Youth, Volume 6, Issue 3 (September 2026) – 36 articles

Problematic pornography consumption (PPC) during adolescence has been associated with negative perceptions of one’s own body image, pressure to conform to beauty standards, self-objectification, and dissatisfaction with one’s own image, whereas sexuality education may promote critical thinking, self-knowledge, and healthy relationships. This cross-sectional study analyzed the relationship between received sexuality education, body self-esteem, and problematic pornography use among 1177 adolescents and young people aged 12 to 21 years, including 541 women and 636 men. The Body Self-Esteem Scale, the short version of the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale, and an ad hoc questionnaire on received sexuality education were administered. Overall, 50.30% of adolescents reported having received sexuality education training, although it was mostly brief and had limited capacity to address their questions. In total, 19.63% of adolescents were at risk of negative body-image evaluation, and 10.62% were at high risk of body self-esteem problems. Moreover, 31.08% showed indicators of problematic pornography use, with higher levels among male adolescents and an increase associated with age. No significant associations were observed between the perceived quality of sexuality education and body self-esteem or PPC. However, PPC was negatively associated with body self-esteem among women. The results suggest the need to strengthen systematic, early, and comprehensive sexuality education programs. Full article

Self-managed leisure is a key determinant of volitional development and the transition to adulthood in young people. This article examines the relationship between perceived family and social support environments and levels of self-management and motivation among young people aged 18 to 29. A quantitative descriptive-correlational design was used to administer the Self-managed Leisure Scale (SLS) [Escala de Autogestión del Ocio (SLS)] and the Environment Scale (ES) [Escala de Entornos (EE)] to a sample of 468 young people living in Spain. The results reveal medium-to-high levels of self-management, highlighting that women have greater perceived competencies and relational connections than men, although they also perceive greater social barriers. It was confirmed that greater family and social support correlates significantly with higher levels of autonomy, competence and social relationships in leisure time. In the area of motivation, multiple orientations are observed to coexist, with slightly higher average scores for the identified regulation. It was concluded that self-management is an essential psychosocial mechanism for integral human development, which enables young people to be the authors of their own experience. Fostering environments that nurture basic psychosocial needs is critical for promoting active, healthy and engaged citizens and transforming leisure into a space of participation and well-being. Full article

This conceptual paper examines how dominant frameworks of college access and equity in U.S. higher education marginalize undocumented and international students by anchoring inclusion to citizenship, legal eligibility, and institutional risk management. In the context of intensified anti-DEI and anti-immigrant politics, legally precarious students face overlapping yet distinct legal, financial, emotional, and symbolic forms of exclusion that conventional access and equity models do not fully capture. Institutional retreat, anticipatory obedience, and the re-coding of equity work can further make supports for these students harder to locate, defend, and sustain. Synthesizing scholarship on college access, undocumented and international student experiences, critical citizenship studies, legal status stratification, border theory, anticipatory obedience, and coalitional politics, the paper argues for moving “beyond legality” as the organizing framework of access. It advances a conceptual model of College Access Beyond Legality centered on four interlocking structures: emotional safety and trust, informal resource networks, campus and community organizing, and identity-based and status-conscious advocacy. The model conceptualizes cross-status coalition-building among students, institutional stakeholders, faculty, and community partners as both a survival strategy and a practice of institutional accountability. It also emphasizes that access beyond legality must begin before matriculation and extend through persistence, belonging, and post-graduation transitions. The model aims to reduce harm, strengthen belonging, expand access to material supports, support persistence, and deepen institutional accountability. The paper concludes with implications for institutional policy, equity practice, basic-needs and community-connection infrastructures, and future research aimed at expanding access for marginalized students in legally and politically hostile contexts. Full article

As anti-DEI legislation reshapes belonging in American higher education, today’s Black doctoral students may one day become the educators and administrators who shape the experiences of young adults, which creates an indirect but significant connection between doctoral education and young adults. However, research on belonging in graduate education rarely connects doctoral student experiences to other sectors of education, including K-12 and undergraduate student relationships. Through a single focus group, this qualitative study explores the experiences of five Black higher education doctoral students cultivating and sustaining belonging in the current anti-DEI climate. Grounded in Hurtado and Carter’s framework, findings from the study reveal that Black doctoral students are architects of their own belonging by forming spaces to facilitate belonging through unacknowledged labor in the absence of formal institutional supports. Full article

This study examines the extent to which participation in extracurricular sport activities (ESA) satisfies basic psychological needs (BPN) and the type of motivation generated in pre-adolescents (aged 9–12). A quantitative, cross-sectional and correlational study was conducted with 158 participants in sport activities (62 girls [39.2%] and 96 boys [60.8%]) from A Coruña, Spain, using three validated scales (Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale, Perceived Locus Of Causality and Self-concept Form 5). The results indicated high scores for physical self-concept (PSC), as well as in the needs for competence and relatedness, while the need for autonomy was moderate. Autonomous motivations (intrinsic and identified) predominated over controlled ones and amotivation. Positive correlations were found between BPN satisfaction, PSC, and autonomous motivation, while the need for autonomy correlated negatively with amotivation. No gender differences were found in BPN or PSC; however, boys exhibited significantly higher levels of identified, introjected, and external regulations. Multiple regression analyses confirmed that these motivational differences were due to gender and not the type of sport practised. In conclusion, although ESA foster high PSC and autonomous motivation, there is a need to improve methodology and design programs that satisfy the need for autonomy to curb female dropout rates. Full article

Digital ecosystems, misinformation exposure, mental-health vulnerability and unequal access to care create distinctive challenges for young people. Although youth participation in health governance is increasingly advocated internationally, structured evidence from youth deliberative processes remains limited in Portugal. This study synthesises priorities expressed in two Portuguese deliberative initiatives coordinated by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Literacia em Saúde: the Mini-Assemblies of Health 2022–2023, with particular attention to the 3rd Mini-Assembly on Fighting Health Misinformation, and the Youth Health Choices Forum 2024. Both processes used a structured nominal-group logic to support idea generation, clarification, recording and prioritisation. The analysis used low-inference cross-session thematic aggregation to preserve propositional integrity and remain close to participants’ formulations. Five priority domains were identified: digital health communication and information credibility; curriculum-integrated and peer-mediated health literacy; low-friction mental-health access and stigma reduction; equity and functional service accessibility and governance, accountability and youth participation. Participant quotations are retained, in translated form, to preserve youth voice and to show how recommendations emerged from concrete deliberative formulations. The findings suggest that nominal group technique (NGT)-based youth deliberation can generate operational recommendations for policy and practice, including credibility mechanisms for digital health information, school-based health-literacy integration, autonomy-preserving access routes for mental-health support, and permanent youth participation structures. The findings support recognising young people not only as vulnerable recipients of health information but also as interpreters of digital health ecosystems and contributors to the design of more responsive health governance. Full article

The digital age marks the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), which has changed every aspect of our lives, including youth ministry globally and Southern Africa in particular. However, it is worth noting that the digital revolution has significantly transformed the lives of young people, bringing opportunities and challenges for youth ministry. This shift raises important questions about the nature of youth ministry as the church seeks to embrace digitalization and social media in conjunction with face-to-face pastoral care ministry among the youth. This article explores the challenges and opportunities presented by the digital era for youth ministry in Southern Africa. It argues that the digital era poses significant challenges that cause the risk of losing contact and the erosion of meaningful relationships in pastoral ministry, but at the same time provides opportunities for digital convenience in communication and collaboration to advance learning, sharing, and the participation of young people in the church. This article employs textual analysis for data collection and qualitative inductive critical data and content analysis. The church’s understanding of the challenges and opportunities of the digital era helps in designing and adapting new methods and strategies for nurturing young people for ministry in the church and society. The article contributes to the discourse on the integration of social media in youth pastoral ministry. Full article

The transition into higher education is one of the most consequential junctures in a young person’s trajectory. Institutional retention is an institutional responsibility. When students leave before completing their degree, the default response has been to look at the student, their preparation, their motivation, their fit. This paper starts from a different premise: the cracks students fall through are structural. They form where offices operate in isolation, where handoffs go unowned, and where no unit is responsible for the space between them. Those cracks are most costly for students who were never given the social or political capital to navigate institutional complexity on their own: first-generation, Pell-eligible, and racially minoritized students, students with disabilities, LGBTQI-identified students, and others for whom the institution was not designed. This article introduces Embedded Institutional Process Mapping (EIPM), a framework adapted from business process mapping traditions and applied to higher education to help institutions map what their offices do and synchronize those efforts toward a shared institutional purpose. Drawing on loose coupling theory, administrative burden scholarship, and QuantCrit, EIPM surfaces where coordination fails and identifies which students bear the cost of that failure. A proof-of-concept application at a regional open-access institution, where 67% of students are first-generation, 58% are Pell-eligible, and 83% work while enrolled, demonstrates how EIPM makes structural misalignments visible that conventional program assessment routinely overlooks. In its widest application, EIPM operationalizes what equity work requires: disaggregated institutional data examined through a critical lens, to name who is being underserved and trace that outcome back to the institutional processes that produced it. Full article

The objective of this systematic review was to analyze the scientific evidence published between 2015 and 2025 on the impact of active tourism in reducing sedentary behavior among children and adolescents, and its implications for health promotion and the economic development of the sector. The PRISMA 2020 guidelines were followed, with searches conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, including 13 studies with approximately 3100 participants across school, extracurricular, and residential camp contexts. The results show a consistent decrease in sedentary time during participation in active tourism programs, with moderate reductions in short-term interventions (≈5–15% or 20–30 min/day) and substantial decreases of up to 1.5–2 h per day in immersive programs. This displacement is mainly accompanied by increases in light physical activity, more limited improvements in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, and reductions in screen time when the use of electronic devices is restricted. Overall, active tourism emerges as an effective and safe intervention with biopsychosocial benefits to counteract sedentary lifestyles in the young population. Furthermore, it demonstrates considerable applied potential as a driver of economic development by generating demand for educational, recreational, and tourism services, fostering destination diversification, and promoting sustainable territorial growth models. Full article

This study explores the educational transitions of university students with special educational needs in Türkiye, focusing on their experiences of moving from secondary to higher education and their expectations for the transition from university to employment. The study draws on semi-structured interviews with 15 university students with special educational needs, including two participants with immigrant backgrounds. Findings primarily reflect the experiences of the overall sample, while the accounts of the two participants with immigrant backgrounds are interpreted as exploratory observations. The interview questions focused on resources, transition-related experiences, and expectations. Guided by the Capabilities Approach, the analysis explores the barriers to a smooth transition process and their implications for career choices through the lens of central capabilities. The findings reveal that participants face a range of challenges during transition processes, including limited and inconsistent institutional support, barriers in accessing educational and vocational opportunities, and difficulties in navigating key transition stages. The two students with immigrant backgrounds additionally described challenges related to language barriers, unfamiliarity with the education system, and limited access to support networks, which appeared to further complicate their individual transition experiences. Full article

This study explored the lived experiences of youth workers within formal education settings in South Africa. Utilising a qualitative approach, the study sampled 22 youth workers participating in presidential youth employment initiatives in partnership with the Department of Basic Education. The findings indicate that youth workers play a vital role in promoting social development among young people within formal education settings, a result that aligns with the empowerment theory guiding this research. Specifically, youth workers provide essential psychosocial and mental health support, contributing to holistic youth development. However, their effectiveness is frequently constrained by operational issues, including limited institutional recognition and ambiguous role definitions. Furthermore, a lack of sustainable funding and restricted time allocations for youth work activities remain significant challenges. The study recommends the formal institutionalisation of professional youth work within South African education policy, supported by clear operational frameworks, structured collaboration, and enhanced training to ensure sustainable learner support. Full article

Child marriage remains a persistent barrier to girls and young women’s education, health, and socioeconomic advancement in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines the perceived economic empowerment initiatives contributed to expanding life choices, including the prevention of child marriage and the delay of early marriage, within the Girls Get Equal (GGE) project implemented between 2020 and 2024 across three districts (Nkasi, Kalambo and Sumbawanga DC) in the Rukwa Region of Tanzania between 2020 and 2024. The paper adopted an explanatory mixed-methods case study design to explain aggregated project outcome indicators with participants’ lived experiences captured through focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Endline evaluation interviews and focus group discussions were re-analyzed using a six-stage thematic analysis approach. The paper demonstrates that imparting skills in technical and business fields leads to robust job creation outcomes. A large majority of trained youth transitioned into employment or self-employment and a substantial proportion maintained stable income-generating activities. On top of that, community-based infrastructures, particularly savings and loan groups, emerged as important financial mechanisms as they enabled structures supporting enterprise development and household resilience. The integration of quantitative trends and qualitative narratives suggests that economic empowerment interventions can expand girls’ economic agency and influence their informed decision-making processes related to marriage. Finally, the findings suggest that combining vocational skills development with access to financial capital represents a promising pathway for addressing structural drivers of early and child marriage in economically vulnerable contexts. Full article

Political consumerism is frequently celebrated as an expansion of youth political participation or critiqued for its structural ineffectiveness to advance young people’s political contestations. Moving beyond this evaluative binary, this article investigates its underexplored cultural and affective implications. It defines the paradox of political consumerism as a condition in which young people’s political intent is channelled through consumer choice, only to be pre-emptively neutralised by the very neoliberal ‘business ontology’ it seeks to resist. This article interrogates this paradox through a series of focus groups in the United Kingdom and Greece among ‘neoliberal natives’; a unique generational unit whose entire civic socialisation has occurred within a totalised market logic, anchored by the historic, unfulfilled promises of the Brexit and Grexit moments. Informed by Critical and Cultural theory, the analysis explores how political consumption functions simultaneously as a meaningful political gesture and an ideological constraint. Rather than dismissing youth commitments as superficial, the article situates them within a broader political economy that individualises responsibility, commodifies dissent, and constrains their political imagination. What emerges is an ambivalent subjectivity: a generation that knows very well the limits of their market-based engagement—yet continues to participate in it. Full article

Background/Objectives: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with child socio-emotional difficulties, but when using parents’ reports, it remains unclear which scoring approaches are most informative about younger children. This study evaluated a Portuguese caregiver-report ACE assessment derived from the Finkelhor/Turner framework in a community sample of children aged 2–10 years. Methods: Caregivers provided reports on ACE exposure and socio-emotional adjustment for 341 children. Three ACE scores were compared: an approximate original ACE score, a full ACE pool score, and an adapted reduced caregiver-report score. Associations with socio-emotional adjustment were examined using correlations, adjusted regressions, ROC analyses, domain models, and latent class analysis. Results: Higher ACE exposure was associated with greater difficulties and lower prosocial behavior. The nine-item approximate original ACE score, which did not include emotional neglect, showed the strongest overall predictive and discriminative performance for caregiver-reported SDQ outcomes in this Portuguese sample. This finding should therefore be interpreted as evidence regarding the available approximation of conventional ACE indicators rather than the complete original ACE inventory. Among the two expanded ACE scoring approaches, however, the adapted reduced score consistently outperformed the full ACE pool, supporting a more parsimonious approach. ROC analyses indicated acceptable discrimination for elevated total difficulties, with the approximate original score showing the highest area under the curve (AUC); however, positive predictive values were low across all three scores, indicating limited stand-alone screening utility at the individual level. Domain analyses highlighted economic stressors, maltreatment, and family disorder as salient predictors. Latent class analysis identified low adversity, moderate family/economic adversity, and high polyadversity profiles. Both adversity-exposed classes showed poorer socio-emotional adjustment than the low-adversity class. Conclusions: Findings support the relevance of caregiver-report ACE assessment for understanding socio-emotional adjustment in young children, while also highlighting the need for developmentally sensitive, culturally adapted, and outcome-validated scoring approaches. More extensive ACE pools were not necessarily more informative than shorter empirically or theoretically grounded scores. Full article

This study employs a qualitative narrative inquiry to explore how support systems and industry engagement influence youth employability and entrepreneurial aspirations within South Africa’s TVET sector. The central research question examines how young people’s personal stories reveal the impact of systemic barriers and support mechanisms on their identity construction, resilience, and agency. Using in-depth interviews and focus groups with 24 purposively sampled youth across Gauteng’s TVET colleges, the analysis combines thematic and narrative approaches to uncover recurring patterns and narrative structures. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 30, with a balanced gender distribution, representing various socio-economic backgrounds and career interests, selected through purposive sampling to ensure data richness and saturation. The analysis integrated thematic and narrative approaches, with a detailed coding process, theme development, and measures to mitigate bias through member checking and peer debriefing. Findings indicate that experiential learning, mentorship, family encouragement, and industry connections serve as critical support mechanisms that shape youth perceptions of opportunity and self-efficacy. Conversely, systemic barriers such as resource limitations and skills mismatches are frequently narrated as obstacles constraining pathways to employment and entrepreneurship. The study concludes that integrating youth narratives into policy development can foster more inclusive and effective strategies for youth empowerment. These insights contribute to the literature on youth employment by highlighting the active role of storytelling in identity negotiation and social critique within socio-economic contexts. Full article

Background/Objectives: Youth are increasingly engaged in mental health research, but many models remain consultative rather than participatory. We examined the Technology and Adolescent Mental Health Internship (TAMI) as an implementation-focused instrumental case study of a structured youth participatory action research internship for high school students recruited through schools serving Chicago’s West and South Sides. Methods: The case study included an embedded multimethod formative evaluation with participatory interpretation by a post-program youth advisory board (n = 8). In Year 3, 18 participants completed baseline surveys, and 16 provided matched pre–post surveys (matched survey completion = 89%). Measures included a study-developed five-item research-task self-efficacy indicator, post-program attitudes and intentions, and four open-ended items. We conducted one exploratory paired-samples t-test and an inductive descriptive content analysis. Results: In exploratory analyses, mean research-task self-efficacy scores increased from 21.8 (SD = 2.1) at baseline to 23.8 (SD = 1.4) post-program, t(15) = 4.09, p = 0.001, d_z = 1.02. Among the 15 respondents who responded to each of these post-program items, all reported being confident or very confident explaining youth mental health research, and all reported being at least somewhat likely to participate in future research, advocacy, or mental health activities. Participants described learning related to literature review, research design, ethics, data interpretation, and science communication. They recommended a longer program, additional applied practice, and more guest speakers. Conclusions: The TAMI was delivered within one program cycle and was viewed favorably by respondents. This case illustrates how youth-generated questions, adult scaffolding, collaborative interpretation, and youth co-authorship can be incorporated into a structured research internship. Larger, independent evaluations are needed to assess outcomes, sustainability, and transferability. Full article

Cannabis use is prevalent among LGBTQ+ youth and is often framed within deficit-oriented models emphasizing risk and mental health vulnerability. This study moves beyond these perspectives by examining how LGBTQ+ youth understand and mobilize cannabis use in relation to mental health, gender, and sexuality. Guided by queer theory and an ethics of care, and grounded in a community-based participatory approach, this photovoice study was conducted in collaboration with three LGBTQ+ youth peer researchers who contributed to data collection, analysis, and interpretation. A total of 46 LGBTQ+ youth (aged 15–24) in Quebec, Canada, generated photographs and narratives exploring their motivations and experiences of cannabis use, which were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings highlight cannabis use as a situated and relational practice embedded in three intersecting processes: reconfiguring thought, enacting identity, and practicing care. Cannabis was mobilized to facilitate introspection, support identity exploration, and affirmation, and foster relational and collective forms of healing, while also producing ambivalent effects, including disorientation and emotional numbing. By centering youth perspectives, these findings challenge harm-focused framings and underscore the need for more nuanced, youth-informed and strengths-based approaches to LGBTQ+ youth well-being. Full article

Food insecurity is a major public health concern among university students. This cross-sectional study examined factors associated with food insecurity during and after the COVID-19 pandemic among 1864 students (mean age: 20.6 ± 2.9 years) from selected public universities in Northwest Mexico. Data were collected in two cross-sectional survey waves: during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 1188) and after the pandemic (n = 676). Data were collected through online surveys during the pandemic and face-to-face interviews in the post-pandemic period. Food insecurity was assessed using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). Multiple linear regression models were used to identify factors associated with food insecurity and to examine its association with body mass index, perceived stress, sleep quality, and academic performance. Overall, 62.2% of students experienced food insecurity. Food insecurity was higher among students surveyed after the COVID-19 pandemic than among those surveyed during the pandemic (73.7% vs. 55.7%, p < 0.001). During the pandemic, higher food insecurity scores were associated with older age, female sex, indigenous self-identification, living alone, academic discipline, study hours, educational financing, and poorer nutritional behaviors. In the post-pandemic period, indigenous self-identification, living arrangements, academic discipline, and poor nutritional behaviors remained associated with food insecurity. In both periods, food insecurity was associated with higher perceived stress, poorer sleep quality, and lower academic performance (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that food insecurity remains a major concern among university students and indicate the importance of developing culturally appropriate strategies to support vulnerable student populations. Full article

Contemporary education policy requires state and local schools to align their curricula and establish school expectations based on college-readiness standards. However, these practices have generated more concerns than solutions. Test scores and grade point averages, which individually measure students’ college readiness, are often conflated with educators’ stereotypical beliefs about students’ prospects for postsecondary success. These stratifying dynamics of college readiness are particularly affecting communities that are historically excluded from higher education. To respond to these systems of exclusion, this qualitative study explores a community-based, collaborative model of college worthiness through coalition building in a predominantly working-class Latiné high school. Through a comprehensive analysis of interviews, observations, and artifacts, the study describes school leaders’ strategic utilization of multi-organizational coalitions to prepare students for college. The findings extend the literature by illuminating anti-deficit, communal approaches to advancing the Latiné educational pipeline. These coalitional practices include a focus on students’ wellness, developing trust and caring interpersonal relationships, and enacting positive expectations to foster college-going agency and self-determination. The implications of these findings are significant for school leaders who work to establish college access points as an integral component of social justice education. Full article

Background: The widespread use of digital technologies is beneficial to society but has also contributed to the growing prevalence of Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence (TFSV) among youth. This study aimed to co-design youth-informed recommendations for preventing and responding to TFSV and its mental health consequences among racialized youth in Canada. Methods: Guided by the participatory research approach, 33 participants from Alberta and British Columbia, who were 15–24 years old and self-identified as racialized, participated in two virtual interactive workshops. Participants engaged in facilitated breakout group discussions using case studies and semi-structured prompts. Data were collected via Padlet and analyzed using content analysis. Results: Participants identified several gaps in existing support systems and recommended culturally responsive, multi-sectoral strategies to address and prevent TFSV. The key recommendations included awareness of families and educators about TFSV, training of healthcare and community service providers for trauma-informed care, integrated mental health support, and increasing youth awareness about legal support. Conclusions: Participants collectively designed recommendations to address TFSV and its related mental health outcomes. This study highlights perspectives of racialized youth for collaborative efforts across family, education, health, community, and legal systems to foster safer digital environments and equitable mental health support for youth affected by TFSV. Full article

This qualitative study, grounded in a phenomenological-interpretive design, aimed to explore university students’ experiences regarding digital hyperconnectivity, emotional well-being, and the balance between academic and personal life at a private university in Viña del Mar, Chile. The sample consisted of 18 Occupational Therapy students (mean age: 22.4 years; 61.1% female, 27.8% male, 5.6% non-binary; representing a diverse range of undergraduate academic years from second to fifth). Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding following grounded theory guidelines, with the assistance of Atlas.ti v25 software, to identify emerging categories and establish conceptual relationships. Findings were organized into two analytical categories. The first, Experiences and perceptions of digital hyperconnectivity, portrays hyperconnectivity as a taken-for-granted everyday condition shaped by intensive device use and the predominance of social media, streaming platforms, and artificial intelligence tools; within this category, a tension emerges between recognized practical/pedagogical usefulness and distracting or compulsive patterns of use. The second, Emotional well-being and balance in academic life, highlights the impact on emotions, time management, sleep, and relationships, as well as disconnection strategies to restore balance (time limits, mental breaks, and offline activities). In conclusion, digital hyperconnectivity is significantly associated with emotional well-being and the academic-personal life balance. Students’ narratives suggest that technology can enrich learning when accompanied by regulation, media literacy, and deliberate disconnection practices. Therefore, context-sensitive institutional interventions are needed to promote conscious disconnection, digital identity education, and a pedagogical design that integrates digital tools through a critical and ethical approach. Full article

Youth violence, particularly gun-related, is a pressing public health concern influenced by key risk factors and broader structural inequities that shape community conditions. The ThrYve (“Together Helping Reduce Youth Violence”) initiative, a multisector, multilevel community strategy in Kansas City, targeted social and structural determinants of youth violence. Guided by the Institute of Medicine’s Model for Collaborative Action in Communities, the ThrYve approach supported five evidence-informed components including: (1) coalition development with over 40 partners; (2) youth violence prevention programs in hospitals, schools, and the community; (3) out-of-school time supports for youths; (4) education, college, and career readiness initiatives; and (5) youth/family navigation supports. A mixed-method, quasi-experimental design examined pre/post changes in youth risk and behavior, longitudinal youth homicide trends, and documented coalition-facilitated community and systems changes. Between 2018 and 2024, the ThrYve coalition implemented 243 new or modified programs, policies, and practices promoting safer, supportive community environments. During the intervention phase, youth homicide rates in the intervention catchment area declined by 42.3% from baseline, and significant within-group improvements were observed in selected risk factors among ThrYve participants. Findings suggest the value of coalition-based, systems-level, community- and youth-engaged strategies for youth violence prevention. Full article

As student mental health concerns intensify, campuses are exploring wellness initiatives including equine-assisted intervention (EAI). Because maintaining equines on campus is not always feasible, virtual reality (VR) has emerged as an alternative method for delivering equine experiences. Although equine environments alone may reduce stress, limited research has examined how environmental setting influences outcomes during VR EAI. Therefore, the objective of this exploratory study was to compare stress levels, as observed through heart rate and cortisol concentrations, for students participating in VR EAI within equine and classroom settings. Students participated in one of the following on-campus VR EAI programs: (1) classroom (n = 10) or (2) equine (n = 14) environment. Although both environmental types demonstrated a significant difference between minimum-maximum heart rate during the session (p < 0.05), only the classroom led to a significant reduction in heart rate post-session (p = 0.02). Neither environmental type observed a significant difference between pre-post cortisol concentrations (p > 0.05). Environmental type was an influencing factor for cortisol concentrations (p = 0.04). These findings suggest that environmental context may influence physiological responses during VR EAI; however, further research is warranted that includes larger samples, more controlled designs, and integrated subjective and physiological measures. Full article

Diversion is defined as the practice of providing an alternative outcome for children who have engaged in offending behaviour, which keeps them away from the formal criminal justice system. Diversion is a significant element of the Child First approach, and is widely implemented across England and Wales. The increase in use of diversion in recent years has contributed to reductions in First Time Entrant rates; however, evidence regarding whether these measures reduce reoffending is limited. Diversion practices vary significantly both nationally and internationally. Hence, much could be learnt from reviewing the international literature to establish what could be implemented in England and Wales. Therefore, this systematic review aims to explore the effect of different types of diversion measures on reoffending in First Time Entrants. To do this, a comprehensive search of 10 electronic databases was undertaken to systematically identify literature relating to youth justice diversion. A systematic screening procedure was followed to identify studies that met inclusion criteria, data on key information was extracted and studies were assessed using a quality assessment tool. Results were synthesised using the EMMIE framework, to increase applicability to practice. A total of 12 distinct studies were included in the review, with both experimental and quasi-experimental design. One study was conducted in Norway, one in the Netherlands and the rest in the United States of America. Findings were varied but generally suggested diversion leads to lower rates of recorded reoffending than formal processing. When comparing between types of diversion, often there was no difference in reoffending but generally, the least intensive intervention showed the best results. However, findings from one study that considered self-reported offending prompts consideration of whether diversion genuinely affects behaviour or simply influences the detection of offences. This review indicates promising results for diversion interventions but highlights the need for further research to provide conclusive evidence regarding which measures are most effective. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly shape youth’s educational, social, and informational environments. Although numerous ethical frameworks and guidelines have been developed to guide AI governance, including the OECD AI Principles and the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, they rarely address young people’s perspectives when interacting with AI in their everyday lives. At the same time, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, in General Comment No. 25 published in 2021 on children’s rights in the digital environment, affirms that children should be actively involved in decisions concerning digital technologies that affect them. Objective: This study examines how the scientific literature conceptualizes youth’s right to participate in AI. Methods: An interpretive scoping review was conducted. Database searches and reference list screening were performed between 2010 and 2024 using combinations of keywords related to artificial intelligence, youth, participation, and ethics. Following a systematic selection process, 15 sources were included and analyzed thematically. The corpus comprises peer-reviewed articles, a position paper, legal analyses, policy review reports, and narrative reviews, selected to capture both empirical and normative perspectives on the topic. Results: The literature highlights youth participation in AI as both a children’s rights requirement and a condition for legitimate digital governance. However, a significant gap persists between young people’s widespread exposure to AI systems and their limited influence in decision-making processes. Discussion: Integrating youth participation into AI governance and education may contribute to more inclusive and developmentally informed technological ecosystems. Full article

Defining professional youth work and its activities presents a challenge for developing international consensus in the university level training and education of professional youth workers. This research is concerned with the question of ‘how youth work students in universities are educated and prepared for professional youth work practice, and, in particular, with diverse young people’. The article presents research examining the experiences of those undertaking the education and training of professional youth workers in universities located in five countries: Estonia, Croatia, Macedonia, Ireland and Australia. Educators from a university in each of the five participating countries completed a survey on the content and underpinning values of their course, and educators from each university participated in a focus group interview discussing their motivations to teach youth work, theoretical underpinnings, and pedagogical practices. The article finds that across the five national contexts there is broad agreement among the university youth work educators that youth work is a ‘social and critical pedagogic’ practice with a commitment to broad values of ‘social justice’ and ‘social inclusion’ for young people. However, the specific expression of these concepts differs depending on the national context, often influenced by historical and political events. The personal values, worldviews, and biographies of youth work educators play a role, both in the conception of themselves as educators, as well as their motivations and teaching practice. Educators also stressed the importance of youth work as a profession and distinct academic discipline, especially in the context of neoliberal pressures in universities that seek to conflate youth work with similar disciplines and areas of study. Full article

During adolescence, exposure to community violence (ECV) can negatively impact multiple facets of health and future achievement. Existing research mainly focuses on the risk factors that increase ECV, although multiple promotive factors are associated with lower levels of ECV. However, research has not examined the unique and combined effects of these promotive factors on ECV. The current study investigates promotive factors at the individual, peer, and supportive adult relationship levels for their unique and combined associations with ECV to determine which factors are associated with the lowest levels of ECV. 2725 adolescents from three urban middle schools (M_age = 13.22; 48% male; 90% Black, 18% Hispanic or Latino) reported measures of ECV, positive outlook, self-efficacy for nonviolence, peers’ prosocial behavior, friends’ support for nonviolence, presence of a caring adult, and parental support for nonviolence. Regression analyses showed that a combination of multiple promotive factors better explained the variance in ECV than any single promotive factor alone, indicating that promotive factors have compounding effects. Positive outlook, self-efficacy for nonviolence, friends’ support for nonviolence, and the presence of a caring adult were all uniquely associated with lower levels of exposure to community violence across all steps of the hierarchical regression. In alignment with positive youth development theory, these results demonstrate that an adolescent’s ECV risk is lower if they have more promotive factors. These findings emphasize the importance of relational promotive factors as future targets for strengths-based interventions. Full article

Weapon carrying and violent behaviors during adolescence are associated with increased risk of injuries and have been linked to suicidal ideation. However, little is known about these associations among Puerto Rican high school students. This cross-sectional study analyzed 2019 Puerto Rico Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) data from students in grades 9–12. Survey-weighted descriptive statistics summarized prevalence, and multivariable logistic regression examined associations between suicidal ideation and sociodemographic, violent behavior, and psychosocial variables. Among Puerto Rican high school students, 52% were female, and 12% reported suicidal ideation. Bivariate analyses showed significant associations between suicidal ideation and sex, age, weapon carrying, bullying victimization, persistent sadness/hopelessness, and cigarette use (p < 0.05). In the fully adjusted model, persistent sadness/hopelessness was the strongest factor associated with suicidal ideation (AOR = 8.88, 95% CI: 4.91–16.03). Bullying victimization and cigarette use also remained independently associated with higher odds of suicidal ideation. Weapon carrying was not independently associated with suicidal ideation after adjustment for psychosocial factors. Persistent sadness/hopelessness, bullying victimization, and cigarette use were independently associated with suicidal ideation, highlighting the multifactorial nature of adolescent suicide risk. These findings underscore the importance of comprehensive mental health screening and interventions that address emotional distress, social stressors, and behavioral risk factors among Puerto Rican adolescents. Full article

A phenomenological approach was used to understand the experience of resettlement, integration and university education of refugee youth sponsored under the Government Assisted Refugee (GAR) and the Privately Sponsored Refugee (PSR) programs in Canada. Central to the phenomenon is addressing the meaning of the students’ lived experience arriving in Canada under the GAR and PSR, and how their journey to education shaped their integration. How do their life challenges affect their educational pathways? Eight in-depth interviews with four resettled refugee university students were conducted, in addition to individual interviews with four key informants. The study was conducted through the lens of critical theory to explore the power relations and the common sense of the system. Results showcase systematic barriers in refugee youth’s access to higher education, with their likelihood of enrollment and educational success further burdened by discrimination, isolation, language proficiency, and a lack of understanding of their needs by service providers. Integration was marked by moments of educational accomplishments, highlighting the importance attributed to education by refugee youth. Nevertheless, the participants also expressed obstacles to integration centered around financial burden, being labeled as others by their surroundings, language proficiency, housing, and overall delays in their academic pathways. Full article

Mentoring programs enjoy considerable empirical support as a strategy for supporting the positive development of youth, particularly those with marginalized identities (e.g., minoritized racial identities) and/or from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. There tends to be considerable variability, however, in both the quality of the mentor–mentee relationships established through programs and whether these relationships are sustained for intended periods of time. Research indicates these features of relationships can be significant influences on the outcomes of participating youth, thus making it imperative to better understand the factors that may contribute to mentoring relationship quality and duration. To expand inquiry in this area, the current study draws on an intersectionality framework and the statistical technique of classification and regression tree (CART) analysis to explore the potentially interacting role of multiple sociodemographic aspects of both the mentee and mentor—specifically age, gender, race/ethnicity, and economic status—in shaping the quality and duration of mentoring relationships (n = 806) established through the Big Brothers Big Sisters community-based mentoring program. Findings suggest that mentor age, mentor income, mentee family income, and mentee race have complex associations with indicators of mentoring relationship quality. Full article