Jo-Ann MacDonald

In this three-phase exploratory study, we used participatory approaches with youth in a small Canadian province. Through iterative focus groups in school settings, we examined young men and women's perspectives regarding factors important to taking control of their sexual health behaviour. Youth aged 15–17 discussed sexual health through role-play, reflective writing, and drawing. This study provides a view into the gender and sexual scripts of many young people as they construct a repertoire of prevention skills. These insights can offer key understandings into the social composition of sexual risk, as well as the possibilities for sexual health promotion among young people. This is especially important for populations affected by socio-economic disparity.

Encouraging youth voice, visibility, and active participation in adolescent-related research is strongly advocated in the literature. In this article, we describe how participatory approaches informed by arts-based methods (e.g., reflective writing, dramatization) were used with adolescents to enhance the research process in an exploratory study designed to develop and evaluate prevention resources for sexual risk-taking behaviors.Youth aged 15 to 17 years participated in iterative focus groups conducted over a 1-year period in school settings in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Descriptions of our experiences, strategies, and insights provide evidence for guiding practice to optimize adolescent participation in research.