背景:青年参与是指研究人员与青年之间的合作以进行研究。青年参与健康研究已被证明为旨在改善健康结果的有效干预措施提供了信息。然而,有限的证据已经确定了有希望的做法,有意义地参与青年。本综合旨在描述青年参与的方法,框架,和障碍,并为有意义的参与提供基于证据和青年生成的建议。
方法:此审查分为两个阶段:1)对现有青年参与文献的叙述性审查;2)青年咨询委员会(YAC)以他们的观点审查和补充发现,经验,和建议。在GoogleScholar中搜索了术语“青年参与”和“健康研究”,PubMed,WebofScience,Scopus,和PsycINFO。包括与青年参与健康研究有关的文章和非同行评审的研究工作,reviewed,并总结。YAC会见了研究小组成员,并在单独的仅限青年的论坛上,以他们的观点补充叙事审查。青年参与的类型包括作为研究参与者参与,顾问,合作伙伴,和共同调查员。青年参与的障碍被组织到青年中-(例如,时间承诺),研究人员-(例如,对青年参与的态度),组织-(例如,支持青年参与的基础设施不足),和系统级(例如,系统性歧视和研究排斥)。为了加强青年参与,建议侧重于通过提供灵活的沟通方法来培养和支持青年,导师机会,多元化和包容性的招聘,并确保青年了解所涉及的承诺和利益。
结论:为了利用青年参与的潜力,研究人员需要建立一个包容和有利的环境来促进合作,信任,青年的宝贵贡献。未来的研究工作应优先调查研究人员和青年之间的权力分享动态,评估青年参与对青年参与者的影响,和针对青年的评估框架。
在与医疗保健相关的研究中与年轻人接触和合作是很重要的,但往往做得不好。作为研究人员,我们认识到,需要青年观点来确保我们提出正确的问题,使用适当的研究方法,并正确解释结果。我们搜索了文献,以确定研究人员在参与健康研究中面临的挑战,以及以有意义的方式与青年合作的策略。我们与来自加拿大各地的11名具有医疗保健经验的青年密切合作,成立了青年咨询委员会。青年顾问回顾了我们发现的文献,并通过与研究团队的小组会议讨论了它们如何与自己的经验和观点相吻合。青年顾问分为四组共同撰写本文的部分,包括确定重要性,好处,以及参与研究和反思他们作为青年顾问的积极和消极经历的挑战。本文概述了研究人员以有意义的方式与青年接触的建议,包括他们如何与年轻人交流和见面,承认他们的贡献,并实施反馈以改善青年伙伴的经验。
BACKGROUND: Youth engagement refers to the collaboration between researchers and youth to produce research. Youth engagement in health research has been shown to inform effective interventions aimed at improving health outcomes. However, limited evidence has identified promising practices to meaningfully engage youth. This synthesis aims to describe youth engagement approaches, frameworks, and barriers, as well as provide both evidence-based and youth-generated recommendations for meaningful engagement.
METHODS: This review occurred in two stages: 1) a narrative review of existing literature on youth engagement and 2) a Youth Advisory Council (YAC) to review and supplement findings with their perspectives, experiences, and recommendations. The terms \'youth engagement\' and \'health research\' were searched in Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO. Articles and non-peer reviewed research works related to youth engagement in health research were included, reviewed, and summarized. The YAC met with research team members and in separate youth-only forums to complement the narrative review with their perspectives. Types of youth engagement include participation as research participants, advisors, partners, and co-investigators. Barriers to youth engagement were organized into youth- (e.g., time commitments), researcher- (e.g., attitudes towards youth engagement), organizational- (e.g., inadequate infrastructure to support youth engagement), and system-level (e.g., systemic discrimination and exclusion from research). To enhance youth engagement, recommendations focus on preparing and supporting youth by offering flexible communication approaches, mentorship opportunities, diverse and inclusive recruitment, and ensuring youth understand the commitment and benefits involved.
CONCLUSIONS: To harness the potential of youth engagement, researchers need to establish an inclusive and enabling environment that fosters collaboration, trust, and valuable contributions from youth. Future research endeavors should prioritize investigating the dynamics of power-sharing between researchers and youth, assessing the impact of youth engagement on young participants, and youth-specific evaluation frameworks.
Engaging and partnering with youth in research related to healthcare is important, but often not done well. As researchers, we recognize that youth perspectives are needed to make sure we are asking the right questions, using appropriate research methods, and interpreting the results correctly. We searched the literature to identify challenges researchers have faced engaging youth in health research, as well as strategies to partner with youth in a meaningful way. We worked closely with 11 youth from across Canada with experience in healthcare, who formed a Youth Advisory Council. The youth advisors reviewed the literature we found and discussed how it fit with their own experiences and perspectives through group meetings with the research team. Youth advisors divided into four groups to co-author parts of this paper, including identifying the importance, benefits, and challenges of engaging in research and providing reflections on their positive and negative previous experiences as youth advisors. This paper provides an overview of recommendations for researchers to engage with youth in a meaningful way, including how they communicate and meet with youth, recognize their contributions, and implement feedback to improve the experiences of youth partners.