Cox Milira, Urban Jennifer Brown, Lich Kristen Hassmiller, Wells Rebecca, Lawrence C Nicole, Kwaja Nadira
Institute for Research on Youth Thriving and Evaluation, Department of Family Science and Human Development, Montclair State University, 1 Normal Ave., UN 4144, Montclair, NJ 07043 USA.
Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC USA.
Child Adolesc Social Work J. 2022 Nov 15:1-19. doi: 10.1007/s10560-022-00898-6.
This study elicited the perspectives of youth, caregivers, service providers and researchers to explore how communities can best support the transition to adulthood for youth ages 16-21 with mental health and functional impairments, who are at risk of disconnecting from health and human services. Framed by Relational Systems Evaluation (RSE) and Positive Youth Development (PYD), our study demonstrates the importance of engagement with youth experts. Group Concept Mapping (GCM), a collaborative multiphase mixed-methods approach, was used as a systematic process for participants to make meaning of qualitative data using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis (Kane and Trochim in Concept mapping for planning and evaluation, Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks, 2007). Across all participant groups, Life Skills were perceived as highly important and highly feasible for a successful transition to adulthood. However, Positive Social Support & Connectedness were viewed as less important and less feasible by all groups. When examined closely, youth perspectives differed from caregiver and provider perspectives in the factors they prioritized and deemed feasible. Our findings have implications for community mental health services and positive youth development program practitioners.
本研究征集了青少年、照顾者、服务提供者和研究人员的观点，以探讨社区如何能够最好地支持16至21岁有心理健康问题和功能障碍、面临与健康和人类服务脱节风险的青少年向成年过渡。以关系系统评估（RSE）和积极青少年发展（PYD）为框架，我们的研究证明了与青少年专家合作的重要性。小组概念映射（GCM）是一种协作式多阶段混合方法，作为参与者使用多维标度和层次聚类分析来理解定性数据的系统过程（Kane和Trochim著于《规划与评估的概念映射》，Sage Publications Inc.，千橡树，2007年）。在所有参与群体中，生活技能被视为成功过渡到成年的极其重要且高度可行的因素。然而，所有群体都认为积极的社会支持与联系不太重要且可行性较低。仔细研究后发现，青少年在他们优先考虑和认为可行的因素方面的观点与照顾者和服务提供者的观点不同。我们的研究结果对社区心理健康服务和积极青少年发展项目从业者具有启示意义。
