PRIORITIZATION OF ISSUES AMONG DIFFERENT YOUTH WELFARE CONCERNS IN MARINDUQUE: INPUT TO POLICY FORMULATION

Youth constitute 37 % of Marinduque’s population, yet sub‑national planning lacks empirical guidance on which welfare issues they deem most urgent and how these priorities relate to the obstacles they encounter. This study therefore adopted a quantitative, descriptive‑correlational, cross‑sectional design to produce policy‑relevant evidence. Using stratified sampling, 384 youth stakeholders Sangguniang Kabataan chairpersons, Local Youth Development Council members, barangay officials, and representatives of youth‑serving civil‑society organizations completed a 49‑item, content‑validated questionnaire rating the salience of sectoral concerns and the severity of cognate challenges. Descriptive statistics ranked priorities across the economic, social, environmental, political, and governance sectors; Pearson product‑moment correlation, performed at α = 0.05, tested the association between each priority–challenge pair. Job creation and entrepreneurship, inclusion and diversity, waste management and pollution control, human‑rights advocacy, and inclusive policy‑making respectively topped the five sectors. A moderate, significant relationship surfaced only between the economic priority and its allied employment barriers (r = 0.421, p < 0.001); forty‑four remaining pairs were weak or non‑significant, signaling a structural disconnect between youth agendas and enabling mechanisms. Expert‑panel review reinforced analytic credibility, and an a priori power test confirmed adequate sample size. Findings underpin a proposed Youth Priority Concerns Framework, Youth Policy Advisory Council, and a one‑percent budget earmark to institutionalize youth‑informed governance in Marinduque. Ethics clearance was granted by Marinduque State University, and procedures complied with the Philippine Data Privacy Act. The model offers a transferable template for other island‑province LGUs facing similar youth‑demographic pressures.