Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is a form of community-based participatory research that centers youth voices in identifying research problems, helps generate localized knowledge, and promotes positive youth development. Prior research shows that YPAR strengthens student engagement and agency while producing timely, accessible evidence. But little is known about how to encourage mid-level managers’ use of youth-generated research to shape school policies and practices or how that use affects student outcomes. Previous research on Peer Leaders Uniting Students (PLUS), a broad scale YPAR approach focused on improving school climate, identified optimal conditions to nurture research use for mid-level managers. Building on these findings, Kornbluh and colleagues propose the first randomized-controlled trial to examine whether and how youth-generated research improves research use and whether it also affects school-wide youth outcomes, not just for students who participate in the YPAR process. Findings will contribute to YPAR and use of research evidence literature by assessing impact on broader youth outcomes and factors that may contribute to it.
Can a youth participatory action research intervention successfully improve the use of youth-generated research evidence in school decision-making to influence school climate outcomes for youth?
