Engaging youth as co-researchers in virtual qualitative mental health research: Practical guidelines and recommendations

Engaging youth in research is essential for enhancing the validity and positive impacts of mental health research aimed at benefitting young populations. Yet, youth are infrequently engaged as partners in health research. The current paper describes different ways youth were engaged in research as part of the Digital Divide study, a qualitative study on youth decision-making in accessing digital mental health technologies. The team’s approach was informed by the McCain youth-adult partnership model incorporating principles of flexibility, mentorship, authentic decision-making, and reciprocal learning, which were built in throughout the study. The study involved youth in three ways: as youth study participants, as youth subject matter experts (SMEs), and as employees on the study team in the role of youth research assistant (YRA). Youth study participants provided critical perspectives on youth engagement in research, and their own personal experiences of engaging in research. Both the youth SMEs and YRAs sat on the study steering committee, making critical contributions to study design, implementation, and interpretation of study findings. The YRA’s were also responsible for conducting data collection and contributed to analysis of the study findings. They helped advance equity, inclusion, and accessibility across the different study phases. The research team included social work graduate research assistant coaches that provided YRAs with research coaching and mentorship throughout the study. The involvement of coaches emerged as a powerful youth engagement tool. Youth study participants reported positive experiences in this study being interviewed by YRAs but a lifetime experience of limited engagement in research.