Guiding, sustaining and growing the public involvement of young people in an adolescent health research community of practice

Teresa Swist; Philippa Collin; Betty Nguyen; Cristyn Davies; Patricia Cullen; Sharon Medlow; S Rachel Skinner; Amanda Third; Katharine Steinbeck

doi:10.1111/hex.13616

Guiding, sustaining and growing the public involvement of young people in an adolescent health research community of practice

Health Expect. 2022 Dec;25(6):3085-3095. doi: 10.1111/hex.13616. Epub 2022 Oct 27.

Authors

Teresa Swist^{1

2}, Philippa Collin¹, Betty Nguyen³, Cristyn Davies⁴, Patricia Cullen^{5

6

7}, Sharon Medlow^{8

9}, S Rachel Skinner⁴, Amanda Third¹, Katharine Steinbeck^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.
² Education Futures Studio, Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia.
³ Young and Resilient Research Centre, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.
⁴ Specialty of Child and Adolescent Health, Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.
⁵ School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia.
⁶ Ngarruwan Ngadju, First Peoples Health and Wellbeing Research Centre, Australian Health Services Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
⁷ The George Institute for Global Health, UNSW Sydney, Newtown, New South Wales, Australia.
⁸ Speciality of Child and Adolescent Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁹ Academic Department of Adolescent Medicine, The Children's Hospital Westmead, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.

Abstract

Background: Public involvement in health research and its translation is well recognized to improve health interventions. However, this approach is insufficiently practised and evidenced in relation to young people. This paper presents an analysis of the process of co-producing a framework, partnership model and a growing network of young people informing and guiding an adolescent health research community of practice.

Methods: A Living Lab is a participatory research approach that brings together a broad range of stakeholders in iterative cycles of research, design, development, pilot-testing, evaluation and delivery to implement effective responses to complex phenomena. The geographical setting for this study was Sydney, NSW, Australia, and involved both youth and adult stakeholders from this region. The study spanned three phases between July 2018 and January 2021, and data collection included a range of workshops, a roundtable discussion and an online survey.

Results: The co-production process resulted in three key outputs: first, an engagement framework to guide youth participation in health research; second, a partnership model to sustain youth and adult stakeholder collaboration; third, the growth of the public involvement of young people with a range of projects and partners.

Conclusions: This study investigated the process of co-producing knowledge with young people in an adolescent health community of practice. A reflexive process supported youth and adult stakeholders to collaboratively investigate, design and pilot-test approaches that embed young people's engagement in adolescent health research. Shared values and iterative methods for co-production can assist in advancing mutual learning, commitment and trust in specific adolescent health research contexts.

Public contribution: Young people guiding and informing an adolescent health research community of practice were involved in this study, and one of the participants is a paper co-author.

Keywords: adolescent health; co-production; community of practice; partnerships; public involvement in research; youth engagement.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adolescent Health*
Adult
Australia
Humans
Knowledge*