Assessing Assets Among Street-Connected Youth: New Angles With Participatory Methods in Tanzania

Johnson, Laura R.; Drescher, Christopher F.; Assenga, Sophia; Marsh, Rachel J.

doi:10.1177/0743558418822334

Cited by 5 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…After being introduced to the study and agreeing to participate, they engaged in two participatory activities: a blackboard relay race and card construction activity, each combined with discussion. The activities were designed to combat problems with typical focus groups that involve youth, cross-cultural differences, and steep power differentials (Jakobsen, 2012; Johnson et al, 2019; Scheelbeek et al, 2020). Two teams participated in a challenges relay race in which they had three minutes to run to a chalkboard and write challenges facing youth.…”

Section: Methods 2: Participatory Activities With School-based Adoles...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Members of the team assisted by calling out challenges to the runner. The race served as an icebreaker and also provided a context for an authentic and unrehearsed revealing of challenges, with time limits, physical engagement, teamwork, and attention to task (Johnson et al, 2019). After the race, a leader from each group elaborated challenges.…”

Section: Methods 2: Participatory Activities With School-based Adoles...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Photovoice was chosen as the best way to engage these participants as they lacked literacy needed for surveys or other activities that involved writing (Strack et al, 2004). Moreover, the method has the effect of depositioning researchers both during the act of taking pictures and during the discussion process, as members actively engage with each other (Johnson et al, 2019). Participants were divided into two teams by their tribal leader.…”

Section: Participants and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, we were afforded a unique opportunity to gather data from girls in an unencumbered setting. To encourage authentic and active engagement, reduce social desirability, and deposition the researchers, we utilized a game structure involving a relay race to establish their ideas of challenges facing youth which was followed by solutions-oriented card construction and team discussions in which girls were paired up to write down what youth need to be successful in light of such challenges (Jakobsen, 2012; Johnson et al, 2019; Scheelbeek et al, 2020). We expected themes of economics, education, and the environment to surface, as these are contextual factors impacting marginalized, indigenous peoples that are noted in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2021).…”

Section: Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the third method, we bridged educational and language divides using the photovoice method as a source of visual data and a way of engaging community-based youth (Johnson et al., 2019; Strack et al, 2004). Photovoice is an active, participatory approach in which participants take photographs and share their perspectives on issues important to their lives (Wang, 2006; Wang & Burris, 1997).…”

Section: Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cattle, Cultivation, and Culture: Mixed Methods Reveal Evolving Pathways to Maasai Positive Youth Development

Johnson

Johnson-Pynn

Drescher

et al. 2022

International Perspectives in Psychology

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Abstract. Optimizing majority world youths’ capacity for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is an essential endeavor for psychology, yet African adolescents are rarely represented in psychology research. In this paper, we explore positive youth development (PYD) among Maasai adolescents, amid rapidly changing sociocultural and environmental circumstances in Northern Tanzania. Three methods were selected to elicit perspectives of three participant groups from varied living contexts. Method 1 used standardized PYD measures, a top-down approach, to assess and compare self-efficacy, developmental assets, ethnic identity, and environmental connection among school-attending Maasai ( n = 80) and non-Maasai adolescents ( n = 60). Method 2 used participatory activities with school-attending Maasai females ( n = 16) to illuminate challenges and necessary assets from a girls’ perspective. Method 3 used photovoice to capture perspectives from community-based adolescents ( n = 12) using photographic images and discussion. Survey results showed Maasai participants were thriving compared to others, with strong overall assets, commitment to education and culture, and connection with the environment. School-based girls expressed gender-related challenges along with the need for strengths such as confidence, hard work, education, and bodily autonomy. Community participants produced photographs illustrating a major shift in livelihoods from cattle grazing to cultivation and permanent housing, along with strengths such as working together and sustainable husbandry. Through diverse methods, we gained unique perspectives regarding Maasai adolescents’ contemporary context revealing spirited and flexible pathways toward achieving optimum development for themselves and their communities.

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Section: Methods 2: Participatory Activities With School-based Adoles...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methods 2: Participatory Activities With School-based Adoles...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Participants and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cattle, Cultivation, and Culture: Mixed Methods Reveal Evolving Pathways to Maasai Positive Youth Development

Johnson

Johnson-Pynn

Drescher

et al. 2022

International Perspectives in Psychology

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Intervention: Enhancing mental health and well-being around the world.

Johnson¹,

Drescher²,

Bordieri³

2023

Going Global: How Psychologists Can Meet a World of Need.

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In this section, we highlight the need for psychologists and psychological interventions worldwide. Yet interventions in a global context requires that we first consider ethical issues, cultural competencies, and the World Health Organization's (WHO's; 2013) core competencies in global mental health. The Need for Psychological Interventions GloballyWhy should psychologists intervene globally? Worldwide, the need for mental health interventions is abundantly clear and largely unmet. WHO (2008) estimated that more than 450 million persons worldwide suffer from mental disorders. Depression accounts for more days of lost productivity from death and disability than any other condition (WHO, 2013). Alcohol dependence is among the top 10 causes of disability across all income groups, and substance abuse is recognized as a worldwide problem (Degenhardt & Hall, 2012). Moreover, 26 million people around the world are estimated to have schizophrenia, which is further associated with poor physical health, homelessness, and discrimination (WHO, 2008). Anxiety-related disorders remain a global problem, often in connection with stress, violence, poverty, and health problems (Baxter et al., 2013). Overall, mental health concerns account for 14% of the global burden of disease, which is likely an underestimation given the relationship between psychological health and chronic diseases (WHO, 2013).Despite the prominence of mental health conditions globally, most people do not receive adequate mental health care (WHO, 2022). In low-income countries, less than $0.25 USD per person is spent annually on mental health, with the majority of such funds dedicated to inpatient hospitals (WHO, 2013). Complicating matters, low-income countries have a paucity of mental health workers, with the ratio of psychiatrists to persons estimated at 1:200,000 (WHO, 2013); other mental health professionals, such as psychologists, are even rarer. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed further stress and mental health strain on individuals worldwide, increasing the need for services, posing new barriers to treatment, and further exposing the harsh inadequacies of mental health services. Clearly, the field of psychology has not responded sufficiently to the vast need for mental health services around the world. In part, this response level is due to insufficient allocation of resources, limited education regarding global mental health, and a restricted sense of pro fessional identity. Along with others, we contend that psychology has an ethical obligation to become more thoughtfully active on the global stage (e.g., Berry, 2013). Rationale for ReachingOut: International, Transnational, and Global Intervention WHO (2022) regards global mental health concerns as human development issues that warrant broad structural attention beyond traditional ways of Copyright American Psychological Association. Not for further distribution.Intervention 77 intervening (Draguns, 2007). Public health concerns, poverty, population growth and mobility, human trafficking, intercultur...

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Is positive youth development a pathway for sustaining peace in Tanzania? Predicting peace attitudes among adolescents.

Johnson,

Mudryk,

Kibanja

et al. 2023

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

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This study examines attitudes about peace, social justice, and community participation among Tanzanian adolescents and explores how positive youth development (PYD) contributes to these attitudes. Despite an absence of major wars and civil conflicts, Tanzania is not insulated from threats to its stability including unemployment, resource inequities, environmental degradation, ethnoreligious tensions, and increased government restrictions on the media and society. The large population of adolescents in Tanzania places additional strain on society. Promoting PYD among adolescents has been identified as a key strategy for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promoting a peaceful society. In this study, we explore how PYD factors, such as purpose in life, ethnic identity, efficacy, and sense of community are related to attitudes about peace and social justice among Tanzanian adolescents (aged 14-17; N = 1,195). Participants from diverse regions and contexts completed Swahili versions of standardized PYD measures. Results indicated positive attitudes about peace, which were predicted by a combination of sociodemographics, internal assets, and external assets. Results confirm that youth need positive conditions, supports, and actions across multiple contexts to cultivate resilience and peace. PYD programs may apply lessons from this study by focusing on peace education, broader social identities, and positive engaging roles in the community. Public Significance StatementThis research utilized a positive youth development (PYD) framework to explore attitudes about peace and social justice, along with reported community involvement, among a large, diverse sample of Tanzanian youth. Results demonstrated that a combination of PYD internal strengths, such as purpose, and external assets, such as sense of community, contribute to peace attitudes, and involvement. Furthermore, PYD strengths and assets that contribute to peace arise from multiple and varied ecological contexts, including youths' schools, communities, and social relationships.

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Assessing Assets Among Street-Connected Youth: New Angles With Participatory Methods in Tanzania

Cited by 5 publications

References 48 publications

Cattle, Cultivation, and Culture: Mixed Methods Reveal Evolving Pathways to Maasai Positive Youth Development

Cattle, Cultivation, and Culture: Mixed Methods Reveal Evolving Pathways to Maasai Positive Youth Development

Intervention: Enhancing mental health and well-being around the world.

Is positive youth development a pathway for sustaining peace in Tanzania? Predicting peace attitudes among adolescents.

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