Youth Lens: Youth Perspectives on the COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact on Well-being in an Urban Community

Authors: Elizabeth Benninger, Megan Schmidt‑Sane, Ashley Hajski

This study sought to shed light on children’s perspectives and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, the various ways it impacted their health and well-being, along with the resources which allowed them to continue to flourish in the face of extreme hardship. We present a subset of findings regarding the COVID-19 pandemic from the Youth Lens study, with 65 youth (aged 10–18) from urban communities in Cleveland, OH, USA. We utilized a participatory methodology with youth, including the data collection techniques of photo voice, community mapping, group discussion, individual interviews, and journaling. This study highlights important and timely findings related to children’s well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic from the youth’s perspectives and underscores potential ways to address their challenges and concerns.

Youth for Youth: Raising the voices of children of incarcerated parents and implications for policy and practice

Authors: Elizabeth Benninger, Megan Schmidt‐Sane, Sara Massey, Brinda Athreya

This study provides in-depth qualitative data centering on the experiences and perspectives of youth who have been affected by having an incarcerated parent. More specifically, we utilized a YPAR approach in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, to explore the impact of having an incarcerated parent on youth wellbeing and to develop youth strategies to address the needs and challenges of having an incarcerated parent and to promote flourishing. Study findings highlight the impact which incarceration has beyond the convicted individual; it affects children, families, and entire communities. These insights can contribute toward the development and refinement of programs and policies intended to support their needs and promote flourishing children and communities.

Conceptualizing Social Determinants of Neighborhood Health through a Youth Lens

Authors: Elizabeth Benninger, Megan Schmidt‑Sane, James C. Spilsbury

This study reports on findings from a youth participatory action research of children’s well-being and health. We draw upon the Social Determinants of Health framework, including a focus on structural racism and intersectionality, to holistically explore the ways in which youth (ages 13–17) experience multiple forms of marginalization within the neighborhood, and how these experiences influence their well-being outcomes. By involving youth as co-constructors of the research, we elicited perspectives on the pathways between a healthy neighborhood to healthy residents, with implications for future research, policy, and intervention programming aimed at improving the health and well-being of children and youth.

Fixes that Fail: A system archetype for examining racialized structures within the food system

Authors: Elizabeth Benninger, Gwendolyn Donley, Megan Schmidt-Sane, Jill K. Clark, David W. Lounsbury, Dominque Rose, Darcy Freedman

Access to fresh and healthy food within a neighborhood has been identified as a social mechanism contributing to community health. Grounded in the understanding that challenges related to equity within a food system are both structural and systemic, our research demonstrates how systems thinking can further understandings of food system complexity. Within systems thinking, we provide an illustration of how system archetypes offer an analytic tool for examining complex community issues. We map semi-structured interview data from community stakeholders to the “Fixes that Fail” system archetype to illuminate systemic challenges, such as incarceration and poverty, that structure food system inequity in urban communities. Within our research, the “Fixes that Fail” archetype provided a narrative interpretive tool for unveiling complexity within the food system and interdependencies with racialized systems such as criminal justice and labor markets. This system archetype provided an accessible approach for generating narratives about systemic complexity, the production of inequity through racialized forces, and opportunities for transformation.

Surf Therapy: A Scoping Review of the Qualitative and Quantitative Research Evidence

Over the past 15 years, surf therapy has emerged as a growing therapeutic intervention in diverse communities around the world. Although the programs operate on the premise that surf therapy provides a range of benefits for both physical and psychological health, there is limited research evidence available to support these claims. There additionally remains a need to further develop evidence-based practices around surf therapy that support the global impact of existing and future surf therapy interventions. This study provides an overview of the current scientific evidence related to surf therapy, including its physical, psychological, and social benefits. It additionally provides a detailed description of existing research methods and measures used to evaluate the impact of surfing as a therapeutic intervention that could inform further research designs. The study supports surf therapy as a means of improving both physical and psychosocial health outcomes and includes recommendations for improving surf therapy research and practice.

Researching Children’s Subjective Well-Being in South Africa: Considerations for Method, Theory, and Social Policy

This book chapter from the Handbook of Quality of Life in African Societies explores the importance of researching children’s subjective perceptions of well-being within a South African context. It considers the current methods of engaging with children about their subjective perceptions of various aspects of their lives, outlines the status of theoretical advancement, and importantly, considers the implications for social policy. The authors motivate for a focus on participatory methodologies and argue for the increased investment in research using these methodologies. Finally, they recommend that an effective child indicator system should include a consideration of subjective well-being and should follow a ‘rights based’ approach.

The Children's Delphi: considerations for developing a programme for promoting children's self-concept and well-being

Using a child participation framework, this study explored children's perceptions of the nature and content of intervention programmes aimed at improving children's self-concept within two impoverished communities of the Western Cape, South Africa. The Delphi technique was followed with a group of 10 children between the ages of 10 and 12 years who were considered to be knowledgeable experts and authorities on matters affecting their lives and well-being. They suggested that intervention programmes include a focus on safety, the provision of social support, the creation of opportunities for learning and for play, and the provision of basic material needs.

The use of visual methods to explore how children construct and assign meaning to the self (Elizabeth Benninger, Shazly Savahl)

Description: Using a child participation methodological framework, data were collected - through the use of Photovoice and community maps - with 54 participants between the ages of 9 and 12 as a means of exploring how children construct and assign meaning to the 'self' within two urban communities of Cape Town in South Africa. The study provides implications for intervention programs aimed at improving children’s well-being to be inclusive of activities aimed at improving children’s self-concept, including the construction of safe spaces for children to play, learn, and form meaningful relationships.

A Systematic Review of Children’s Construction of the Self: Implications for Children’s Subjective Well-being (Elizabeth Benninger, Shazly Savahl)

Description: This research aimed to systematically review academic literature focused on how children construct and assign meaning to the 'self'. The review provides considerations for increased interventions aimed at improving child well-being which must take into account the unique ways in which children construct and assign meaning to the self. Such interventions should be inclusive of the individual and contextual issues influencing children’s self-constructions, including coping skills, structural challenges, and proximal economic and social resources.

Children’s discursive constructions of the ‘self’ (Elizabeth Benninger, Shazly Savahl)

Description: This study utilized a child participation framework, specifically in the form of focus group discussions, to explore children’s discursive constructions of and meanings assigned to the ‘self’ within two urban communities of the Western Cape, South Africa. The themes of childhood, social connectedness, and children’s spaces were identified as key influences on a child’s self-concept.

Future Fighters Teen Program

Description: Future Fighters is a 10-session program which focuses on the development of a healthy future for teens through sessions which promote improvements in self-concept, coping skills, and social support.

Riding the Waves Curriculum

Description: The Riding the Waves curriculum aims to promote the health, healing, and well-being of young people, especially those who may lack access to formal mental health services. The curriculum applies a range of therapeutic techniques grounded in community, humanistic, and cognitive-behavioral psychology as a means of assisting the participants to gain skills in coping with difficult life challenges.

The Waves for Change Youth & Childcare Worker Resource

This manual is designed to be a resource to assist youth and childcare workers with the facilitation of a successful after-school surf program which promotes the psycho-social well-being of school-age children.