Editor’s Introduction

Abstract

There is a growing argument that without including the voices of youth in the policies and programs that are directed at supporting and improving their health and well-being, the efforts made by adults to support their development and promote positive life outcomes will fail (Combe, 2002; Ford, Odallo, & Chorlton, 2003; Gaunle & Adhikari, 2010; Hallett & Prout, 2003; Kirk, Mitchell, & Reid-Walsh, 2010; MacKinnon & Watling, 2006; Wallerstein & Duran, 2006). Given the role of research in informing programs and policy, how research is conducted with youth and how youth are included in the entire research process are therefore of key concern (Alderson, 2000; Alparone & Rissotto, 2001; Camino & Zeldin, 2002; Cunningham, Jones, & Dillon, 2003; Fielding, 2007; Mitchell & Reid-Walsh, 2008). This is especially true for youth living in contexts of socioeconomic marginalization and/or intergenerational trauma (Absolon & Willett, 2005; Chandler & Lalonde, 2004; Hartt, 2010; Shea, Poudrier, Chad, Jeffery, Thomas, & Burnouf, 2013). When research findings more accurately reflect the priorities of youth, together with their lived realities, the services and polices built on these findings will be better able to support the life outcomes of young people (Kana’iaupuni, 2005; Krenichyn, Schaefer-McDaniel, Clark, & Zeller-Berkman, 2007). When we integrate youth perspectives into what we research and how we do research, our research findings will be more closely aligned with youth priorities and experiences, increasing their impact and success. Yet despite continued calls for the meaningful engagement of especially marginalized youth in the research process, respecting young people as experts on their lives, research overwhelmingly continues to relegate youth to research subjects where adults remain the experts (Holland, Renold, Ross, & Hillman, 2010; Vromen & Collin, 2010). Similarly, despite the increasingly multicultural nature of our communities, we continue to privilege and draw on service and practice models that emerge from global North or minority world settings and knowledge frameworks (Cox & Webb, 2015). In doing so, we ignore the value of traditional cultural practices and/or the innovative practices and knowledge systems emerging from the global South or majority world settings.