February 25, 2010: Emily Ozer

Studying the Effects of Youth-Led Participatory Research on Students and Schools: Preliminary Results and Mixed Methods Approaches

Youth-led participatory research is a form of "action research" (Lewin, 1947) that is increasingly being implemented in the youth development, education, public health and community psychology fields. In this approach, students are trained to identify major concerns in their schools and communities, conduct research to understand the nature of the problems, and take leadership in influencing policies and decisions to enhance the conditions in which they and their peers live. While promising, it has been subjected to relatively little systematic study and evaluation regarding its potential impact on young people's development and on their schools as settings that support positive youth development. In this talk, I will present preliminary process and outcome findings from a longitudinal experimental evaluation of a youth-led participatory research program conducted in several SF public high schools for the past 4 years. This project entails the integration of extensive observational and interview data on the quality of implementation of the school-based intervention with self-report and district data regarding youth outcomes. My presentation will highlight the strategies used and challenges encountered in this multi-method study, and invite feedback from participants regarding the analytic decisions involved in the quantitative and qualitative components of this research.