Measuring Adolescent Participation: Results from a Qualitative Pretest in Cote D’Ivoire and Indonesia

Authors

  • Carlye Gates RTI International
  • Patricia LeBaron RTI International
  • Timothy Flanigan RTI International
  • Colleen Murray UNICEF
  • Claudia Cappa UNICEF
  • Ticiana Garcia-Tapia UNICEF
  • Soukeynatou Fall UNICEF
  • Isabel Jijon UNICEF

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2021.1021

Keywords:

international youth development, adolescent participation, cognitive interviewing

Abstract

Adolescence, or the period of transition between childhood and adulthood, is a significant stage in human development. Not only is it a time of physical growth and neurological development, but it is also a time when many young people begin to expand their networks beyond their family, form close ties with their peers, develop and express their views, and have a greater desire to be involved in decisions that affect them. This act of forming and expressing their views and influencing matters that concern them is sometimes referred to as adolescent participation. When viewed through an international human rights lens, adolescent participation is considered a fundamental right, and consequently, there is a need for reliable and valid measures that accurately assess adolescent participation and allow for internationally comparable data. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively test a draft questionnaire designed to measure adolescent participation. The goal was to gain insight into both how the items would perform cross-culturally and how adolescents’ comprehension and interpretation of different constructs related to adolescent participation. Cognitive interviews were conducted with 123 adolescents aged 10 to 19 in Côte d’Ivoire and Indonesia. This paper describes the development of the draft questionnaire, presents the methods used to pretest the questionnaire, and summarizes the findings. This study reveals important considerations for researchers and practitioners interested in qualitatively pretesting questionnaires with adolescents and in measuring and understanding adolescent participation across a range of international contexts.

References

Beatty, P. C., & Willis, G. B. (2007). Research synthesis: The practice of cognitive interviewing. Public Opinion Quarterly, 71(2), 287–311. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfm006

Checkoway, B., & Gutierrez, L. (2006). Youth participation and community change. Journal of Community Practice, 14, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1300/J125v14n01_01

DuBois, D. L., Felner, R. D., Brand, S., Phillips, R. S. C., & Lease, A. M. (1996). Early adolescent self-esteem: A developmental-ecological framework and assessment strategy. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 6, 543-579.

Hart, R. (1992). Children’s participation: From tokenism to citizenship. UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.

Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., Almerigi, J. B., Theokas, C., Phelps, E., Gestsdottir, S., Naudeau, S., Jelicic, H., Alberts, A., Ma, L., Smith, L. M., Bobek, D. L., Richman-Raphael, D., Simpson, I., Didenti Christiansen, E., & von Eye, A. (2005). Positive youth development, participation in community youth development programs, and community contributions of fifth grade adolescents: Findings from the first wave of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. Journal of Early Adolescence, 25, 17-71. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0272431604272461

Omrani, A., Wakefield-Scurr, J., Smith, J., & Brown, N. (2019). Survey development for adolescents aged 11–16 years: A developmental science based guide. Adolescent Research Review, 4, 329-340. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-018-0089-0

Peterson, C. H., Agre, L., Christens, B., & Morton, C. (2011). Measuring youth empowerment: Validation of a sociopolitical control scale for youth in an urban community context. Journal of Community Psychology, 39(5) 592–605. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.20456

Schmidt, C. J. (2018). Examining the role of interpersonal and societal mattering in the health and wellbeing of rural adolescents (Doctoral dissertation). University of Michigan.

Shek, D., Siu, A., Lee, T. (2007). The Chinese positive youth development scale: A validation study. Research on Social Work Practice, 17, 380-391. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1049731506296196

Shier, H. (2001). Pathways to participation: Openings, opportunities and obligations. Children and Society, 15, 107-117. https://doi.org/10.1002/chi.617

Soto, C. J., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2008). The developmental psychometrics of big five self-reports: Acquiescence, factor structure, coherence, and differentiation from ages 10 to 20. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 718-737. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.94.4.718

Treseder, P. (1997). Empowering children and young people. Save the Children Fund.

United Nations Children’s Fund. (2018). Conceptual framework for measuring outcomes of adolescent participation. UNICEF.

United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. (2009, July 20). The right of the child to be heard. Retrieved from https://www.refworld.org/docid/4ae562c52.html

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). (2014). Youth engagement in development: Effective approaches and action-oriented recommendations for the field. U.S. Agency for International Development.

Wong, N. T., Zimmerman, M. A., & Parker, E. P. (2010). A typology of youth participation and empowerment for child and adolescent health participation. American Journal of Community Psychology, 46, 100-114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-010-9330-0

Downloads

Published

2021-07-14

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2-3 (2021): Special Issue on International Positive Youth Development

Section

Special Issue Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.