LIFT YP generates and promotes evidence on social and structural determinants of young people’s health and wellbeing. Our approach focuses on evidence of individual’s health (physical and mental); positive identity; and sense of self-worth and safety alongside the influence of families, peers, communities, virtual spaces, and social and structural determinants.
Why it Matters:
Young people’s lives in the US are complex, multidimensional, and often grounded in systems and structures that perpetuate deprivation and vulnerability. Yet, research on and advocacy for young people often focus on single issues, like teen pregnancy and gun violence; emphasize risk factors; and/or do not adequately incorporate gender or key structural drivers such as racism. While data exists on many aspects of young lives in the US (e.g., the American Community Survey, Youth Risk and Behavioral Survey, and other rich datasets), these data are under-utilized.
Approach:
What we are doing:
- We are creating community-level data visualizations of the relationships between important social and structural determinants (SSDoH) and outcomes based on existing national data to identify risk profiles and resilience in specific geographies.
- We are promoting coherence around a learning agenda that reflects a holistic, asset-building, and gendered approach.
- Longer term, we aim to generate evidence in partnership with community-based organizations to fill evidence gaps including intervention research on priority issues.
- We also will collaborate with youth-led groups to advocate for a holistic, positive perspective on young people and local data collection on SSDoH.
The Big Picture:
Our evidence will contribute to US national efforts to build a more holistic perspective on young people’s thriving in the US building on lessons from LMICs.
