Methods of Change: Art-Informed Participatory Action Research with Youth in Care

Background and Purpose: There are over 428,000 children in the U.S. child welfare system, which maintains three central tenants: safety, permanency, and well-being. Current and former foster youth demonstrate difficulty in areas of well-being, from academic performance, to future employment and mental health challenges. There are limitations to understanding the life experience of youth in care through traditional interviews alone. Participatory Action Research (PAR) can engage and elevate the voices of marginalized groups, such as youth in care. Additionally, Photovoice and other art-based data collection have been employed with this population. The combination of these methods provides a meaningful opportunity to convey the realities of one's life experience in areas such as well-being. This study illuminated unique methodological lessons and implications for engaging current or former youth in care in art-informed PAR.

Methods: As indicated with PAR, a small group of youth co-researchers (YCRs) worked with the lead researcher as one team. We discussed well-being as both concept and lived experience, then worked together to plan and execute all components of the study, from sampling and interview protocol, through interviews and data analysis. The team conducted 12 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with youth in care, ages 18-21. All participants represented low-income and non-dominant ethnic or racial backgrounds. Memos and transcripts from interviews and research team meetings with YCRs were included in the analysis. Interviews centered youths’ meaning and experiences of well-being, as expressed through their artwork and responses to interview questions, as well as the experience of being involved in research. For analysis, the team collaborated through a phenomenological approach to sort data into increasingly broad units of meaning. To complete the PAR process, the team crafted an advocacy plan to disseminate the findings.

Results: The team’s work resulted in a set of findings around well-being, and around the methodological process. Another paper reports the thematic findings related to youths’ definitions of well-being. This paper’s focus is on the impact of the methodological process. YCRs and interviewees conveyed how the experience of expressing their life experience through art was healing and affirming. They found that the PAR process shepherded a shift in their self-concept. In crafting a plan to share their findings with local child welfare officials, youth expressed feeling empowered, like activists, and less like victims.

Conclusion and Implications: This methodology presents an avenue for meaningful individual change for youth participants and social change for the system in which they live and deserve to flourish. Youth in care convey a deep desire to be understood and respected by caregivers, service providers, and the community. The opportunity to voice their experiences through a PAR process marked a turning point: they began to see themselves as social justice activists, not victims. Positive youth self-concept is connected to mental health and pro-social relationships with peers and adults. Future research should explore how youth involvement, healing expression through art, and speaking truth to power can improve youth well-being. Child welfare agencies should continue to meaningfully integrate youth-derived suggestions into policy decisions and practices.