Youth Engagement in Decisions for Healthy Living – A Narrative Study

1. Youth Engagement in Decisions for Healthy Living – A Narrative Study Lisa Loiselle, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON & Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement The Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement (CEYE), a Health Canada-funded program, is a consortium of 27 individuals and organizations from across the country that includes youth, academics, health professionals, and leaders from youth-serving agencies all committed to engaging youth. The CEYE is committed to finding, describing and building models of effective strategies for engaging youth in meaningful participation and making healthy decisions for healthy living. To summarize what we have learned so far, a model has been developed and includes the main elements of the process of youth engagement based on the stories we heard from youth. You will also find a written summary of what the model means (in the handout) and quotes to further capture young people’s experiences of engagement and involvement. ENGAGEMENT is the meaningful participation and sustained involvement of a young person in an activity, with a focus outside of him or herself. Full engagement consists of a behavioural component,an affective component, and a cognitive component • Initiating Factors:(based on the response to questions like, “How did you first get involved?” and “Was there any particular event or experience that got you started being involved?”) • MOTIVATION • “I didn’t become involved in music because my mother dragged me to music lessons…this was something I was really interested in…that came from inside of me” (Want to) • “I feel I need to get involved because I feel it’s my responsibility as a human being” (Need to) • “We had a requirement to do some volunteer work at our school” (Had to) • OPPORTUNITY • “My social worker came up to me and she was all like you know this is happening and I think you’d be a good candidate for it…” (Influenced by another person) • “…I started to attend conferences and conferences led into other conferences which led into meeting which led into representation of companies and NGOs…” (Participation in other activities) • “The only reason I found out about that was because they came in my school and announced that the auditions were happening.” (Advertisements) Rationale • Youth engagement in a variety of activities (e.g., extracurricular activities, community service) has been found to predict a number of positive outcomes. • However, the process by which these outcomes are achieved and the ways in which adults and institutions may promote such engagements are not well understood. • Further, there is relatively little information from the perspective of the youth themselves about their involvement in these activities. • From these stories, we hoped to better understand the reasons why some young people get involved in activities that they enjoy and that help them to learn useful things, while other young people have trouble finding activities that are exciting to them. • We think that this information will help us design programs that will help youth who are having difficulty becoming engaged in activities to be more successful. What did we do? • Obtain “real life” stories from 125 young people from across Canada • 51 participated in individual face-to-face interviews • 74 participated in one of 8 focus groups • Interviews and focus groups were conducted by trained youth (mean age 20.25; range 15-26) Who were the participants? • 125 young people (56 males; 66 females; 3 unknown) from across Canada shared their “real life” stories with us • The majority of youth (two-thirds) were between the ages of 15 and 18, but ranged in age from 14 to 24 years (one person was 33 years of age; 11 ages were unknown) • Of those youth who were involved in the interview: • 38 were either attending school or planning to return to school in the fall 2001; 8 were not in school; 5 unknown • 30 of the youth worked (number of hours ranged from 10-50 per week); whereas, 16 did not; working status of remaining 5 were unknown • 37 youth considered themselves to be engaged/involved; 5 defined themselves as somewhat engaged/involved; 9 defined themselves as not engaged/involved • 27 youth were engaged in school activities (11 did not; 2 unknown) whereas 39 in activities outside of school (6 did not; 4 unknown) • Sustaining Factors: (based on the response to several questions including, “What keeps you involved?”) • INDIVIDUAL • “I’ve met a lot of people across the country and so I’ve made so many more friends.” • ORGANIZATIONAL • “There’s always people that support you or else you would never keep on going. You know what I mean like, there’s always at least one person saying it’s excellent that you’re here and you’re doing a great job and, because if that wouldn’t happen you wouldn’t be there.” • COMMUNITY AND SOCIETAL • “…knowing that I am making a difference and knowing that you know I can change things, and that things won’t stay the same if I am out there doing something about it and make things better for my kids or for the next generation • Barriers: (based on the response to several questions including, “Have you ever had any problems staying involved?” and “What has kept you from getting involved?” • PERSONAL • “Mostly time. Like I guess I try and get involved in a lot of things and I really don’t have time to do everything well. So, I have to stop a few of them and it’s just, it’s not because I don’t want to get engaged, it’s because I just don’t have the time to.” • SCHOOL/FAMILY/ORGANIZATIONAL • “…there is a lot of stuff I couldn’t get engaged in because, like just the fact that my parents didn’t agree with the things I might have gone to and engaged in…” • COMMUNITY/SOCIETAL • “I had the opportunity to be kinda like the office manager of the community police station and I gave that up because again, adults don’t listen to what I have to say.” • GLOBAL/STRUCTURAL • “I think from my experience and what I’ve seen of like initiatives by government or other groups to get students involved, they make a good effort but they generally are failing because at the same time they’re trying to get students and young people involved, at the same time there’s this force out there saying you should live for money, you should live for these particular consumer items…” What did the youth tell us? • Youth defined themselves as being involved or engaged in either in-school or out-of-school activities. • In-school activities included being active in school clubs, the arts, student government, recreation and leisure activities, a number of student associations and committees, leadership training and mentorship programs, and the school newspaper • Out of school activities included participating in recreation and leisure activities, performing and visual arts, music, community, religion and cultural programs, national and political organizations, activism and technological activities • Young people also identified issues that were important to them including school and community violence, gender and cultural issues, the environment, human rights, education, politics, economics, labour rights, globalization, tobacco and smoking issues, homelessness, women and children’s issues, health, poverty, abuse and youth suicide It is those individuals, that can navigate their way around these barriers and have managed to cope with the difficulties that they encounter, that will endure with respect to youth engagement. Through engagement, youth gain a sense of empowerment as individuals and form healthy connections to others, which are reflected in the reduction of risk behaviours and increases in positive activities.