There is an array of youth participatory approaches relevant to health equity efforts in community psychology, adolescent health, youth development, and education. While they share some ...commonalities, they also reflect important distinctions regarding key processes and intended level of impact. Here, we consider the following: (a) youth‐led participatory action research (YPAR), (b) youth organizing (YO), (c) youth‐led planning, (d) human‐centered design, (e) participatory arts, and (f) youth advisory boards. Informed by community psychology theories on empowerment and levels of change and social epidemiology frameworks that focus on the social determinants of health inequities, we aim to promote greater clarity in the conceptualization, implementation, and evaluation of youth participatory approaches; frame the “landscape” of youth participatory approaches and their similarities and differences; present an integrative review of the evidence regarding the impact of youth participatory approaches; and describe several illustrative cases so as to consider more deeply how some youth participatory approaches aim to influence the social determinants of health that lead to the physical embodiment of health inequities. We conclude by identifying areas of future policy‐ and practice‐relevant research for advancing youth participation and health equity.
Highlights
We review multiple youth participatory approaches relevant for the promotion of health equity.
We identify commonalities and distinctions on processes including power and level of impact.
We review evidence for impact and consider illustrative cases for addressing health inequities.
We identify research directions for advancing youth participation and health equity.
Recent developments suggest a strong relationship between social media use and political engagement and raise questions about the potential for social media to help stem or even reverse patterns of ...political inequality that have troubled scholars for years. In this paper, we articulate a model of social media and political engagement among young people, and test it using data from representative samples of young people in Australia, the USA, and the UK. Our results suggest a strong, positive relationship between social media use and political engagement among young people across all three countries, and provide additional insights regarding the role played by social media use in the processes by which young people become politically engaged. Notably, our results also provide reasons to be optimistic concerning the overall influence of this popular new form of digital media on longstanding patterns of political inequality.
Today's young people play far less sport than before. Or do they? The evidence, says Ken Green, shows quite the reverse. We have been promised “a deep and lasting legacy” from the Olympics. The ...evidence shows the Olympic sports model to be irrelevant to youth participation. Have we a misguided response to a fictitious illness?
Summary
Including youth in the co‐creation of policies that affect them has proven to be particularly impactful in public health. Using youth participatory action research methods, the CO‐CREATE ...project engages European youth 16–18 years old in the co‐creation of obesity prevention policies. To discuss the feasibility and implications of the policy, youth are invited to engage in an intergenerational dialogue. Given the youth–adult dynamic and policy discussion, conflicts of interests (COIs) can arise and impact the quality of the dialogue. COI frameworks are a tool that can help identify, mitigate, and address COIs. This paper presents a novel framework to mitigate COIs in intergenerational policy dialogues, with a focus on power imbalance. Following a series of youth consultations, interviews, and examination of existing frameworks, our findings suggest that safe, participatory, and empowering dialogues can take place if appropriate measures are integrated into all phases of a dialogue. The selection of stakeholders, use of accessible language, and youth moderation are all factors that can impact COI risks. Measures that promote mutual empowerment, such as equal representation of youth and adults, were deemed important. This framework provides a roadmap to ensure that youth participation in the formulation of policies is safe and empowering.
The rise of large online communities in China has gone hand-in-hand with heavy regulation by the Chinese party-state. Caught between the party-state and demanding users, how do online platforms ...govern online communities to please both, and stay competitive against rivals? Drawing on public documents, interviews, and ethnographic observations, we study Bilibili, a leading online participatory platform for Generation Z. We argue that Bilibili has adopted a "bidirectional mediation" approach to actively mediate between users and the party-state. In this approach, the key to online governance is finding, or even cultivating, common grounds between users and the party-state and proactively facilitating communications between the two sides. We illustrate Bilibili's bidirectional mediation through its Disciplinary Committee, an organization that enables users to participate in regulating online content on the Bilibili platform. The Bilibili case provides important insights into the evolution of online communities and state-society relations in China.
IMPORTANCE: The diverse developmental patterns of obesogenic behaviors during childhood and adolescence can be better understood by using new analytic approaches to assess the heterogeneity in ...variation during growth and development and to map the clustering of behavior patterns. OBJECTIVES: To identify distinct trajectories of daily time spent in moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) from ages 5 to 19 years and to examine the associations of MVPA trajectories with sports participation and television viewing trajectories. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Cohort members in the prospective population-based Iowa Bone Development Study participated in MVPA assessments via accelerometry from September 16, 1998, to December 9, 2013, at ages 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 19 years and completed a questionnaire every 6 months on sports participation and daily time spent in television viewing. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Trajectories of MVPA (minutes per day), participation in organized sports (yes or no), and television viewing time (hours per day). RESULTS: Based on the data from 537 participants (50.1% females; 94.6% white), we identified 4 MVPA trajectories: consistently inactive (14.9%), consistently active (18.1%), decreasing moderate physical activity (52.9%), and substantially decreasing high physical activity (14.1%). All participants in the consistently inactive trajectory also followed a trajectory of no participation in sports. The consistently active trajectory was associated with decreasing an already low television viewing trajectory (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This study provided a nuanced look at the known decrease in MVPA during childhood and adolescence. Sports participation could be a critical way to avoid the consistently inactive pattern. Most important, we identified a subset of participants who maintained a seemingly healthy level of MVPA from childhood to young adulthood. The developmental pathways of physical activity and television viewing behaviors could be related. Additional studies should examine the determinants and health consequences of these specific MVPA trajectories.
At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2022, Commonwealth Leaders declared 2023 as a year dedicated to youth-led action for sustainable and inclusive development. The "Commonwealth Year ...of Youth" was officially launched in January 2023. The Commonwealth's 56 member countries have a combined population of 2.5 billion people, of which more than 60% are under 30 years of age. Youth engagement is central to the work of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), which includes the Commonwealth Youth Parliament (CYP), the development of educational resources and outreach programs. These programs aim to increase awareness of the important work done by the CPA in promoting democratic governance across the Commonwealth and to connect Parliamentarians with young people in schools, colleges and universities to inspire the next generation of young leaders. Here, some of the young leaders who are currently the youngest Speakers and Presiding Officers in the Commonwealth's Parliaments and Legislatures are featured.
This article argues that the right of young people to participate in decisions being made about them forms the basis for professional youth work practice. The authors consider the nature of ...‘participation’ and its relation to human rights, and introduces the concept of ‘adultism’ and the challenges for youth workers combatting ‘adultist’ beliefs and practices in the work of participation. The paper considers the benefits and limitations of youth participation models, and addresses the relationship between rights‐based participation practice, and critical pedagogy (dialogical) in youth work.
Objective. The research seeks to understand, how Hungarian LIS students use social media as an avenue to express their democratic actions and how social media political information affects the ...youth’s trust and judgement when interacting with their close family and friends online. Methods. The study employed a quantitative approach to determine the social media engagement of the participants with close family and friends. Convenience sampling was applied in this study (Students of Library and Information Science, University, Hungary), and an online questionnaire was sent to all the potential participants (to 197 students). Results. A total of 43% participated in this research. The youth give a high level of trust to their family members and close friends even if they share, post, like, or comment on something that is different from their point-of-view in social media. Moreover, the youth have a low level of judgement towards family and close friends. Conclusions. Political participation among youth is voluntary and engagement with political information in social media is rare/low.
Ozer et al seek to provide further clarity in the underdeveloped research area about youth engagement and participation, highlighting distinctions among youth participation approaches, and propose a ...research agenda moving forward. They noted that the term youth engagement is used so broadly as to be potentially problematic. Beyond the importance of differentiating the diverse approaches described, they have observed confusion between youth-led research, organizing, and evaluation approaches versus standard formative research practices conducted with adolescent research participants such as focus groups and interviews.
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