Research in Brief: Mindfulness-Based Programs & School Adjustment

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By: Karen Ko

Highlights:

  • This Research in Brief blog is part of the School Mental Health series highlighting work and resources for mental health professionals.
  • This brief originated from the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health (VPSMH) project, which partners with VA school divisions and institutions of higher education to expand support for school mental health services.
  • This brief summarizes a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on mindfulness-based programs and school outcomes that used a randomized controlled design with students from preschool to undergraduate levels.
Source: Canva

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, 46 studies on mindfulness-based programs were selected an evaluated. Each of the selected studies used a randomized controlled design and consisted of students from preschool to undergraduate levels. Results of this analysis found that in comparison to control groups, there was a small effect for overall school adjustment outcomes, academic performance, and impulsivity; small to moderate effect for attention; and moderate effect sizes for mindfulness outcomes.

Importance

  • School mental health professionals are able to use proactive and preventative measures to support students’ mental health and help build resiliency skills.
  • To promote the use of mindfulness-based programs, school mental health professionals must act as advocates to help clarify the relationship between mindfulness and outcome data when consulting with decision-makers such as school/district administrators, school board members, policy makers, etc.

Equity Considerations

  • Need for more research, as many mindfulness-based programs are being offered across populations, but there is a lack of research investigating differences in programs across participant characteristics.
  • Need to examine the effects of mindfulness-based programs as a whole, as well as individual components, for specific populations.

Practitioner Tips

  • Mindfulness-based programs are encouraged to be implemented at a Tier 1 (school-wide) approach, focusing on helping students build skills in mindfulness
  • Rather than targeting psychopathology, it is important for school mental health professionals to take a strengths-based approach to build skills in students.
  • Incorporating a combination of research-designed mindfulness activities and yoga-based mindfulness activities have shown continued positive effects even after the intervention concludes.
  • Providing training and professional development opportunities in how to implement mindfulness can allow teachers to incorporate mindfulness strategies and practices into their classrooms.
  • Adaptation of an existing mindfulness program, such as MindUp, have shown significant effect on improving overall school adjustment and mindfulness.
Mindfulness-Based Programs & School AdjustmentDownload

Reference

Mettler, J., Khoury, B., Zito, S., Sadowski, I., & Heath, N. L. (2023). Mindfulness-based programs and school adjustment: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of School Psychology, 97, 43-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2022.10.007

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Karen Ko is a graduate student in the Counselor Education program at the University of Virginia, pursuing the School Mental Health emphasis offered to trainees through the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health. Trainees in this emphasis complete additional coursework and field experience requirements that prepare them to take on leadership roles in addressing the mental health needs of students in K-12 schools.

Youth-Nex Job Market Candidates 2023

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Source: Youth-Nex

Youth-Nex was founded in 2009 to expand and apply the science of positive youth development to address fundamental challenges facing societies around the world. Youth-Nex supports junior scholars and their professional development throughout their career. Learn more about the current candidates on the job market for 2023-24! These candidates are in alphabetical order by last name, including Maria Guzman Antelo, Dr. Jessica Forrester, Dr. Pamela Nicholas-Hoff, Dr. Toshna Pandey, Ariana Rivens and Jieun Sung.

Maria Guzman Antelo

María Guzmán Antelo (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education & Human Development at UVA. She is a bilingual speaker of Spanish and English with transnational teaching experience in Argentina, China, and the US. 

Her work focuses on preparing and supporting pre-service teachers to work with multilingual learners and their families and the role mentor teachers play in the preparation of future teachers. 

Research Interests: Teacher learning and development for teaching multilingual learners; practice-based pedagogies of teacher education; reflective teaching practices; core practices for teaching multilingual learners; advocacy, and social justice.

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Chris Chang-Bacon and Dr. Peter Youngs

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Professional Website
EHD Profile

Dr. Jessica Forrester

Jessica Forrester (she/her) earned her Ph.D. in STEM Education from the University of Minnesota, where she combined her interest in STEM engagement with justice-oriented practices in education. For her dissertation, Jessica created culturally responsive mathematics activities for an after-school tutoring program by authentically connecting the traditionally rigid content area of mathematics with the beauty, brilliance, and histories of communities not always seen through an asset-based lens. Jessica’s passion for equity, community engagement, and participatory research methods is grounded in amplifying the voices and solution-driven ideas of historically marginalized communities and youth, especially in academic and research settings. In addition, Jessica embodies a culture of care and considers how adults can use their power to support youth as leaders of change.

Jessica is currently a postdoctoral researcher with Youth-Nex’s youth participatory action research (YPAR) initiative, Youth Action Lab. Jessica’s work with Youth Action Lab focuses on three key areas: 1) supporting existing community partnerships, including school-based YPAR classes and out-of-school programming; 2) developing a line of research on the processes and outcomes for all participating YPAR stakeholders (high school youth, teachers, youth organization leaders, undergraduate students, graduate researchers, affiliated faculty); and 3) challenging traditional research dissemination approaches (e.g., including youth and community voices in scholarly publications). In addition to her research endeavors, Jessica supports multiple research labs on implementing YPAR practices in their unique contexts and mentors graduate and undergraduate students as they navigate their research journeys.

Research Interests: Participatory action research, bridging theory and critical practice, culturally responsive mentoring, community engagement, qualitative methods, positive youth development, and decolonizing research methodologies  

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nancy Deutsch

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Dr. Pamela Y. Nicholas-Hoff

Pamela Nicholas-Hoff is a postdoctoral research associate for the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development’s Youth-Nex Center and Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education. Pam earned her B.S. in Middle School Education and M.Ed. in Physical Education with a concentration in Exercise Physiology from the University of Virginia. Before matriculating to the University of Virginia to earn her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, Pam taught in the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Department of a historically Black institution. Prior to teaching at the collegiate level, Pam taught middle school. While teaching middle school, she developed a Health, Physical Education, and Social Emotional Learning curriculum that she implemented with her students attending an alternative middle school. Pam is interested in how pre- and in-service educators’ increased levels of mindfulness and social emotional competency may eliminate disproportionate rates of exclusionary discipline consequences for Black students by mitigating educators’ implicit racial bias. Her dissertation research, funded by an American Educational Research Association-National Science Foundation Dissertation Grant, employed zero-inflated negative binomial regression modeling to analyze and compare counts and incident risk rates of out-of-school suspension using federally-funded, national datasets spanning the Obama and Trump administrations.

Research Interests: Interventions for eliminating racial discipline disparities, Educators’ implicit racial bias, Educators’ social emotional competency, Focused awareness practices as interventions to mitigate implicit racial bias, Caring/compassion practices as interventions to mitigate implicit racial bias, Relationship between educators’ levels of mindfulness and implicit racial bias, Relationship between educators’ levels of social emotional competency and implicit racial bias, and Critical Race Theory.

Faculty Advisors: Nancy L. Deutsch, Ph.D. and Patricia (Tish) A. Jennings, Ph.D., M.Ed.

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Dr. Toshna Pandey

Toshna Pandey earned her Ph.D. in Special Education from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is currently working as a postdoctoral research associate with Catherine Bradshaw, Jessika Bottiani, and Katrina Debnam on projects that seek to prevent challenging student behaviors, facilitate positive student-teacher engagement, and improve teachers’ equity stamina and racial literacy. Pandey’s research focuses on optimizing coaching to enhance teachers’ implementation fidelity of evidence-based practices. Specifically, she serves as the Co-PI on an internal research grant that explores the core components of classroom-based coaching models that lead to high intervention implementation fidelity. She is interested in supporting teachers’ use of social, emotional, and behavioral school-based interventions to reduce students’ challenging behaviors and consequently, exclusionary discipline. Concurrently, she is working on a NIMHD-funded grant that uses a school-level randomized controlled trial (RCT) design to test the integration of a universal, classroom-based evidence-based social-emotional learning program for Anne Arundel County Public Schools students with elements of from the Double Check professional development framework and an equity-based coaching component. She has extensive experience collecting classroom data using observational measures and has served in leadership roles to train members of various research teams in similar measures. At present, she serves as a project coordinator for an IES-funded follow-up study that seeks to explore teachers’ practices, attitudes, beliefs, and personality traits that influence their use and perceptions of the Good Behavior Game intervention and MyTeachingPartner. She has proficient interviewing skills and extensive experience using qualitative and mixed-methods research designs. She also serves as a project coordinator for an NIH-funded grant that aims to generate new theories regarding the context and development of romantic relationships for young Black women using grounded theory.

Research Interests: School-based preventative behavior interventions, classroom management, classroom observations, teacher professional development using coaching models, implementation fidelity, cultural-responsiveness, disproportionate exclusionary discipline among racially and ethnically minoritized students, school mental health, qualitative research methods, mixed-methods research.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Catherine Bradshaw

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Ariana Rivens

As a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia and predoctoral intern at the University of Pennsylvania, Ariana Rivens has received substantial clinical science training and clinical experience. These experiences have informed her commitment to being a clinical psychologist who conducts rigorous research and evidence-based clinical practice. Her research program leverages qualitative and mixed methodology to examine the multifaceted experiences of Black adolescents and emerging adults, with a particular focus on mental health service utilization and higher education. She is passionate about using research findings to reduce racial health disparities, inform the adoption of culturally responsive clinical practices, and address structural inequalities in behavioral health systems. As a clinician, Ariana seeks to continue working among the most marginalized individuals experiencing psychological distress by focusing on pathways to care.Thus, Ariana is seeking postdoctoral positions that will facilitate her growth as a clinical psychologist who utilizes empirical research coupled with evidence-based assessment, intervention, and supervision skills to improve mental health service use. She is particularly interested in working in multidisciplinary team environments where she is able to leverage and refine the clinical and research expertise she has developed throughout her doctoral training, as well as contribute to equity efforts.

Research Interests: Black youth and emerging adults, culturally responsive practice, pathways to care, mental health service utilization, trauma-informed practice, collegiate mental health, community engagement, higher education, applied research, mixed methods, qualitative methods, 

Clinical Interests: Pathways to care,evidence-based treatment, cultural adaptations and considerations for those with marginalized identities (i.e., racial/ethnic, LGBTQ+, low-income), suicide prevention and treatment, trauma-focused care

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Noelle Hurd, Dr. Joseph Allen, & Dr. Seanna Leath

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Jieun Sung

Jieun Sung is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Social Foundations program at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development. Her work is concerned broadly with ways that education, schooling, ethical formation, and the preparation of individuals to participate in social, cultural, political, and civic life are interrelated. She is particularly interested in the educational experiences of newcomer families and the significance of non-school contexts as influential sites for youth development. Her current research explores how immigrant families’ experiences of education, cultural adaptation, and overall adjustment are shaped by interactions with significant community organizations and networks. Her dissertation focuses on efforts by Korean American and Korean immigrant parents to navigate the formal education of children, and on the role of Korean ethnic church communities in shaping families’ relationship to schools.

Research Interests: Youth development and non-school contexts, community engagement, education of newcomer youth, immigrant integration, global migration and diaspora, ethnic and racial identity development, belonging, and ethical formation

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Rachel Wahl

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Professional Website

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Research in Brief: Perspectives of Restorative Practices Classroom Circles

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By: Anna Hukill

Highlights:

  • This Research in Brief blog is part of the School Mental Health series highlighting work and resources for mental health professionals.
  • This brief originated from the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health (VPSMH) project, which partners with VA school divisions and institutions of higher education to expand support for school mental health services.
  • This brief summarizes research on school staff and youth perspectives of tier 1 restorative practices classroom circles.
Source: Youth-Nex

In this qualitative study, researchers gathered perceptions from staff and students about the relationship between restorative practices, community-building circles, and social- emotional learning. Data included beginning- and end-of-year surveys about staff perspectives on implementation, semi- structured interviews with staff, and surveys about student participation. Results showed a strong association between community- building circles and social-emotional learning (SEL). The challenges mentioned included circle participation, equitable access, and conflict between discipline and restorative practices. This supports the idea that restorative practices need to be implemented school-wide.

Importance

School counselors, especially in elementary schools, often deliver short lessons and can incorporate community circles into their curriculum. This is an important opportunity to advocate for equitable access to classrooms. Community circles are a proactive way of building strong peer relationships and strategies for resolving conflict.

Equity Considerations

  • Ensure that all students have access to participate in the circle (e.g., alternative seating, multiple modes of participation).
  • Carefully consider opening and closing questions that all students can connect with.

Practitioner Tips

  • Community building circles have the potential to be a strong tool for improving social-emotional competence in students.
  • Teachers can seamlessly incorporate such circles into pre-existing group time by setting a clear routine (ex. greeting, opening question, SEL topic of the day, closing statement/activity).
  • Teachers and students report positive increases in student participation, communication, and sense of belonging.
  • Circles can be used among staff to develop a strong sense of school community.
Perspectives of Restorative Practices Classroom CirclesDownload

Reference

Garnett, B. R., Kervick, C. T., Moore, M., Ballysingh, T. A., & Smith, L. C. (2022). School staff and youth perspectives of tier 1 restorative practices classroom circles. School Psychology Review, 51(1), 112-126. https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2020.1795557

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Anna Hukill is a graduate student in the Counselor Education program at the University of Virginia, pursuing the School Mental Health emphasis offered to trainees through the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health. Trainees in this emphasis complete additional coursework and field experience requirements that prepare them to take on leadership roles in addressing the mental health needs of students in K-12 schools.

Youth-Nex Faculty Accepting Ph.D Students

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Source: Youth-Nex

Youth-Nex is dedicated a) to providing a venue for scholars and practitioners whose work is furthering the goal of racial justice, b) to supporting developmental science that is not only anti-racist but is in the service of dismantling white supremacy, and c) to amplifying the voices and lived experiences of adolescents who have been marginalized. Interested in joining this work and furthering your education?

Faculty at Youth-Nex from multiple universities are accepting doctoral students for the fall 2024. As application season approaches, review their faculty profiles for more on their scholarship, explore the academic programs they are accepting students through and APPLY to join our community! In alphabetical order, learn more below about Dr.s Valerie Adams-Bass, Catherine Bradshaw, Chris Chang-Bacon, Katrina Debnam, Noelle Hurd, Michael Lyons, Channings Mathews, Lora Henderson Smith, and Jonee Wilson.

Dr. Valerie N. Adams-Bass

Valerie N. Adams-Bass is an applied researcher seeking to advance scholarship that provides meaningful contributions to the lives of Black youth and their families. Her research integrates contextual factors with a focus on how Black children see themselves and related outcomes, and she is most interested in examining how media exposure influences inter-personal interactions and self-concept.

Dr. Adams-Bass is accepting a doctoral student at Rutgers University through the Childhood Studies program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Catherine Bradshaw (she/her)

Dr. Catherine P. Bradshaw is a professor, the senior associate dean for research and a faculty fellow with the University’s vice president of research. Her research focuses on bullying and school climate; emotional and behavioral disorders; and the design, evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based prevention programs in schools.

Dr. Bradshaw is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the School & Clinical Psychology program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Chris Chang-Bacon (he/his)

Chris Chang-Bacon researches equity in multilingual and multicultural contexts. His work explores anti-oppressive pedagogies and policies in English as a Second Language (ESL), dual-language, and bilingual education settings.

Dr. Chang-Bacon is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the Language Education in Multilingual Contexts program and/or the Curriculum & Instruction program.

Faculty Profile
Language Education in Multilingual Contexts Program
Curriculum & Instruction Program

Dr. Katrina Debnam (she/her)

Debnam’s scholarship stems from her interest in health outcomes for marginalized adolescents through community-based violence prevention strategies. Debnam serves as a research expert in three interrelated strands of adolescent health, teen dating violence prevention, creating equitable school environments for Black youth, and the protective role of religion and spirituality in youth development.

Dr. Debnam is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the Research, Statistics, & Evaluation program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Noelle Hurd (she/her/ella)

Dr. Hurd is planning to admit a doctoral student for the 2024/2025 academic year who has an interest in studying how social experiences in emerging adulthood may influence subsequent physical health outcomes. Prospective applicants should have an interest in quantitative analyses with longitudinal data.

Dr. Hurd is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the Community Psychology program and/or the Clinical Psychology program.

Faculty Profile
Community Psychology Program
Clinical Psychology Program

Dr. Michael Lyons (he/him)

Michael Lyons is interested in the social-emotional development of middle and high school students in a positive psychological and traditional mental health framework. Specifically, his research reflects an interest in understanding the mechanisms and practices in a school setting that promote student well-being and school-relevant outcomes (e.g., grades and behavior) through an ecological model.

Dr. Lyons is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the School & Clinical Psychology program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Channing Mathews (she/her/hers)

Dr. Mathews’ research considers how youth of color draw upon their ethnic-racial identity and critical consciousness development as motivators for their STEM based academic engagement and activism. Her scholarship has three central foci: 1) integrating ethnic-racial identity and critical consciousness factors as dual promoters of positive Black and Latinx adolescent and emerging adult development, 2) examining how both ethnic-racial identity and critical consciousness promote STEM orientation, and 3) assessing the complexity of ethnic-racial identity and critical action behaviors (including STEM-based activism) in both Black and Latinx adolescence and adulthood.

Dr. Mathews is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the Community Psychology program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Lora Henderson Smith (she/her/hers)

My research broadly focuses on student wellbeing with projects on improving supports for students returning to school after mental health crises and collaborative work focused on culturally responsive practices in schools. I use mixed-methods and community-engaged research methods to elicit the voices of minoritized and marginalized youth and community members in my work.

Dr. Henderson Smith is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the School & Clinical Psychology program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Jonee Wilson (she/her/her’s)

My research focuses on examining and outlining instructional practices that empower and honor historically marginalized students specifically in the context of conceptually-oriented mathematics classrooms. I am also working with others in using what we, as a field, are learning about equitable mathematics instruction to support school and district leaders, instructional coaches, and teachers as they work to understand and develop practices that aim for equity.

Dr. Wilson is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the Curriculum & Instruction program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Research in Brief: Counselor-Delivered Mindfulness & Social-Emotional Learning Intervention

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By: Melinda Espinoza  

Highlights:

  • This Research in Brief blog is part of the School Mental Health series highlighting work and resources for mental health professionals.
  • This brief originated from the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health (VPSMH) project, which partners with VA school divisions and institutions of higher education to expand support for school mental health services.
  • This brief summarizes research on a mindfulness and social–emotional learning intervention that was delivered by counselors.
Source: Youth-Nex

This article explores the effectiveness of a counselor-led early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) intervention and its impact on the lived experiences of a small group of early childhood educators. The intervention consisted of 12 weeks of one-on-one counselor-teacher consultation using social emotional learning and mindfulness-based interventions. There was also a mindfulness intervention group-consultation component with the teacher participants. Participants reported feeling an increased ability to handle classroom related stressors while also experiencing changes in their beliefs towards themselves as educators and individuals. These beliefs extended beyond the classroom as participants also reported changes in their personal lives.

Importance

  • Work-related stress and lack of support can limit educators’ ability to be healthy and effective.
  • School counselors are able to supplement and promote mental health care for other educators.
  • Promoting mindfulness habits and emotional regulation skills, counselors can not only support fellow educators’ well-being but also positively impact students.

Equity Considerations

  • This study was conducted in urban schools with student populations consisting mostly of students from minoritized and low-income backgrounds.
  • Teacher participants largely identified as part of minoritized groups as well.
  • Participants (teachers) were provided with consultation on culturally-responsive practices.

Practitioner Tips

  • Mindfulness-based interventions have the potential to positively enhance inter-educator relationships. Educators may use the skills they learn to inform interactions with other colleagues.
  • Mindfulness skills helped participants learn to cope with and address workplace conflict.
  • Consultation influenced by mindfulness allows the educator to receive some mental health support while developing goals and problem-solving from a new approach.
  • Mindfulness practices helped teachers increase their self-awareness which allowed for changes in beliefs about teaching behaviors and in their personal lives.
Counselor-Delivered Mindfulness & SELDownload

Reference

Palacios, A. F., & Lemberger, T. M. E. (2019). A counselor‐delivered mindfulness and social–emotional learning intervention for early childhood educators. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, 58(3), 184–203. https://doi.org/10.1002/johc.12119

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Melinda Espinoza is a graduate student in the Counselor Education program at the University of Virginia, pursuing the School Mental Health emphasis offered to trainees through the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health. Trainees in this emphasis complete additional coursework and field experience requirements that prepare them to take on leadership roles in addressing the mental health needs of students in K-12 schools.

How To Increase Your Mindfulness When Working with Youth

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By: Pamela Nicholas-Hoff

Highlights:

  • Back-to-school is full of hope and promises, but how can educators stay true to these good intentions throughout the school year?
  • Mindfulness is one solution in education that helps educators and youth-serving professionals be emotionally well regulated, and respond to students with compassion.
  • Included in this blog are tips and strategies for increasing mindfulness in your work with students and youth.
Source: Adobe

For educators, the first day of school is similar to New Year’s Day, full of hope, promises and good intentions. For our students, we may commit to providing the best learning experiences, cultivating the most positive classroom climate, and responding with equanimity to others no matter the circumstances. For ourselves, we may also commit to self-care.

But similar to New Year’s resolutions, those beginning of the school year promises and resolutions are often overshadowed/overtaken by reality and the demands of our job. Students have traumatic experiences. Our classrooms are overcrowded. Schools are understaffed and have limited resources. So how do we maintain the commitments we make to ourselves and our students? Many educators are turning to mindfulness.

Importance of Mindfulness

Though not a solution to all problems, mindfulness has many well-documented benefits. Even brief mindful awareness practices have been shown to decrease stress1, and reduce implicit biases2 and discriminatory behavior3​, and increase emotional regulation4​. In addition, only eight-weeks of participating in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program that included 30 to 40 minutes of daily mediation practice resulted in positive changes in areas of the brain associated with learning, memory, emotion regulation, perspective-taking, empathy, compassion, and reduced reactivity.

Interventions targeting educators show promising results. Within the classroom, results from the Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) professional development program5​ may translate into educators listening more attentively to others, maintaining more present-centered, non-judgmental acceptance and receptivity to others’ thoughts and feelings, practicing greater self-regulation (i.e., lower reactivity and lower automaticity in reaction to normative child and adolescent behavior), maintaining greater awareness of and responsiveness to others’ individual needs, and maintaining greater compassion for self and others.

Educators who possess and demonstrate the aforementioned attributes and abilities are less likely to personalize student behavior thus reducing the chance that challenging classroom situations will escalate and result in negative outcomes (for students and teachers). 

However, how do we establish and maintain a consistent mindfulness practice?

Practicing Mindfulness

People often mistakenly perceive that they do not have the time to practice. However, we make time for other types of self-care such as brushing our teeth, because we know the benefits of good oral hygiene and the adverse effects of poor oral hygiene. With this in mind, I suggest you view  your practice as a visiting guest. Prioritize and intentionally make space and time for your mindfulness practice. If possible, practice in a space where you will not be disturbed and at a time when you will not be interrupted. Practice self-compassion and patience–the mind is structured to think; therefore, distractions are inevitable.  When distractions occur, notice, and perhaps label the distraction, and return your attention to the target of your practice (e.g., the sensations of the breath).

If interested in MBSR, I invite you to visit Palouse Mindfulness which offers the complete program via an online, self-paced course at no cost. Imagine Mindfulness is another affordable, online option. The UVA Mindfulness Center also offers MBSR online.

If committing to 30 to 40 minutes of daily mindfulness practice is overwhelming, please take heart. Even a few minutes of consistent time in practice provides benefits. For example, try:

  • Breathing: Taking three deep, full, diaphragmatic breaths can calm the nervous system and provide time to respond versus react to a situation. Box breathing is another option. Inhale deeply, hold the inhaled breath, exhale completely, and hold the exhaled breath. Maintain each phase for a count of four.
  • Set an Intention: An intention acts as a navigation system that helps align our behavior and speech with our values. This practice involves identifying an intention for a given period of time (e.g., a class period, a day, etc.) and envisioning acting and speaking in a way that reflects that intention. After visualizing the intention, write and post your intention in a prominent place as a reminder of your commitment to your intention.
  • Journaling: Reflecting upon and recording your experiences (either while engaging in your mindfulness practice or at other times) is a wonderful way to practice mindfulness. You can also generate and savor gratitude and positive emotions by recalling a positive experience and focusing on the physical sensations you experienced during that positive experience.
  • Body Scan: A quick body scan helps us become aware of the way our emotions manifest physically. Being aware of the physical sensation associated with our emotions helps us better identify those emotions and respond to others with equanimity. Longer body scans are also beneficial.
  • Leverage Technology: Use apps to support your practice–as a reminder to practice and/or to facilitate your practice. If affiliated with UVA, you may have access to the premium version of Insight Timer through the UVA Contemplative Sciences Center.

As educators, we have an obligation to keep our students safe and ensure they are treated justly. Through the practice of mindfulness, we can reduce implicit racial biases, cultivate social emotional competency and assess situations with nonjudgmental awareness, curiosity, empathy, and compassion thus helping to ensure the safety and just treatment of our students.

Citations

1 Carson et al., 2005

2 Fabbro et al., 2017; Lueke & Gibson, 2015; Stell & Farsides, 2016

3 Lueke & Gibson, 2016

4 Guendelman et al., 2017

5 Jennings et al., 2017

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Pamela Nicholas-Hoff is a triple Hoo and postdoctoral research associate supporting work in Youth-Nex and the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education. Before earning her Ph.D., Pam spent 17 years teaching at the middle school level (five of those years were spent teaching at an alternative middle school serving students who were pushed out of traditional schools) and seven years teaching health and physical education teacher preparation courses. Pam is also a certified CARE facilitator and is working toward her certification to facilitate Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction courses. Her research focuses on using mindful- and compassion-based practices to mitigate teacher-based implicit biases, stress, and automatic responses and to eliminate exclusionary discipline disparities for historically marginalized students. In her spare time, Pam enjoys spending time with her family and reading.

Why YPAR Matters: Youth Are “Looking at the World Differently”

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By: Britney, Justus & Jessica, youth from the Teen Wellness Team

This post is the 8th publication in a YPAR series, which aims to explain participatory research, youth-led measurement and evaluation approaches, and strategies for youth-adult collaborations in YPAR.

Highlights:

  • Through the YPAR Series, adults and youth have described what youth participatory action research is and why youth should be engaged in processes like it.
  • This post highlights themes from this series with youth voices who have participated in Youth Participatory Action Research (or YPAR) as part of a program on mental health. 
  • Britney, Jessica, and Justus talk about their experiences in YPAR, what they’ve learned, how they are looking at the world differently, and more as this series concludes.
Source: WAYS Lab

As part of the Wellness And Youth Social action (WAYS) Lab, several local high school students have been working with UVA adult researchers since March to identify a research question that addresses disparities in the youth mental health crisis. They are known as the Teen Wellness Team (TWT). Their goal is to conduct research that will shape community-based actions to promote youth mental health.

The youth team members have learned about how to conduct research, engaged in discussions about the mental health needs of young people in our community, and heard from guest speakers about different careers in health care and research. Together, the TWT has identified a research question of interest and is currently in the process of making a research plan to collect data this fall.

Dr. Irène​ P. Mathieu (an Assistant Professor of General Pediatrics and Principal Investigator of the WAYS Lab) and team sat down with three TWT members to ask about their experiences and what they want others to know about the YPAR process. These youth voices are shared by themes that have been presented throughout this YPAR series.

Why YPAR?

Unlike other ways of working with young people, YPAR centers youth as experts with their own agency in the research process.

  • Britney says, “a lot of people should be introduced to YPAR and learn more about what YPAR is.”
  • Jessica says that YPAR “…could help our community, and it would help a lot of teens.”

Benefits from YPAR

Youth benefit from engaging in participatory approaches to research and other activities.

  • Justus comments, “YPAR has made me look at the world differently. Every person I see- I wonder what they’re going through. And not just youth, but adults, too. I jotted down a lot of things in my notebook. I think about things around town, places that are out of business. We don’t have a lot of teen hangout spots. I see a building and think, ‘This could be a mental health clinic.’ I really wish that youth here would do something about it, but there’s not a lot of people that would advocate for change. We need motivation. An adult running it would bring things back to where it is now. There are a lot of places that have potential, but we need agency.”
  • Britney says, “it makes me think there are so many little things that contribute to a greater idea. It encourages me to think outside the box and consider the smaller parts contributing to one big thing.”

Learning in YPAR

A part of YPAR is breaking down the power structures so youth can learn in new and different ways and feel that adults are truly listening to them.

  • Britney says being in a YPAR group “…changed how I think of people around me, and if people have bad attitudes or don’t look the best, maybe they had a bad day. It makes me think that we don’t know what’s going on with people. This group talking about confidential stuff, it makes me feel like I’m not alone talking about mental health. We just need a safe place to talk about this and deal with it together.”
  • Justus says she’s changed by “being in the group and us talking about mental health and how to help the community. I think about people around me and wonder what they’re thinking or feeling. I normally don’t think like that.”

Advice after YPAR

Any adult working with youth can use YPAR strategies to think about the collaboration process.

  • Britney says, “I think adults should know that this research is basically a bubble where people can have a safe place to talk about issues and give their opinions on stuff that matters to them. I think it’s a great opportunity for students and teenagers to be able to experience how to do research and how to just be more creative. And it just opens up their mind and makes them think more regarding issues around them and issues locally. Makes them think not only about themselves but people around them and how these issues affect their communities. They should know that this is great for their child or students if they’re interested.”
  • Justus says if another student is interested in YPAR to “maybe just go for it. Don’t be nervous going into it. It’s not only a life thing, be comfortable to say your opinion. Be yourself and don’t be nervous being around new people. Have an open mind.”

YPAR Research Experiences

YPAR provides experiences for youth in research that may include understanding their community and forming questions they can test. 

  • Jessica says that sometimes parts of the research process were “hard. It’s hard to think of how to make up a question based on the topic or how to make the question related to the topic.”
  • Britney says, “it has been a long process to choose a perfect question. It surprised me that so much has to be done to even start a research question. But I think it will turn out great. [I started to] notice that there are small things that we have to be attentive to.”

Reflections on YPAR

Other youth who have participated in YPAR also shared their reflections in this series.

  • Justus says, “at first it was nerve-wracking because I’m not the type of person to really talk to people let alone talk about my feelings or opinions. Being in this group has helped me come out of my shell and not only see and hear other people’s opinions. Being in this group is cool.”
  • Britney says “YPAR made me think more about the connections to everything. Usually, we think about a general idea rather than the little parts that tie the idea. YPAR has helped me think even greater outside the box and think of those little parts that tie the idea together.”

Missed a post in the YPAR series? Check out all the tips and resources:

  1. The Benefits of Engaging in Participatory Approaches to Research
  2. Why Young Investigators Are Important
  3. Youth Voices in YPAR (includes youth)
  4. Strategies for the YPAR Collaboration Process (includes downloadable resources)
  5. How Can Youth Voice Amplify Research? Listening & Leadership Are Key
  6. 4 Universal Facilitation Tips for YPAR Collaboration
  7. Asset & Power Mapping as Tools for Youth-Led Research (includes downloadable resources)
  8. Why YPAR Matters: Youth Are “Looking at the World Differently” (includes youth)

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Justus is a recent 2023 graduate of Charlottesville High School (CHS). She was a student in the CATEC EMT program, and is a current member of the TWT. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, traveling, listening to music, and learning new languages. She is open minded and understanding.

Author Bio: Britney is a freshman at James Madison University and majoring in psychology. She is involved in mental health research as a member of the Teen Wellness Team to find resources to help my community.

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Author Bio: Jessica is currently attending Charlottesville High School and attended CAYIP last summer. She likes to get involved in programs that offer new experiences. Jessica is also a member of Teen Wellness Team. She loves to spend time with family, painting, listening to music, and organizing.

Youth Voices from the Pass the Mic Series

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By: Wintre Foxworth Johnson

Highlights:

  • In fall 2022, Youth-Nex hosted their 8th conference entitled Pass the Mic: Amplifying Youth Voice & Agency, co-chaired by Drs. Wintre Foxworth Johnson and Nancy Deutsch.
  • In this Pass the Mic blog series, we highlighted each of the sessions from the conference and included youth voices to summarize and reflect on what was discussed.
  • For this conclusion blog, co-chair Dr. Johnson highlights the key advice and thoughts from the youth who participated in the series and summarized the conference panel discussions.
Source: Youth-Nex

Throughout the Pass the Mic blog series and Youth-Nex’s 8th conference, we heard from young people who are actively working to amplify their peers’ voices within and across the systems that shape and inform their lives. Youth are the present as much as they are the future, and we need their ideas! I have been inspired reading the posts in this series and wanted to feature their voices once more as we take a comprehensive look across their blogs.

Youth Voices in Shaping Systems

Zaharra, a 13-year-old conference panelist, reflected on what was shared about social and justice systems. She wrote about adults that “break out a box” (i.e., the criminal legal system) that should not be there for youth. She says, “By taking a risk [Andy Block] changed the system and helped to save lives; this is what educators and other people should be doing when building relationships… [with young people].”

Maya, a 2nd year at UVA and conference volunteer, summarized the panel talking about youth empowerment in schools. She declares,

“Students’ voices should and need to be not only heard, but also given genuine space during the school decision making process.”

She summarized panelists’ suggestions about how teachers and administrators can support and empower youth voices in schools. Maya also took over the Youth-Nex Instagram handle (see profile highlights) to share more videos about her blog!

Kiara, a senior in high school and conference panelist, reflected on the panel about health and well-being. She states, “Giving youth the opportunity to speak to someone about the things that they see every day could be the first step to healing childhood trauma (that they would have to tackle one day in their adulthood).” She felt inspired hearing from other youth about how they feel they can advocate for not only themselves, but their families as well.

Isabel, a 1st year at UVA and conference panelist, summarized the session about politics, organizing, and civic engagement. She asserts,

“a young Black person cannot speak up in the same ways that a young White person can speak up, so it is important to teach Black and Brown youth to be an advocate in their own way and not force them to emulate the actions of young White activists.”

Isabel highlighted important takeaways about empowering youth voices, engagement, activism, and education. She also took over the Youth-Nex Instagram handle (see profile highlights) to share more videos about her blog!

Liz, a 16-year-old conference panelist, shares more about youth programs that elevates voice and agency. She writes, “Young people should be uplifted by those around them, especially our mentors because they are considered the ‘knowers.’ Mentors and other adults should affirm youth and help us to feel like we are actually heard.” She also shares more about her personal experiences in a youth program that works to amplify her voice.

Pass the Mic

The goal of the convening was for everyone to approach the issues affecting youth with new eyes because they are complex and require all our experiences, expertise, and ideas. We want adults to not only see, but also engage, youth as true partners in working for change!

So as we conclude this Pass the Mic blog series, please take with you the thoughts and advice from the young people who were essential to the conference as you continue to “pass the mic”!

Did you miss one of our six sessions from the Pass the Mic: Amplifying Youth Voice & Agency conference? Go back and watch these panels with youth voices, and read the summaries, primarily written by the youth participants, on the following topics:

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Dr. Wintre Foxworth Johnson’s scholarship lies at the nexus of sociocultural literacy studies, critical race scholarship, and critical pedagogies for and with young children. Her research has two primary aims: to examine the relationship between literacy teaching and learning in race-conscious and social justice-oriented elementary educational contexts; to investigate the sociopolitical development of children from historically marginalized communities, with a particular focus on Black children’s educational experiences, racial awareness, and experiential knowledge.

Asset & Power Mapping as Tools for Youth-Led Research

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By: Jessica Forrester

This post is the 7th publication in a YPAR series, which aims to explain participatory research, youth-led measurement and evaluation approaches, and strategies for youth-adult collaborations in YPAR.

Highlights:

  • In this series on Youth Participatory Action Research (or YPAR), we have started to share tips & strategies for facilitators.
  • Some YPAR facilitators use two types of modeling activities in their research projects, community asset & power mapping.       
  • This blog includes explanations of these mapping exercises, reflections on the iterative nature of creating maps, and downloadable examples to use in future work.
Source: North Minneapolis Asset Map made by Mychi Nguyen in YoUthROC Magazine 2022

Interactive activities are central to Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR). These activities encourage youth to think critically about their communities and provide opportunities to strengthen problem-solving skills. Exercise examples include community asset mapping and power mapping. Below I’ll describe these two maps, when to include them in your YPAR process, and steps your team can follow for your research project. Additionally, there are templates and examples to support future YPAR projects.

Community Asset Mapping

Community asset mapping is an action-oriented process that documents often unexplored resources within a defined community. Assets are valuable resources for communities to maintain their well-being. These resources include individuals, land and physical environments, culture, stories, businesses, and citizens’ associations.

In other words, community asset mapping visualizes a community as inherently full of social and physical resources rather than defined by deficits that need remediation.

Asset mapping is a data collection step that can support a YPAR project after you’ve decided on your research goals or as a stand-alone project to document resources and build collaborative relationships. Regardless of your route, community asset maps are a powerful tool to understand the context of research projects and envision how resources already occurring in a community can be used to create change. Additionally, taking the time to find out what is already happening in a community will avoid duplicating services or solutions that others have done.

Here are some steps to create your own community asset map:

  1. Identify where and who makes up the community that you want to explore. Are you or your youth interested in your neighborhood, school, or entire city?
  2. Determine what kind of assets you want to know about and how you’ll find out about those assets. For example, youth can interview community members about their positive experiences in the community or read newspapers to find out about groups organizing local events.
  3. Logically organize the community asset map to share, use, and maintain.

Templates & Examples of Assets Maps

Community Mapping ActivityDownload

UC Berkeley’s YPAR Hub created an activity to guide YPAR teams in defining what community means and identifying the resources within a community.

Example of an Asset Map in ActionDownload

YoUthROC (a community and University-connected youth research team that supports the growth of YPAR) created asset maps for their magazine to highlight their research finding surrounding nourishing youth assets and agency.

Power Mapping

Power mapping is a visual representation that organizes people and organizations based on how much a person/group supports your project and how much power a person/group has to help your project progress. Completing this visual exercise will help YPAR teams understand how power operates within your community.

In addition, power mapping can help YPAR teams strategize about stakeholders who strongly support their research goals, opposers who might hinder their project, and people/groups in the middle who could be influenced to assist.

You can incorporate power maps into various steps of your research process. For example, a) during the early brainstorming stage as youth think about the proposed audience of the project, b) when they finish the project and are preparing to present the findings, or c) when they create an action plan and are contemplating who can help them make positive change. Regardless of which step, power maps can help youth and your team create a framework for success to meet the research, action, and relationship-building goals.

Here are some steps to create a power map:

  1. Brainstorm a list of people/groups in your community who make decisions on the YPAR topic. This list can include those responsible for creating the problem you want to change, those who may want to fix the problem, those already working to fix the problem, and your YPAR team.
  2. Place each person/group on the power map template based on their level of support and power (see the Power Mapping Activity below for the template). Questions you can ask yourself are: Do they agree or disagree with the goals of our YPAR project? How much power do they have over decision-making? You can do this virtually (via Jamboard or Google Slides) or in person with a whiteboard and sticky notes.
  3. Reflect on how people/groups are organized on the map and determine the next steps. Future actions can include engaging with your influential supporters or limiting the impact of powerful non-supporters.

Templates & Examples of Power Maps

Power Mapping ActivityDownload

A guide created by Community Futures, Community Lore (UC Davis) to assist YPAR teams in thinking strategically about supporters and detractors while you focus on your action efforts.

Example of a Power Map in ActionDownload

On the second slide of the Instagram post, YoUthROC completed a power map with local partners during their Research to Social Action workshop series.

Reflections on Mapping

Asset maps are just the beginning. Typically in community mapping exercises, assets are listed with short descriptions for brevity. In actuality, each asset could be further broken down and described. Youth and research teams can work towards transcending from maps to more detailed inventories that document individuals’ self-identified skills, partnerships between institutions and community groups, and strategies to identify additional resources. These steps would give a more well-rounded view of community assets and allow researchers to be more knowledgeable on community values, issues, and organizing efforts before proposing community-engaged projects.

Maps should be re-visited. An essential step in creating asset or power maps is to re-visit and update them. These tools are not final, and the continuation of participatory research depends on continually revising community resources. For example, organization leaders change regularly. It may be worthwhile to update the asset map depending on the new leader’s values or update your power map to reflect their level of support and possible allyship.

Missed a post in the YPAR series? Check out all the tips and resources:

  1. The Benefits of Engaging in Participatory Approaches to Research
  2. Why Young Investigators Are Important
  3. Youth Voices in YPAR (includes youth)
  4. Strategies for the YPAR Collaboration Process (includes downloadable resources)
  5. How Can Youth Voice Amplify Research? Listening & Leadership Are Key
  6. 4 Universal Facilitation Tips for YPAR Collaboration
  7. Asset & Power Mapping as Tools for Youth-Led Research (includes downloadable resources)
  8. Why YPAR Matters: Youth Are “Looking at the World Differently” (includes youth)

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Dr. Jessica Forrester is a postdoctoral researcher working directly with Youth-Nex and the Youth Action Lab. Before joining the University of Virginia, Jessica earned a Ph.D. in STEM Education from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biomedical engineering. Her dissertation combined her interest in STEM engagement with justice-oriented practices in education to create mathematics activities for an after-school tutoring program in North Minneapolis. Specifically, qualitative and community-based approaches were utilized to acknowledge community assets and, in turn, value those assets during mathematical learning to influence students’ identity development, skills development, criticality, and joy. Additionally, Jessica explores equity and justice through youth participatory action research and mentoring networks.

4 Universal Facilitation Tips for YPAR Collaboration

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By: Olivia Burke

This post is the 6th publication in a YPAR series, which aims to explain participatory research, youth-led measurement and evaluation approaches, and strategies for youth-adult collaborations in YPAR.

Highlights:

  • Detailed in earlier in this series, engaging youth in participatory action research promotes autonomy, self-efficacy, critical thinking skills, empowerment and civic engagement.
  • Effective facilitation is the key to successful YPAR partnerships.
  • In this blog, I share tips for facilitators based on years working in YPAR at multiple sites across a diverse range of students.
Source: Canva

This summer marks my third anniversary with the Youth Action Lab. The intersection of my two academic passions, education research methodology and adolescent development, this lab caught my attention as an undergraduate in UVA’s School of Education and Human Development. While working on my master’s, my interest in utilizing Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as both a research method and youth-empowerment tool continued to blossom.

The bulk of my research with Youth Action Lab focuses on successful participatory action research facilitation. My experience facilitating YPAR with six different youth groups/schools ranges from: in-person to remote settings, ages 3rd to 12th grades, and highly selective leadership groups to alternative school models. In reflecting on the years, I identified four universal facilitation tips that help me establish successful YPAR collaborations.

Intentionally Break Down the Adult-Youth Power Structure

After the initial introduction to YPAR, spend time breaking down the traditional youth-adult power structure. YPAR is often facilitated in a school or school-like setting where the youth are traditionally ‘knowledge consumers.’ While the youth will learn throughout the YPAR process, they are also considered a primary source of knowledge. Unlike a traditional student-teacher relationship, the youth-researchers and YPAR facilitators have equal decision-making power. Being explicit about the shared ‘power’ throughout the YPAR process allows youth the space to share their truth and confidently make research decisions. As a facilitator, make sure you:

  • Intentionally share the idea that the youths’ knowledge and points of view are as important as the facilitators’.
  • Treat the youth with the same level of respect as you would any other co-researcher or adult colleague.
  • Spend time encouraging students to use their voice in the facilitation time; they will likely begin to speak up, unprompted, throughout the year.
  • Position yourself, physically, in a space that does not imply a power dynamic. For example, in a circle of desk rather than in front of the class like a teacher might.

Build Foundational Connections with Youth Researchers

Establishing a genuine relationship with the youth-researchers is crucial for a successful partnership. Once the youth-researchers feel comfortable around you, they will be more likely to explore authentic research topics. Though researchers strive to remove bias from the process, overarching research topics are inherently personally and often are sparked from emotions or reactions to everyday experiences. Building an authentic connection allows space for the youth-researchers to be vulnerable and explore their true interests. As you hone your YPAR facilitation skills, remember to:

  • While respecting your own boundaries, be vulnerable and authentic yourself. I often share a bit about my personal experiences and what makes me ‘me.’
  • Allow the youth to get to know you as a ‘normal’ person first—this also helps break down power structures between facilitator and youth-researcher. Having casual conversations about the latest trends or music tastes will remind the youth-researchers that we are just like them and normal people.
  • Share some of your own interests, research interests and how you personally connect to them.

Follow an Adaptable Curriculum & Timeline

The Youth Action Lab follows a general curriculum adapted from the University of California Berkeley’s YPAR HUB. I found that this YPAR curriculum is best utilized as a starting point to spark engagement and teach youth-researchers the social science research process. Since YPAR is rooted in empowering youth to make their own research decisions, it is important to be flexible to the youths’ interests and not get caught up in following the curriculum verbatim (like a teacher needs to in the classroom). The youth may feel more drawn to different aspects of the process than others, and it is not only OK but encouraged to follow their lead. As you consider YPAR curriculum, remember your goal as the facilitator is to:

  • Give youth the space and time to explore each step of the process. For example, a youth-researcher may enjoy spending the bulk of their time on background research or exploring data collection methods.
  • Spend more time on aspects of the social science process that excites and energizes the students.
  • Create a broad timeline from the start but be flexible at each stage. For example, allowing students more time to research their topic of interest or presenting their findings to different groups.

Meet the Youth Where They Are At

As mentioned in previous series posts, reflecting and checking personally bias is crucial for successful YPAR facilitation. In YPAR, the youth possess the content knowledge and it is their worldview that drives the research project. I, like most of us, have preconceived notions of how the world works and what is ‘right and wrong.’ My worldview may vary drastically from the youth though. Checking my bias throughout the research process promotes a research product authentic to the youth.

I also strive to meet the youth where they are at that day, and in some YPAR meetings you may need to pivot in the moment if that is best for them. While it is a collaborative process, not everyone involved has a fully developed prefrontal cortex. Provide the youth-researchers with more support on the days you notice they may be struggling. Giving them space to have ‘bad days’ promotes trust, mutual respect, and ultimately a more successful partnership. As a YPAR facilitator, it is essential that you:

  • Allow youth to explain their thinking and share what experiences are driving their opinions (often you will learn something new from them).
  • Share your own worldview and prompt a conversation to highlight where we, as co-researchers, may differ.
  • Check-in with the youth, as people, at the beginning of each session. Not every YPAR session needs to be 100% focused on the research project.

Missed a post in the YPAR series? Check out all the tips and resources:

  1. The Benefits of Engaging in Participatory Approaches to Research
  2. Why Young Investigators Are Important
  3. Youth Voices in YPAR (includes youth)
  4. Strategies for the YPAR Collaboration Process (includes downloadable resources)
  5. How Can Youth Voice Amplify Research? Listening & Leadership Are Key
  6. 4 Universal Facilitation Tips for YPAR Collaboration
  7. Asset & Power Mapping as Tools for Youth-Led Research (includes downloadable resources)
  8. Why YPAR Matters: Youth Are “Looking at the World Differently” (includes youth)

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Olivia Burke is an incoming PhD student studying Research, Statistics, and Evaluation at the School of Education under the guidance of Dr. Nancy Deutsch. She completed her B.S.Ed. as a Youth and Social Innovation major in 2021 and her M.Ed. in Quantitative Analytics for Education in 2022. She spent the last year as a data analyst at the National Student Clearinghouse on their Custom Research team. Since her initial involvement with in 2020, she has continued her work with Youth Action Lab as a YPAR facilitator and researcher. During her PhD, she plans to utilize and promote PAR-methods in education research.