Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Feb;25(1):322-332.
doi: 10.1111/hex.13383. Epub 2021 Nov 10.

Involvement of adolescent representatives and coresearchers in mental health research: Experiences from a research project

Petter Viksveen  1 , Nicole E Cardenas  1   2 , Maya Ibenfeldt  1   3 , Laia G Meldahl  1   4 , Lou Krijger  1   5 , Julia R Game  1   6 , Maren McLean Andvik  1   7 , Oliver Cuddeford  1   8 , Samuel Duerto  1   9 , Murad Mustafa  1   10 , Mathias Tong  1   11
Affiliations

Involvement of adolescent representatives and coresearchers in mental health research: Experiences from a research project

Petter Viksveen et al. Health Expect. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

Introduction: In spite of adolescents' rights to be involved in decisions that concern their health and life, limited research has been published reporting on their involvement in mental health research. Therefore, we aim to present experiences and reflections based on the involvement of adolescents in mental health research, to describe the collaborative relationship between researchers and coresearchers, including the values that underpin their collaboration.

Methods: An autoethnographic approach was used, combined with group reflections. The process was jointly developed, carried out and analysed by adolescent coresearchers and the project's lead researcher over a period of 2 years. The article is jointly authored by the researcher and the ten coresearchers.

Results: Six themes were developed to describe our collaborative relationship, resulting in the involvement of adolescents in decisions about research priorities; in planning and carrying out the research; through to analysis, dissemination and communication of results. The themes include: (1) Commitment motivated by altruism, personal interests and a common purpose; (2) Inclusiveness and support to reduce social uncertainty and strengthen collaboration; (3) Reduced power differentials while ensuring clarity of roles and tasks; (4) Diversity in representation to expand the perspectives of 'the adolescent voice'; (5) Self-determination-supporting adolescents' involvement in decision-making processes; and (6) Flexible and systematic project management. The themes describe the collaboration, the underlying values and motives, the challenges faced and how they were overcome.

Conclusion: This self-reflective process describing a 4-year collaborative research project resulted in the development of recommendations for involving adolescents in mental health research. The recommendations could potentially contribute to a change of 'research culture' to expand the currently limited involvement of adolescents in research.

Patient or public contribution: Adolescents have contributed as coresearchers through all phases of the research project and as coauthors of this article, including planning, participation in the self- and group-reflective processes, analysis and authoring the article.

Keywords: adolescents; involvement; mental health; shared decision-making; youth.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. United Nations . Convention on the Rights of the Child. Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989 entry into force 2 September 1990, in accordance with article 49.
    1. Council of Europe . Positions on children's rights; May 3, 2010. Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe. CommDH/PositionPaper.
    1. Council of Europe . Manual on the revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life. 2015. Youth Department, Directorate of Democratic Citizenship and Participation, Council of Europe, ISBN 978‐92‐871‐8165‐7;
    1. Viksveen P, Bjønness SE, Cardenas NE, et al. User involvement in adolescents' mental healthcare: a systematic review. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. Published online June 5, 2021. 10.1007/s00787-021-01818-2 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. McDonagh JE, Bateman B. “Nothing about us without us”: considerations for research involving young people. Arch Dis Child Educ Pract Ed. 2012;97:55‐60. 10.1136/adc.2010.197947 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types