Engaging Youth in Research: Focus on YPAR Emily J. Ozer Amber Akemi Piatt UC-Berkeley School of Public Health Innovations for Youth Framing in Developmental and Community Psychology • Develop competencies, attachments • Solid base for coping with stressors • Strengthen resources and relationships • Ethics of community collaboration • Importance of cultural and contextual fit Adolescence as Critical Transition • Major transitions in identity, trajectories • Settings provide opportunities, experiences to engage in “positive passions” vs others • Sensitivity of peer social reward systems TARGET/OPPORTUNITY SPACES YOUTH ENGAGEMENT APPROACHES Positive Youth Individual Youth Outcomes Development Practices Settings and Systems YPAR Youth-Led Participatory Action Government and NGO Research Programs Youth Organizing and Advocacy Research Findings Youth-Led Planning Initiatives and Design Thinking Why Engage in CBPR? • Political – Disrupt “Ivory Tower” relationships and “colonizing” research • Instrumental – Maximize research uptake and impact by enhancing relevance • Enhance validity of research • Ecological validity • “Impact” validity (Massey & Barreras, 2013) What is Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) • Community members partners and co-researchers in inquiry to promote health, communities, equity • Focus on power, not necessarily all tasks • Integration of research & action Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) • Iterative process of research and action • Led by youth and guided by adult allies • Goal of improving schools or communities • Youth choose issue and own data YPAR: Where and How? • LMIC and High-Income Contexts • Wide range of issues • Video and curated examples • yparhub.berkeley.edu; UNICEF brief Benefits? • Youth who participate? • Settings? (Schools, NGO’s, etc….) • Health and other systems? • Research and evaluation What is YPAR? • Multiple Phases – Getting started • Adultism • Analysis of power • Communications and Trust – Choosing an Issue – Design and Data – Reporting Back and Change Efforts – Sustainability