Youth Voice Research Articles

The Centering of Youth Voice in the Development of a Virtual, Instructor-Led Physical Activity Program.

Providing youth the opportunity to express their attitudes toward and recommendations for improvement of a home-based physical activity (PA) program may help to improve engagement in virtual PA program activities. Youth voice is an often-overlooked component that may be necessary for understanding what contributes to low participation and may have important implications for long-term adherence. Informed by Self-Determination Theory, this study aimed to formatively evaluate home-based exercise videos, incorporating youth feedback for improvement in the development of the videos. Youth participated in four (8-minute) PA videos varying in type (strength; cardio; mindfulness; sports skill). Youth accessed the videos and answered open-ended questions via an online survey. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis to identify emerging themes in responses. Sixty-eight K-12 youth in the United States (52% girls; 38% non-White; 55% in K-5 grade; 17% in 6-8 grade; 28% in 9-12 grade) participated in this study. Overall, 61.9% of affective responses were positive, with mindfulness rating the highest and strength the lowest. Children were satisfied with the video structure, enjoyed having an opportunity to move at home and reported liking the engaging instructors. Suggestions were also given related to modifying video length, adding modifications for varying fitness levels, adding more kid-like features, and providing incentives. Youth recommendations may be used to create tailored adaptations and implementation supports for PA programs in the home. Findings from this study demonstrate that incorporating youth voice may be an important step toward increasing engagement in home-based PA programming.

Challenging Classical Music’s Genre Conventions: Findings from a Project on Youth Voice in Instrumental Education

Abstract This article explores classical music education through analysing findings from a project on embedding ‘youth voice’ within instrumental teaching and learning. Drawing on theorizations of classical music as a genre, I describe how the young people in this project saw classical music’s genre conventions as working against a youth voice approach. The article also outlines the ways in which youth voice was shaped through social relations in this space as well as the ‘institutional ecology’ of music education. I argue that embedding youth voice approaches in instrumental education will only be effective if the genre itself is open to transformation.

Prioritising communities: barriers to climate activism and political imagination among minoritised youth groups

ABSTRACT Minoritised youth voices are often underrepresented in climate action research. Despite the increasing interest in youth climate activism, there is still an overall lack of attention to the perspectives of young people struggling with discrimination, poverty, and other social injustices. In this article, we focus on a diverse group of minoritised youth in Portugal to explore their experiences of climate activism, perceived agency, and political imaginaries of the future. We conducted a qualitative study involving seven focus groups with 55 participants, including young people with a migrant background and/or living in underserved communities in Portugal. Based on a Reflexive Thematic Analysis, we generated three main themes that illustrate participants’ ways of engaging with climate change issues, the barriers that constrain their engagement with climate activism and the challenges in the political imagination of the future. Our findings suggest that minoritised youth would like to have a voice in political debates about climate change and that more inclusive dialogues about climate futures could help bridge existing territorial and social divides.

Youth voices: A participatory approach to promoting mental health literacy through digital means

Abstract A concerning number of young people worldwide experience mental health challenges, often compounded by limited mental health literacy, such as a lack of knowledge about how to recognize mental disorders and strategies for seeking help (Cairns & Rossetto, 2019). Therefore, it is crucial to promote mental health literacy among youth. Due to the scarcity and often high cost of readily available mental health services, as well as concerns about anonymity, digital programs have become an alternative means of reaching youth. To this end, a digital prevention program was developed. The pivotal question now is how to effectively promote young people’s mental health literacy through digital means, more specifically: How to develop (1) evidence-based and (2) target group-specific content? To investigate these questions, two systematic reviews were conducted that analyzed a total of 65 digital evidence-based mental health programs. Since the active use of programs also depends on how suitable and appealing the content is for the target group, a participatory approach was chosen to actively involve the target group in the process of developing the program’s design and content. Therefore, four participatory workshops were conducted in Slovenia, Poland, and Austria, with 12-15-year-old students (N = 182). Selected results from the systematic reviews and cross-national results from the workshops will be presented. It was found that psychoeducation is an important and effective method for promoting mental health literacy among youth and that young people prefer this content to be delivered as briefly and concisely as possible, and in a multimodal format. The discussion will highlight key takeaways regarding the benefits and challenges of this approach, emphasizing the necessity of including student voices in the creation of psychoeducational content for a digital mental health program in order to highlight and recognize young people’s right to participate. Key messages • The value of youth participation - Involving young people in the development of content for a digital mental health literacy program is a means to increase its relevance and appeal to them. • The intricacies of youth participation - Involving young people in the development of a digital mental health literacy program presents challenges that require careful consideration.

Supporting young people through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: a multi-site qualitative longitudinal study

BackgroundThroughout the COVID-19 pandemic, youth have experienced substantial stress due to abrupt changes in education, finances, and social life, compounding pre-existing stressors. With youth (ages 15–26) often at critical points in development, they are vulnerable to long-term mental health challenges brought on by pandemic trauma.MethodsTo identify youth experiences throughout the pandemic and examine changes over time, we conducted semi-structured interviews among n = 141 youth in two Canadian provinces (Ontario and British Columbia) and across the country of Ireland at three time points over the course of more than one year (August 2020-October 2021). We conducted a qualitative longitudinal analysis using an inductive content approach.ResultsCategories identified were (1) coping with hardship; (2) opportunities for growth; (3) adapting to new ways of accessing services; (4) mixed views on the pandemic: attitudes, behaviour, and perception of policy response; (5) navigating COVID-19 information; (6) transitioning to life after the pandemic; and (7) youth-led recommendations for government and service response. The findings also reveal trends in health and wellness in accordance with prolonged periods of lockdown, changes in weather, and return to normalcy after the availability of COVID-19 vaccines. Key recommendations from youth include incorporating youth voice into decision making, communicating public health information effectively to youth, enhancing service delivery post-pandemic, and planning for future pandemics.ConclusionsThese results provide insights into the extensive longitudinal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people across three geographical locations. Actively involving youth in decision making roles for future pandemics or public health emergencies is critical.

Centering and uplifting youth voice in planning for a more resilient climate future in rural Colorado: a case study of a student resilience team asking for change

Rural communities are increasingly facing challenges from climate-related natural hazards such as drought, wildfire, and flood. These cascading hazards threaten social, emotional, physical, and economic well-being, and pose unique challenges to rural areas which may already struggle to find enough resources. Yet, rural areas are rich in social capital, creativity, and resilience, and future leaders are learning how to build agency and increase their community’s resilience in school settings. Students in Estes Park, Colorado, have experienced major climate-fueled hazards in their lifetimes, surviving the floods in 2013 and the East Troublesome and Cameron Peak wildfires in 2020. At Estes Park Middle School, the Environmental Resilience Team (ERT) is an afterschool group of students who are actively participating in promoting public awareness, mitigation, and policy-making to increase resilience to natural hazards. Supported by the Hazard, Education, Awareness, and Resilience Task Force (HEART Force) Program, a comprehensive curriculum that immerses students in the study of their community’s resilience to floods and fires, in conjunction with the Earth Force Environmental Civic Action resources, students and educators gained the tools needed to spearhead community discussions on resilience, all while striving to mitigate and minimize future risks. In this paper, we tell the story of the Environmental Resilience Team’s campaign to pass statewide legislation to implement Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Building Codes in high-risk areas. Students visited the Colorado State Capitol, met with their State Senator and Governor to lobby for the passage of the bill. This initiative builds upon years of action projects, including service projects to mitigate fire risk in vulnerable populations within the mountain town of Estes Park and build community education and awareness through the distribution of “go-bags” to community members. By including youth voice in public decision-making and planning for climate resilience, community leaders and policymakers can develop more holistic plans that include multigenerational input. This research is part of a broader study across implementations of HEART Force in several classrooms that showed that the HEART Force program helped students develop a sense of agency and grow in their understanding of community resilience.

The process of developing an augmented reality (AR) tool for knowledge translation on climate change-related experiences among youth in Kenya

This report details a qualitative methodological approach of developing an Augmented Reality (AR) tool which integrates digital storytelling for context-specific, accessible, scalable participatory research knowledge translation on climate-related sexual health experiences among youth (aged 16-25 years) in Kenya. AR, which engages audiences through virtual images overlayed on the real world in real-time, enhances learning and knowledge retention. This suggests the potential for using this increasingly accessible technology in knowledge translation, despite such use being understudied. Our AR tool meaningfully incorporates seven digital storytelling videos made by youth in Kenya through a study in 2023, to amplify youth voices while illustrating complex pathways between four climate-related factors (drought, floods, extreme heat, and excess winds) and three HIV vulnerabilities (gender-based violence, early marriage, and transactional sex). The aim of this paper is to describe the design of an AR tool for knowledge translation, youth empowerment, and health promotion, and to outline how it can be harnessed for sexual health and climate change education to inform future knowledge translation approaches with youth climate-affected issues.

Youth Voices Participating in the Improvement of Sexual Consent Awareness Campaigns

Youth Voices Participating in the Improvement of Sexual Consent Awareness Campaigns

Young People’s voices on social justice: a participatory storytelling and action learning approach

ABSTRACT South Africa is home to a large youth population, defined in South Africa as aged between 18 and 34 years. In working to transform our unequal society, we need to take diverse youth voices, including young people at university, into account regarding what matters to them. To enable their voices, the paper recounts a participatory storytelling research project with students in the educational space of one South African university. Using individual and collective digital storytelling, participants produced an archive of everyday stories, which then comprised a data base for them to analyse social in/justice issues and themes and co-create knowledge from the ground-up, with their emergent ideas categorised in a social injustice map. Through the iterative action learning and reflective process, participants developed their critical awareness of injustices and enhanced their sense of their own epistemic agency to contribute to change. Both the project process and the formation of intersecting capabilities for the co-creation of substantive reparative knowledge about social injustices and fairness were advanced through the project. Finally, it is suggested that these two capabilities might be applied to young people globally as crucial for contributions to epistemic agency and for making more just future societies.

Recommendations from the ABA Commission on Youth at Risk Convening – “Renewal and Revolution: Recommitting the Legal Profession to Serve Children and Youth, their Families, and Communities”

AbstractYouth and families impacted by legal systems now resoundingly attest to the systems' lasting harm, echoed by interdisciplinary research. Lawyering thus requires a vastly renewed outlook, boldness, and honest inquiry about the limits of what the law and public systems can (and should) attempt as purported problem‐solving amidst broader socioeconomic forces and injustice. This report synthesizes recommendations from a groundswell of diverse, dedicated voices following an October 2023 convening hosted by the American Bar Association Commission on Youth at Risk, the ABA Center on Children and the Law, and Hofstra University's Maurice A. Deane School of Law. Entitled “Renewal and Revolution: Recommitting the Legal Profession to Serving Children and Youth, Their Families, and Communities,” the convening engaged various professionals—many with firsthand experience in foster and justice systems— and other advocates. Since the 2006 ABA Youth At Risk Initiative Planning Conference, the ABA Commission on Youth At Risk has elevated the representation and voice of youth through ethical practice standards, expanded access, and national initiatives. This report recounts findings of the 2023 convening's four working groups which met for two‐days of (often tense) discussions to chart a path for the legal profession, law, and policy for the next decade and beyond. Priorities include: transcending conceptions of youth “at risk” towards recognition of harms done, a strengths‐based lens, and lived experience leadership and expertise; cultivating next generation attorneys; prioritizing early family defense and diversion; divesting from systems and re‐investing directly with youth and families; and further eliminating racial disparities.

Not “Citizens in Waiting”: Student Counter-Narratives of Anti-Equity Campaigns

Recent efforts prohibiting race-related diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have informed localized public pushback narrating anti-equity campaigns. Emerging research and media accounts have largely focused on adults engaged with or against these efforts, with less attention on youth and their perceptions of these campaigns. To center youth voice, we analyzed 224 student newspaper articles published in Carmel, Indiana and Loudoun County, Virginia—two sites replete with localized contestations of equity reform. Using narrative policy analysis and approaches to counter-narratives, findings demonstrate youths’ roles as engaged policy actors as student journalists highlighted forms of political engagement and action in their local contexts. We include recommendations for school leaders and policymakers to promote youth voice and engagement in education governance.

Taking Stock of Youth Participation in Climate Adaptation: A Case Study of Action 24, Zimbabwe

Globally, youth voices have emerged as critical in the climate adaptation discourse. Underpinned by Hart’s participation typology and Lundy’s Voice Model, this study explored the nature and level of youth participation being promoted by a civil society-led climate adaptation programme in Zimbabwe. A qualitative research methodology was adopted for the study. The results indicate meaningful youth participation in the mid to high level range on Hart’s ladder of participation in action focused at protecting and adapting their communities to climate change, influencing the climate adaptation agenda, and transforming the climate adaptation policy for sustainable development. However, poverty, adultism, and lack of government support emerged as barriers to higher level youth participation in climate adaptation. Integration of poverty reduction and climate adaptation, challenging adultism, and lobbying the government can enhance youth participation in climate adaptation in Zimbabwe and abroad.

Empowering youth as agents of change: Gaps and opportunities for meaningful youth engagement (MAYE) for sustainable nutrition, climate and public health programmes.

Addressing the intersection of food insecurity, malnutrition and climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa requires meaningful adolescent and youth engagement to drive sustainable change. Drawing on empirical evidence and collective experiences from youth-led initiatives and coalitions, four gaps and opportunities to better involve youth in programmes are discussed, including, the need to: (1) standardise the definition of youth to improve programme design and data harmonisation, (2) provide capacity building and mentorship for youth leadership in health service delivery, (3) foster youth leadership and multisectoral collaboration in food and health systems and (4) enhance capacity development for non-youth actors to support genuine youth participation. This viewpoint underscores the importance of involving African youth in public health nutrition, climate change and food security programmes design and implementation-as drivers of change to addressing hunger and climate crises. By centering youth voices and experiences, programmes and policies can better address African communities' complex challenges, fostering inclusivity, sustainability and resilience in achieving better nutrition and public health programmes and outcomes.

Study protocol for Sauti ya Vijana (The Voice of Youth): A hybrid-type 1 randomized trial to evaluate effectiveness and implementation of a mental health and life skills intervention to improve health outcomes for Tanzanian youth living with HIV.

Young people living with HIV (YPLWH) experience increased morbidity and mortality compared to all other age groups. Adolescence brings unique challenges related to sexual reproductive health, the elevated importance of peer groups, and often, emerging symptoms of emotional distress. Failure to address this unique life stage for YPLWH can lead to worse HIV and mental health outcomes. Herein lies the protocol for a hybrid-type-1 effectiveness-implementation trial designed to evaluate a mental health and life skills intervention that aims to address these needs for YPLWH in Tanzania. This is an individually randomized group-treatment trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of Sauti ya Vijana (SYV: The Voice of Youth) toward improving viral suppression (HIV RNA <400 copies/mL) and mental health outcomes and to assess implementation including acceptability, feasibility, fidelity, and cost-effectiveness of the manualized intervention. The trial is being conducted across four geographically distinct regions of Tanzania. Peer group leaders (PGL) with lived HIV experience deliver the 10-session group-based intervention and two individual sessions during which participants describe their disclosure narrative (when they learned they live with HIV) and value-based goal setting. Caregiver or chosen supportive adults are encouraged to attend two specific group sessions with their youth. Participants are 10-24 years of age, prescribed antiretroviral therapy for at least 6 months, fully aware of their HIV status, able to commit to session attendance, and able to understand and meaningfully contribute to group sessions. Participant study visits occur at 5 time points for evaluation: baseline, 4-, 6-, 12-, and 18-months post baseline. A single booster session is conducted before the 12-month visit. Study visits evaluate mental health, adverse childhood events, interpersonal violence, resilience, stigma, HIV knowledge, substance use, sexual relationships, ART adherence, and HIV RNA. Implementation outcomes evaluate feasibility and acceptability through attendance, intervention session notes, focus discussion groups and qualitative interviews. Fidelity to the intervention is measured using fidelity checklists by a PGL observer at each group session. Cost effectiveness is calculated using an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio that utilizes a patient cost questionnaire and financial records of study costs. Few mental health interventions for YPLWH have demonstrated effectiveness. Results from this study will provide information about effectiveness and implementation of a peer-led intervention for delivering a mental health and life skills intervention in low-income settings. This trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov NCT05374109.

Youth Voice / Youth Action / Youth Justice

Youth Voice / Youth Action / Youth Justice

Uncovering effects of climate-sensitive health risks on historically marginalized youth in Washington State: creating opportunities for maximum involvement

Abstract Climate-sensitive hazards, including extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, and rising sea levels, can jeopardize the health of all populations. However, certain population groups are more vulnerable to harm from these hazards. While youth–particularly those from historically marginalized groups and communities–are among those at the highest risk, their abilities may be underutilized in local climate adaptation efforts. This exploratory research aimed to identify opportunities for youth involvement in climate and environmental solutions in their historically marginalized communities. Specifically, this study (1) investigated youth risk perceptions and impacts of various climate-sensitive hazards (e.g. extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, and sea level rise); (2) examined current barriers, resource needs, and opportunities for youth to engage in climate and environmental solution work; and (3) explored current methods and spaces where youth and community leaders can support youth-led climate-related initiatives. Through focus group discussions with youth and in-depth interviews with community leaders who are directly with youth, this study identified opportunities to leverage youth experiences, perceptions, and assets to promote a healthy and resilient community in the face of various compounding climate-related threats. Results showed that while youth recognize the changing climate and associated health impacts, they require more financial resources and support from local decision-makers to maintain their engagement and promote community resilience. Engaging youth in climate action and community resilience involves more than just centering youth voices and perspectives–it requires intentional collaboration, capacity-building, organizing, granting decision-making power, and other strategies to produce inclusive, intersectional, and sustainable solutions.

Post-its, postcards, and dream clouds: exploring participatory design methods as avenues to capture rural youth voices

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a participatory workshop with a group of rural youths exploring ways of engaging them to capture their voices, examining whether design-based participatory methods could support them in raising their voices and making their perspective visible to a broader public. With the frame of a one-day workshop, three different participatory design methods were tested. The empirical findings show that participatory workshops with rural youth using visual design-based methods can support the sharing of valuable knowledge about being young in rural areas from the perspective of young people. The study displays that a participatory workshop setup using design-based methods prompt young people to articulate valuable insights about their local community; and thus, potentially building up agency among the young people participating, as well as having processual values as the participatory workshop using design methods offer learning and development opportunities to young people where the young people among others gain valuable insights about their community. Thus, this study inscribes itself into the field of rural participatory research by testing participatory design methods to enable young people to express their ideas, perspectives and opinion.

Integrating youth participatory action research and health communication to inform youth and young adult covid-19 vaccine communication research.

COVID-19 vaccination rates remain lower among adolescents compared with adults. Youth participatory action research (YPAR) offers opportunities to inform youth vaccine communication at the local and population level. However, few studies have integrated systematic health communication research with YPAR. In the current study, a diverse team of paid high school interns, undergraduate student mentors and communication researchers in West Philadelphia YPAR programs developed a theory-informed communication survey to measure teen COVID-19 vaccine beliefs, information sources and behavior. The survey was distributed locally and informed youth-created vaccine campaign messages. In addition, YPAR-derived survey measures complimented a qualitative online elicitation survey with US young adults. Responses were coded using inductive content analysis, informing measures for a subsequent population-level study of young adults. This research followed protocols approved by an Institutional Review Board. Applying a YPAR framework elevated youth voices in the study development process. Communication theory and methods aided the development of survey studies to advance both local YPAR program objectives and population-level research. Future implications are discussed.

Amplifying Youth Voice to Promote Black Youth Mental Health Through Policy in Georgia

Summary: There is an unmet need for mental health policies that are culturally competent, engaging, and equitable for Black youth. This paper describes a youth-adult partnership advisory council approach to identify, assess, and measure the effectiveness of innovative policy solutions to promote Black youth mental health in Georgia.

Introduction to Special Issue: Centering Community Healing, Sustenance, and Resilience in STEM and Computing Education Through Art and Social Justice

Computing, technology, and engineering education are in particular need of examining how we can bring love, community, and joy to the center of learning experiences to support a diversity of youth to flourish. Computing and STEM disciplines are often taught in ways that detach knowledge from people and communities, making it difficult to explore a variety of personal, social, and societal connections that are not already at the center of the tech industry. These exclusionary practices limit the way work is accomplished—including who is involved in the design work and who technological innovations are designed for; as well as the way the work is situated within our society—including what problems technology is designed to solve and who benefits from particular innovations (Benjamin, 2019; Noble, 2018). Learning experiences and spaces for technology education should support youth as they develop new knowledge and skills in ways that recognize them as full humans, and enable them to ground it in their ideas, perspectives, interests, goals, identities, communities, relationships, and local environments. The goal of this special issue is to bring together educators’, researchers’, and youth voices in conversation about how we are centering self-empowerment in our educational work and how we can drive forward our practices.