Abstract: Recentering Youth Development and Strengthening Sexual- and Gender-Diverse Youth (SGDY) Research with an International Bilingual Youth Advisory Board for Sgdy (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)
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Recentering Youth Development and Strengthening Sexual- and Gender-Diverse Youth (SGDY) Research with an International Bilingual Youth Advisory Board for Sgdy

Schedule:
Friday, January 12, 2024
Marquis BR Salon 7, ML 2 (Marriott Marquis Washington DC)
* noted as presenting author
Shelley Craig, PhD, Professor, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Ashley Brooks, PhD, Research Associate, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Rachael Pascoe, PhD(c), MSW, RSW, Student, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Gabriel Soto Cristobal, Student, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico
Jenny Hui, MA, Doctoral Student, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Background
Youth advisory boards (YABs) can recenter social work research exploring adolescent experiences. YABs comprise young people who work with researchers, community members, and other stakeholders to provide input, feedback, and guidance on projects. They are an essential component of youth research, but there is limited published evidence on their design, implementation or benefits to participants, particularly in international research projects (Haddad et al., 2022). The study aims to explore the benefits of a one-year bilingual English and Spanish international youth advisory board (IYAB) focused on their integration into sexual and gender diverse youth (SGDY) research projects and the benefits derived from their participation.

Methods
The IYAB comprised 12 gender and sexual diverse youth (SGDY) participants aged 15-21 from Canada (n = 3), the USA (n = 6), and Mexico (n = 3). Most frequent gender identities were cisgender women/girls (33 %); non-binary (20%) and transgender men/boys (22 %); and sexual orientations were bisexual (32%) and queer (30%). Two social work doctoral students from Mexico and Canada facilitated six 2-hour board meetings between 2022-2023 comprising a youth development workshop requested by the IYAB (e.g., managing conflict and being assertive) and a feedback session to evaluate research materials (e.g., recruitment flyers, surveys, infographics). SGDY completed the dispositional hope scale (Brouwer et al., 2008), the Rosenberg (1965) self-esteem scale, and other constructed measures (i.e., psychological empowerment, supportive adults, groupwork skills, and research competence scales). Within-subjects t-tests compared changes from pre- to post-test.

Results
Dispositional hope (pathways) improved significantly from pre- (M = 25.5, SD = 4.63) to post-test (M = 28.75, SD = 3.92, t(7) = -2.02, p = .05). Dispositional hope (agency) improved significantly from pre- (M = 26.38, SD = 6.14) to post-test (M = 29.5, SD = 4.54, t(7) = -1.98, p = .05). Self-esteem improved significantly from pre- (M = 23.13, SD = 4.91) to post-test (M = 31.13, SD = 1.96, t(7) = -4.733, p = .001). Psychological empowerment improved significantly from pre- (M = 20.25, SD = 2.92) to post-test (M = 24.5, SD = 1.69, t(7) = -2.43, p = .02). Access to supportive adults significantly improved from pre- (M = 18, SD = 6.09) to post-test (M = 23.88, SD = 2.1, t(7) = -2.57, p = .02). Groupwork skills significantly improved from pre- (M = 24.25, SD = 2.38) to post-test (M = 25, SD = 1.78, t(7) = -2.39, p = .024). Research competence improved significantly from pre- (M = 15.13, SD = 3.6) to post-test (M = 19.5, SD = 2.62, t(7) = -5.99, p < .001).

Conclusions and Implications
By recentering SGDY in the research design and planning process, researchers gained insights into the expertise and experiences of the marginalized youth they are studying. If carefully created participation in a YAB can benefit its members directly by developing skills that support positive youth outcomes. This presentation offers researchers practical recommendations on how to internationalize social work research by centering and supporting marginalized youth while bridging cultural, geographical, and linguistic divides.

Back to: Developments in LGBTQ+ Youth Research
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