Moving Beyond Tokenism: Toward Sustainable Youth Engagement to Improve the Implementation of Public Health Programs and Interventions

In recent years, researchers and practitioners have increasingly recognized the role of youth engagement in improving the development, implementation, and sustainability of youth-focused health programs (ie., public health interventions, clinical programs, etc.). In this collection, youth refers to individuals aged 15-24 years. Youth engagement in its true form centers youth in research by shifting the power dynamics between the researcher and youth participants. Evidence has accumulated highlighting the benefits of youth engagement in closing the research-to-practice gaps for youth-based interventions. Hence, it is increasingly considered essential to engage individuals with lived experience in all stages of research projects examining issues relevant to them, to improve research quality and relevance. However, engaging youth in research presents unique challenges such as ethical issues, power dynamics, and short-lived engagement. Yet, there is little guidance on how to nurture and sustain youth engagement in research successfully.

To help realize the promise of implementation science, particularly for youth health and well-being, there is a critical need to effectively sustain and nurture youth engagement in research. Implementation science is a theoretically informed and systematic approach to accelerate the uptake of evidence-based interventions. It is focused on closing the gap between evidence-based intervention and real-world practice, thereby maximizing the impact of these interventions. In light of this, the sustainability of youth engagement is integral to promoting the long-term impact of youth-based interventions and programs.

Submission to the Research Topic would add to the body of knowledge in youth-based research, and the intersection of youth engagement and public health promotion and education interventions. This collection focuses on understanding youth engagement and capacity building for sustaining youth engagement in research. The goal of this collection is to provide a platform for understanding the context and mechanisms that underlie effective youth engagement and the sustainment of youth engagement. The collection can highlight some of the barriers and facilitators of youth engagement, as well as models and recommendations to nurture and sustain youth engagement.

For this Research Topic, we welcome Original Research papers using different study designs and Systematic Reviews, Meta-Analyses, Commentaries, and Opinion articles. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Best practices for youth engagement in public health education and promotion research;

• Innovative approaches for youth engagement and sustainment;

• Conceptual frameworks for youth engagement;

• Measures and frameworks for measuring youth engagement and sustainability of youth engagement;

• Lessons learned from engaging young people;

• Barriers, facilitators, and opportunities to youth engagement (e.g., cultural, social, financial, structural, etc. factors that may play a role);

• Strategies for youth engagement in health education and promotion;

• Studies describing methods for youth engagement in intervention development;

• Studies assessing the effect of youth engagement strategies on implementation outcomes (e.g., intervention adoption, reach, sustainability);

• Adoption and implementation of youth-friendly services;

• Evaluations of policies and programs related to improving youth engagement in research;

• Descriptions of interventions and policies to promote youth engagement in research;

• Assessing readiness for youth engagement and sustainability of youth engagement;

• Policy analyses related to youth engagement.