsDespite growing awareness about the relevance of menstruation to women's health, unmet menstrual health needs are a potential threat to the well-being of adolescents. Education, screening, and clinical competence are important tools to reduce the burden of menstrual symptoms during adolescence and to prevent long-term consequences. The development of novel person-centered strategies should be a priority for clinical practice and research in adolescent menstrual health.

Trends in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Research and its Countermeasures

The mental health issues among children and adolescents have become a focal point of attention in today's society. This paper reviews and analyzes the current trends in research on the mental health of children and adolescents. The results indicate that future research will exhibit characteristics of interdisciplinary collaboration, technological applications, and innovative psychological intervention strategies. To promote overall improvement in the mental health of children and adolescents, it is necessary to enhance the qualifications of professionals, provide social support, and establish collaborative networks. By implementing these measures, we can create a better psychological environment for children and adolescents.

Intensive community care services for children and young people in psychiatric crisis: an expert opinion

BackgroundChildren and young people’s (CYP) mental health is worsening, and an increasing number are seeking psychiatric and mental health care. Whilst many CYPs with low-to-medium levels of psychiatric distress can be treated in outpatient services, CYPs in crisis often require inpatient hospital treatment. Although necessary in many cases, inpatient care can be distressing for CYPs and their families. Amongst other things, inpatient stays often isolate CYPs from their support networks and disrupt their education. In response to such limitations, and in order to effectively support CYPs with complex mental health needs, intensive community-based treatment models, which are known in this paper as intensive community care services (ICCS), have been developed. Although ICCS have been developed in a number of settings, there is, at present, little to no consensus of what ICCS entails.MethodsA group of child and adolescent mental health clinicians, researchers and academics convened in London in January 2023. They met to discuss and agree upon the minimum requirements of ICCS. The discussion was semi-structured and used the Dartmouth Assertive Community Treatment Fidelity Scale as a framework. Following the meeting, the agreed features of ICCS, as described in this paper, were written up.ResultsICCS was defined as a service which provides treatment primarily outside of hospital in community settings such as the school or home. Alongside this, ICCS should provide at least some out-of-hours support, and a minimum of 90% of CYPs should be supported at least twice per week. The maximum caseload should be approximately 5 clients per full time equivalent (FTE), and the minimum number of staff for an ICCS team should be 4 FTE. The group also confirmed the importance of supporting CYPs engagement with their communities and the need to remain flexible in treatment provision. Finally, the importance of robust evaluation utilising tools including the Children’s Global Assessment Scale were agreed.ConclusionsThis paper presents the agreed minimum requirements of intensive community-based psychiatric care. Using the parameters laid out herein, clinicians, academics, and related colleagues working in ICCS should seek to further develop the evidence base for this treatment model.

Our health, our research. Identifying public health research priorities among children and youth in a multiethnic population: protocol for a community-based participatory health research priority survey

IntroductionEmphasis on public involvement (PI) in health research has increased in the last 20 years. However, there is limited literature on PI in planning and conducting population-based health research. This...

The Effectiveness of Reloud Model in Increasing Knowledge and Literacy of Health Reproduction’s Adolescents Based on Health Education in Samarinda City

Reloud aims to foster students' love for reading. Indonesian adolescent sexual reproductive health research states that 10% of those aged 15-24 have had premarital sex, used condoms (49% of women &amp; 27% of men), had unwanted pregnancies 24%, knowing that their friends had abortions ( 23% of girls and 19% of boys) and 15% of them consume alcohol, this is influenced by various factors, one of which is the lack of information about adolescent reproductive health. Literacy in Indonesia is included in the low category (37.32%), so efforts to increase literacy are very urgent to be carried out as an effort to improve the quality of the Indonesian nation's resources. The target population in this study was health-based senior high school students in Samarinda City. The design of this study used a Quasi Experiment with a pre-posttest approach with a control group design. Samples were taken from as many as 3 (three) health-based schools in Samarinda city with a purposive sampling of 60 respondents. Characteristics of the dominant respondent are 16 years old (31.6%), female (65%), and in class X (38.3%). The results of data analysis on differences in the level of adolescent reproductive health knowledge obtained a p-value of 0.826 if no intervention was given, a p-value of 0.153 if given 1 (one) intervention, and a p-value of 0.001 if given 2 (two) Reloud interventions. Of the three groups that described the effectiveness of the Reloud intervention method, it occurred significantly in increasing adolescent knowledge related to reproductive health by a p-value of 0.031 so this method is one that can be applied to adolescents.

Pre-harvest CD34+ cell counts predicted peripheral blood stem cell collection yields.

Acta PaediatricaAccepted Articles BRIEF REPORTOpen Access Pre-harvest CD34+ cell counts predicted peripheral blood stem cell collection yields Laura Kilpeläinen, Corresponding Author Laura Kilpeläinen [email protected] orcid.org/0009-0006-1988-8638 TamCAM - Tampere Center for Child, Adolescent and Maternal Health Research, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Tampere University, Finland Correspondence e-mail address. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorAtte Nikkilä, Atte Nikkilä TamCAM - Tampere Center for Child, Adolescent and Maternal Health Research, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Tampere University, Finland Kanta-Häme Central Hospital, Hämeenlinna, FinlandSearch for more papers by this authorOlli Lohi, Olli Lohi orcid.org/0000-0001-9195-0797 TamCAM - Tampere Center for Child, Adolescent and Maternal Health Research, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Tampere University, Finland Tays Cancer Center and Department of Pediatrics, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, FinlandSearch for more papers by this author Laura Kilpeläinen, Corresponding Author Laura Kilpeläinen [email protected] orcid.org/0009-0006-1988-8638 TamCAM - Tampere Center for Child, Adolescent and Maternal Health Research, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Tampere University, Finland Correspondence e-mail address. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorAtte Nikkilä, Atte Nikkilä TamCAM - Tampere Center for Child, Adolescent and Maternal Health Research, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Tampere University, Finland Kanta-Häme Central Hospital, Hämeenlinna, FinlandSearch for more papers by this authorOlli Lohi, Olli Lohi orcid.org/0000-0001-9195-0797 TamCAM - Tampere Center for Child, Adolescent and Maternal Health Research, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Tampere University, Finland Tays Cancer Center and Department of Pediatrics, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, FinlandSearch for more papers by this author First published: 18 June 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.16879 This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi:10.1111/apa.16879. AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Accepted ArticlesAccepted, unedited articles published online and citable. The final edited and typeset version of record will appear in the future. RelatedInformation

Intersectionality and adolescent medicine: an overview.

This review defines intersectionality, discusses recent studies that use an intersectional framework in adolescent health research, and outlines ways where clinicians can use intersectionality to address health disparities in youth of color through clinical practice, research, and advocacy. Research using an intersectional framework can identify populations at risk for certain disorders or behaviors. Recent studies in adolescent health research using an intersectional lens identified lesbian girls of color as an at-risk population for e-cigarette use, demonstrated lower skin color satisfaction among Black girls of all ages predicted greater binge-eating disorder symptoms, and showed that two-thirds of Latine (gender-neutral term that refers to people with Latin American roots) youth who recently immigrated to the United States experienced at least one traumatic event during their migration journey, putting them at risk for PTSD and other mental health disorders. Intersectionality refers to how multiple social identities intersect to produce a specific experience that reflects overlapping systems of oppression. Diverse youth contain multiple identities that intersect to produce unique experiences and health inequities. Using an intersectional framework acknowledges that youth of color are not homogenous. Intersectionality becomes an important tool to care for marginalized youth and advance health equity.

Implementing a youth advisory board to inform adolescent health and medication safety research.

Adolescents are a crucial, yet underrepresented population for health service researchers to study. Nevertheless, youth are rarely included in the design, implementation, and evaluation of research. There is a lack of literature describing adolescents as advisors in health services research in pharmacy. The creation of a youth advisory board (YAB) provides a platform for youth to contribute to the design and implementation of research aimed at improving health and medication use in the pediatric population. This commentary describes the development, benefits, challenges, and lessons learned from the first YAB at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) Collaborative Research on MEdication use & family health (CRoME) Lab alongside feedback from the youth members.

Involving children, teachers and parents/carers in dialogues around child well-being in schools

Building dynamic partnerships between communities and academic institutions, via knowledge exchange, plays a vital role in generating research with mutual benefits for research partners and wider communities. Knowledge exchange between universities and schools has recently received particular interest in child and adolescent mental health research. This article outlines a knowledge exchange programme that involved children, primarily, and teachers and parents/carers in dialogues around school well-being. Using a series of co-created and multimodal creative activities, we: (1) worked closely with 25 students of an inclusive and multicultural primary school (aged 9 to 10 years old) to understand their school well-being experiences, and to co-create a school blog to communicate key messages with local communities; and (2) initiated a discussion around child and school well-being with a group of parents/carers and teachers through expanding on the children’s blog. In this article, we outline our methodology to facilitate children’s involvement with the project well-being activities. We explore key methodological strengths and challenges, and highlight lessons we learned and how these stress the significance of seeking young people’s points of view when designing school well-being initiatives.