Using youth participatory action research informed by bell hooks’ “love ethic” to explore the health and material needs of young parents

• In Event: Methods of involving young people in health research

Abstract

Introduction: Structural inequities influence young parents’ access to healthcare, housing, transportation, social support, education, income, and carcerality. The limitations that structural violence impose on young people are often perceived as natural because they are embedded in the current social fabric. Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is one avenue through which young parents can reckon with structural violence as it functions and reproduces inequitable health and social outcomes. YPAR is a youth-led, transformative approach to research and relies on the local knowledge of communities and collective action. Youth are situated as co-researchers that produce valuable knowledge about the world around them, while learning about oppression, power, and other histories of struggle. YPAR is informed by bell hook’s “love ethic” which prioritizes a combination of “care, commitment, trust, knowledge, responsibility, and respect”, through centering youth voice and their lived experience as expertise.

Hypotheses: We hypothesized that using a YPAR approach centered in bell hook’s “love ethic” would engage and sustain the active participation of young parents from historically marginalized backgrounds in the research project.

Study population: We engaged a diverse sample of young parents, including youth of color and/or LGBTQ+ pregnant and parenting youth, who may also experience housing, food, and transportation insecurity, and policing and heightened surveillance.

Methods: We conducted 10 weekly YPAR sessions in which co-researchers engaged in community and identity building, defined their own research questions and photo prompts, conducted data collection, and engaged in group thematic analysis.

Results: Young parents face multiple intersecting structural issues that induce stress and force them to live in a constant state of survival mode. Thus, one challenge to engaging young parents in this research included continuous engagement of the co-researchers throughout the 10 week project. Another challenge was around the extensive training needed for the photovoice methodology. We found that we needed to review the methodology each week prior to photo-taking expeditions. Relatedly, we realized that the expectation that the co-researchers take photos at home and in their neighborhood between sessions was incompatible with their lives. Co-researchers did not have the time or bandwidth to complete the photovoice homework. As a result, we adapted the sessions so that co-researchers could take photos during the weekly sessions. We used a number of strategies rooted in bell hook’s love ethic to successfully engage young parents consistently throughout the project. We partnered with a local trusted community organization to recruit co-researchers and host the meetings. Co-researchers received free childcare on site and access to transportation, and received $50 per meeting for their time. Delicious meals were shared between co-researchers and their families prior to each meeting as a way to show care and cultivate community building. Finally, as a key goal to enact policy change, co-researchers formed the Community Action Research Executive (CARE) board, whose role is to inform the current study, as well as current and future MDPH efforts to address the health and material needs of young parents in Massachusetts.

Authors

• Elizabeth Salerno Valdez, Drexel University
  Presenting Author

• Saharra Dixon, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Jazmine Chan

• Gray Davidson Carroll, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Thupten Dorney, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Elizabeth Delorme, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Justine Egan, Massachusetts Department of Public Health

• Aline Gubrium, University of Massachusetts Amherst