One size does not fit all. And when considering methods to engage youth in health research, this expression certainly rings true. The term ‘youth’ is often used as an umbrella term to define an age group between childhood and adulthood, yet this grouping is made up of different individuals, with diversity in how and in what way they may want to be involved in health research. This means that the methods chosen to engage youth in health research are highly dependent on the purpose of the research, as well as the context and resources available. Although a recent blog outlined the benefits of Youth Participatory Action Research, a valuable approach that works with youth across the research process, there are many different ways and methods to involve youth in the health research continuum.
From more conventional to novel methods, I have had an opportunity to be involved in various projects involving youth in different shapes and forms. Below are some ways to involve youth in health research across the spectrum, from partners to participants.
Youth as partners
Youth partners in research are youth who are members of a research team, just like any other team member whose role is often to provide perspectives related to their lived experience on a specific health issue. For example, youth partners were involved as part of our research team understanding the experience of transitioning from pediatric to adult health care from the perspectives of youth, caregivers and healthcare providers. This role often takes shape as a consultant or advisor to provide expert knowledge on various steps during the research study. Youth partners are essential for ensuring the research conducted is relevant, understood, and useful to young people.
Youth as methodologists
A great way to involve youth in heath research is training them in particular methods that will be used in a research project, such as how to conduct interviews, distribute surveys and analyze data.
This is not only educational for the youth involved, but having youth help develop data tools, collect information, and analyze findings can increase validity of the results. As outlined on a previous blog on Healthy Debates, and in our recent publication, we trained youth in interview methods to provide them with the ability and skills to interview their peers on school health promotion and youth engagement.
Youth as advisors
Youth who may want to provide their perspective on health research initiatives, with less time commitment, may be interested in holding an advisory role or providing feedback on a topic of interest. For instance, youth were involved in providing feedback on educational infographics to help communicate information from a recent survey of vaping among youth in Nova Scotia.
Youth as participants
Lastly, involving youth perspectives in health research through participant-based techniques, such as gathering their perspectives through interviews, focus groups or surveys, is a useful, yet more conventional form of gathering information. One example is the Children’s Lifestyle and School Performance Study (I and II) that collected information from over 5,000 students about their health behaviours across Nova Scotia public schools in 2003 and 2011. Particularly to my past research, I was able to link this survey data with administrative health care records to understand the association between students’ bullying behaviours and long-term mental health outcomes.
Youth have unique, important and independent perspectives compared to their adult-counterparts, and their voices need to be heard in health research, particularly for topics of direct relevance to their lives. While the time commitment and resources may vary across methods, there are endless forms to involve youth in research, and all factors — be that purpose, ethics, methods and interest — should be taken into consideration before embarking on your research journey.
Photo by Oleksandr P from Pexels
