Dream Teens : Adolescents-Led Participatory Project in Portugal in the Context of the Economic Recession

Abstract

This article describes the implementation process of a nationwide project to enhance young people’s participation and active citizenship in the context of Portugal’s economic recession. This project used an innovative Positive Youth Development approach that engaged Portuguese youth (aged 11-18 years) through social media tools to facilitate their civic engagement and development. Participants from all over the country were empowered (1) to design and conduct research activities on topics of their choice and about their life contexts and (2) to create ways to improve youth civic participation in their communities, while developing supportive interactions with adults and peers. Overall, youth were engaged in their activities, felt their voices were heard, and felt that they were viewed as experts of their own well-being and living contexts. Youth research actions and preliminary findings were then compiled in a set of recommendations that was formally received by a high commissioner of the Ministry of Health. The article concludes with a discussion of the next steps for the project and its limitations so far.

Keywords

adolescents economic recession social participation youth engagement Positive Youth Development

Initially, the scientific study of youth development focused on a deficit-oriented view of youth, which considered adolescence as a period of disturbance (Moore, Lippman, & Brown, 2004). Until the late 20th century, this dominant paradigm shaped youth programs and services that have been primarily planned and delivered by adult experts, and almost exclusively aimed at reducing risky and problematic behaviors rather than promoting pathways for positive development (Silbereisen & Lerner, 2007). Recognizing that adolescents have strengths and positive qualities that can be enhanced by supportive contexts, the Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective emerged (Moore et al., 2004).

According to the PYD perspective, the development of competence, character, social connection, compassion, and confidence lead to successful outcomes in youth. This strength-based approach focuses on the relationship between a youth’s strengths and the surrounding settings as key for promoting positive outcomes (Pittman, Irby, Tolman, Yohalem, & Ferber, 2011; Silbereisen & Lerner, 2007). The development of positive attributes can promote improved self-care, higher quality interpersonal relationships, and overall improved well-being, not only in adolescence but also in adulthood (Maslow & Chung, 2013). A key aspect of the PYD framework is that all young people can be empowered to maintain or develop healthy behaviors and actively engage with and change their social environment (Silbereisen & Lerner, 2007). As a result, youth become active participants in their life contexts and society.

In international efforts, youth participation has been supported as a moral right (Unite d Nations, 1989). Beyond this rights-based framing, there is evidence indicating that youth participation in their communities decreases risky behavior and serves as an effective and efficient strategy for delivering health and well-being services and programs (Ballard & Syme, 2016; Minkler & Wallerstein, 2008). It is important to note that youth engagement and empowerment was recently declared one of the six key themes of the Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Well-Being, an international interdisciplinary collaboration intended to establish a research and policy agenda for adolescent health globally (Patton et al., 2014).

Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is a growing and important approach toward engaging and empowering youth. YPAR involves youth in an interactive process of designing and conducting research with the support of adults. Through YPAR, young people can take leadership in research and develop knowledge about the issues related to their life contexts, which enables them to advocate for changes to improve conditions in their schools or communities (London, Zimmerman, & Erbstein, 2003; Ozer, Ritterman, & Wanis, 2010).

A growing empirical literature indicates that YPAR projects can promote important skills for youth positive development that include key aspects of psychological empowerment such as sense of self-efficacy, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, networking, leadership, and organizing for change (Foster-Fishman, Law, Lichty, & Aoun, 2010; Ozer & Douglas, 2013). Overall, the goal of YPAR projects is to develop youth’s skills, strengthen communities, and promote the health and well-being of the population with wide and long-term social benefits (Cavet & Sloper, 2004).

Young People in Portugal and The Dream Teens Project: Overview and Innovative Features

The 2008-2009 economic recession presented a great challenge to public finances in many countries. Due to the contraction of the economy, Portugal reduced government spending and experienced one of the highest increases in youth unemployment (around 35%) in Europe (Eurostat, 2015). Youth in Portugal (10-19 years old) constitute 11% of the national population; this percentage has declined from its 17% in early 1980s. Though the World Health Organization’s (WHO) study, Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, shows that Portuguese young people are healthy overall, signs of increasing well-being problems have started to emerge. For instance, in 2014, 53% of the Portuguese adolescents reported to feel nervous more than once a week compared to 18% in 2010. Similarly, in 2009, 13% reported to feel low more than once a week compared to 30% in 2014 (Matos & Aventura Social, 2012, 2015). These increases have been largely attributed to the economic crisis context and related determinants (e.g., household income decline and parental unemployment), corroborating the idea that youth may be particularly vulnerable to the economic recession (Frasquilho et al., 2016; WHO, 2011).

During recession and government spending restrictions, promoting community engagement may have protective effects on youth development (Frank, Davis, & Elgar, 2014; WHO, 2011). Empowering communities allows for increased awareness about local resources and assets, local socioeconomic stressors, and the unmet needs. This information can maximize resources allocation and help target efficient solutions through citizens’ insight of their own needs, as well as build the case for and support action at the local level (Burall & Carr-West, 2009).

The social and economic context differences bring new challenges to youth research, intervention, and policy development. For the past 20 years, the Aventura Social research team (http://aventurasocial.com/)—a well-recognized team of senior adolescents’ health researchers in Portugal—designed, implemented, and evaluated health promotion programs with a focus on universal interventions in schools and communities (Matos, 2012; Matos, Morgan, & Aventura Social, 2012) and fought for adolescents’ health promotion through political advocacy (Matos et al., 2008). However, the researchers recognized that with the shifting demographics and social and economic landscape, there was the need to move to an intervention framework rooted in inclusive and collaborative work with youth. However, this is particularly challenging since youth clubs or associations are uncommon outside of sports (Matos & Aventura Social, 2012) and there are now new youth engagement opportunities in digital media era (Wells, 2010). This combined set of circumstances gave rise to the motivation to create the Dream Teens project.

Therefore, researchers joined with the Portuguese Society for Health Psychology, received funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (http://www.gulbenkian.pt/Institucional/en/Homepage) and jointly brought a project called Dream Teens to life (http://www.dreamteens-en.aventurasocial.com/). The Dream Teens project’s mission is to ensure an opportunity for a group of young people nationwide to simultaneously be heard, empowered as change agents, and engaged as partners in decision making about issues that affect them. Similar to the “big three” components of effective youth programs that promote PYD attributes, the Dream Teens included (1) opportunities for youth participation and leadership in activities, (2) development of life skills, and (3) a context of sustained and caring adult–youth relationships. The Dream Teens project also followed the principles of YPAR programs (Ozer & Douglas, 2013; Ozer et al., 2010), since all research projects developed within the project were led by young people from inception, design, and conduction. In order to do so, senior researchers supported youth to develop the skills needed to conduct their own local research and advocacy actions for real issues and resources of their communities. By increasing youth participation, Dream Teens also aims to promote social capital and prevent alienation, key strategies for the promotion of health and well-being in youth (Taines, 2012).

Overall, the Dream Teens project is an innovative example of a youth participation model for several reasons: (1) it has been established nationwide and was universally accessed to reach the “common adolescent” and not only those at risk; (2) it allows coordination between youth, community level stakeholders (e.g., community leaders and schools), and national-level governance (e.g., ministry of health and education) to help make policy development more real and achievable for youth; (3) it includes not only face-to-face conversations and debates but also new media tools in acknowledgment of their youth-friendliness (Facebook, Skype, and blogs), and also as a way to cope with the fact that participants were from all over Portugal and it would have been impossible due to costs and logistics to meet regularly in person; and (4) it involved regional and national conferences to help youth voice their research-driven knowledge and their concerns to a national level and using their own methods of self-expression (e.g., video, talked presentations, poems, and drama).

To our knowledge, Dream Teens represents the first national European project of its kind, with respect to innovative interventions to scaling up youth engagement in order to inform health efforts. This innovative model is particularly noteworthy for its nationwide development and implementation in a context of hard financial restrictions and very low historic rates of civic engagement and for the use of social media tools that have been proved as effective ways for engaging young people in health promotion by other studies (Flicker et al., 2008). This model shows promise for potential adaptation and implementation in other countries and settings. Preliminary data regarding self-reported youth satisfaction and experiences with the project, as well as lessons learned so far, are presented next.

Method

Youth Recruitment

In March 2014, an online application phase to Dream Teens was announced throughout online social networks, schools, hospitals, and other youth-related institutions in articulation with the Youth Consultative Councils and Municipal Youth Councils. The call was reinforced by a partnership with a nationwide broadcasting TV network, as well as by public figures (television, music, and sports personalities) who promoted the initiative. The online application collected demographic data along with a youth motivation letter that was relatively open-ended to pull from a wide range of interests concerning the present and future of young generations. After this initial phase, online interviews via Skype were performed to develop the national network. The interviews held the purposes of recruiting participants, collecting demographic data (e.g., age, gender, and residential area), and helping the Dream Teens’ staff learn about the young peoples’ expectations, motivation, available time, and research topics of interest.

To be eligible to participate in Dream Teens, candidates needed to be between 11 and 18 years old (at time of the recruitment), have submitted the online form, and have been given parental consent. Moreover, youth from several types of organizations and backgrounds were explicitly included in order to guarantee the representation of diverse Portuguese youth subgroups (e.g., schools, scouts, associations of young people with chronic diseases, athletic, and arts schools). Spam and duplicate applications, as well as those who did not participate in the online interview or provided parental consent, were excluded.

The sample was then separated into two groups based on the youth’s motivations and personal characteristics expressed in the online interviews: the “Open Group,” which was less demanding in terms of required participation time and was online base only, and the “Research Group,” which was more time-demanding in terms of participation and required the involvement in a youth-led research project and the presence in events.

In both groups, young people interacted via Facebook where they were called to react to and discuss the topics of interest regularly posted. These were named “teasers” and were developed by senior researchers to draw attention to some of the issues previously identified by the young people, engage young people in the project, help them get to know one another, and create space for ideas’ expression.

While young people in the “Open Group” solely participated in the Dream Teens project by commenting on the general “teasers,” young people in the “Research Group” were additionally called to join specific topic subgroups and to be involved in the design and implementation of research projects within these specific work topics. These topical subgroups were theoretically based on study areas of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey and also from the previous work of the senior researchers (Matos & Sampaio, 2009); these topics were presented to the young people during their online interview where they indicated their preferences and other topics of their interest: (1) Personal Resources and Well-Being: Mental Health and Quality of Life; (2) Social Capital: Violence, Interrelationships, Friends, and Family; (3) Love and Sexuality: Parenting and Pregnancy; (4) Dependency, Substance Use, and Injuries; (5) Life-Style: Health, Leisure, Physical Activity, and Body Image; and (6) Citizenship and Social Participation: School, Society, and Future.

Senior researchers coordinated the groups (these were researchers with work experience in the field of the thematic groups) and played a support role on a weekly basis using social media tools (e.g., Facebook, e-mail) that consisted of (1) assisting youth with the connections with the institutions and stakeholders of their communities (these partnerships were contacted based on young people’s residential area and research interests) and (2) acting as advisors and consultants for young people’s specific research projects, especially in terms of how to develop research project, plan needs assessment and community mapping, conduct research, and read research results. This basic instructional information on how to conduct research was based on a previous work done by the senior research team (Matos & Sampaio, 2009).

In November 2014, young people within the “Research Group” met in person for the first time in Lisbon. During this first national meeting, the participants (aged 11 to 18 years old), presented their subgroups’ ongoing work and led a debate to solicit feedback related to the research done so far. These presentations were made available online to those in the “Open Group” via video and conference minutes so that all could participate remotely and add comments. Overall, youth were highly engaged in the online and alive debate and contributed thoughtfully with their comments. After the presentations and debate, the Dream Teens presented their preliminary policy recommendations. Figure 1 illustrates this process.

Figure 1

Conceptual Model of the Dream Teens Project

Preliminary Evaluation of Outcomes

At this point of the project, we intend to evaluate if it is possible to motivate and engage young people in an online national youth participatory project focusing on health and living contexts; to keep up a regular debate about public policies and health and education issues related to them; to design and conduct local youth-led researches; to organize public events, which are similar to scientific meetings, where young people share their work and ideas related to health and related contextual issues; and debate about public policies with trained senior researchers.

The engagement of the participants of the Dream Teens “Open Group” was evaluated by online participation in the Facebook “teasers” debates, and in the “Research Group” was measured by participation in research projects and presence in the event. Moreover, a survey was designed to address the participants of the “Research Group” satisfaction with the project up until that time. The survey was anonymous and measured four main constructs: (1) how and from whom they first heard about Dream Teens, (2) satisfaction with aspects of the meeting on a 5-point Likert-type scale (e.g., overall organization, dissemination, presentations, schedule, debate quality, debate duration, venue, social activities), (3) efficacy of Dream Teens in promoting young people’s voice on a 10-point Likert-type scale, and (4) satisfaction with the Dream Teens project, evaluated by responses to an open-ended question (i.e., “What do you think about the Dream Teens and what suggestions do you have for its improvement?”). This survey was delivered to the attendees of the first national Dream Teens’ meeting in November 2014.

Preliminary Outcomes and Youth Perceptions

Altogether, 258 applications were received nationwide and 111 applications did not meet inclusion criteria due to spam, duplication, lack of participation in the online interviews, or default of parental consent). In the end, 147 young people joined the Dream Teens project. The “Open Group” was composed by 80 participants and the “Research Group” by 67.

The Facebook “teasers” received several comments by the young people and regular debates from both the “Open Group” and the “Research Group” were produced.

Furthermore, participants within the “Research Group” designed and conducted research in the topics related to youth well-being.

A total of 72% of participants of the “Research Group” (N = 48; mean age = 16.48 ± 1.38) attended the first national Dream Teens’ meeting in November 2014, presented their subgroups’ ongoing research work, and answered a survey. The results of this survey (Table 1), show that in general the event, and its various aspects, was perceived as very positive by the young people. Participants also reported that socializing with other young people and sharing ideas and experiences were the most relevant positive aspects, while the meeting’s short duration and the short time for debate were the most negative.

Table 1

Dream Teens’ Meeting Survey Results

Evaluation	Excellent (%)	Good (%)	Satisfactory (%)	Bad (%)
Global	57.7	42.3	0	0
Organization	53.8	46.2	0	0
Disclosure	15.4	46.2	19.2	19.2
Content of communications	38.5	53.8	7.7	0
Duration of communications	0	0	0	0
Duration of the debate	7.7	46.2	30.8	15.4
Debate management	19.2	50	30.8	0
Debate quality	26.9	65.4	7.7	0
Venue	46.2	46.2	7.7	0
Social activity—flash mob	34.6	30.8	23.1	11.5
Social activity—visit to a science and technology museum	68	24	8	0

In relation to the Dream Teens project overall, youth suggested that the network should continue to grow, disseminate its achievements, integrate more public figures as ambassadors, continue to promote opportunities for the development of individual works and projects, hold more public events, and develop awareness of actions and events in the community. Finally, 66% of young people reported that it voiced their ideas and opinions in a good amount (5-8), and 34% said it completely did (9-10), all rates being favorable or very favorable.

At the end of the meeting, the young people delivered a set of preliminary youth well-being policy recommendations to the National Secretary of Health. This set of recommendation was drawn from their working groups preliminary research work. The Secretary of Health responded that the recommendations were “crucial” because they “enlighten us about what young people think that should be done and, on the other hand, these recommendations constitute an opportunity to tailor a real national policy for youth.” The Secretary of Health also commented that the Dream Teens participants reflected “immense maturity and deep knowledge of what the country is facing nowadays” (Dream Teens, 2015). His response reflects the growing trend of government agencies becoming more receptive to youth input. In addition, the Secretary of Health instructed his staff to post the Dream Teens recommendations on the Ministry of Health’s website (Dream Teens, 2014). The young people overall valued being heard by policy makers. One 16-year old participant remarked, “The presence of the Secretary of Health at the event made us realize that this was not a pointless work . . . we were actually heard” (Dream Teens, 2015).

As part of the outcomes, a Dream Teens’ Web page (www.dreamteens.aventurasocial.com) and blog (http://dreamteens2014-2015.blogspot.pt/; http://dreamteensaventurasocial.blogs.sapo.pt/) were launched. These platforms serve to share the latest youth-led research projects, news, and debates in progress related to the Dream Teens project.

Discussion

Throughout the first year of Dream Teens, Portuguese young people got together nationwide and developed investigation focusing on topics related to youth well-being. A national network of young people was created, and youth perceived that their voices were heard and that they were viewed as experts of their own well-being and living contexts.

The preliminary outcomes of the project showed, on one hand, that a nationwide project focusing youth participation in research using media tools is feasible and that in general young people feel motivated to debate public policies regarding youth health and well-being. On the other hand, this initial phase of the project also showed that Dream Teens enabled youth to actively conduct research, engage with their activities, and advocate for change in their social environment. During these participatory activities, youth were able to develop fundamental skills of debate, communication, negotiation, and individual and group decision making. The development of these skills is in accordance with the strengths-based approach of YPAR (Foster-Fishman et al., 2010; London et al., 2003; Ozer & Douglas, 2013; Silbereisen & Lerner, 2007). Therefore, if Dream Teens can further enhance competence and positive attributes, this is expected to be associated with positive development and the promotion of well-being, which has been empirically validated by other studies (Pittman et al., 2011; Maslow & Chung, 2013; Silbereisen & Lerner, 2007). The effects of the Dream Teens model will be tested in future work.

Overall, the online environment facilitated nationwide networking and was as well an important tool for sharing information and for advocacy, which corroborates with what was found in other reference works (Flicker et al., 2008). Through the use of online tools, youth were able to voice their local level knowledge and concerns to a national level, reaching a wider audience for their voices. Moreover, it was also useful for dissemination of the project and youth led-research, especially through the launch of the website and blogs.

Visibility to the project was assured by social media, TV and newspaper’s coverage, especially through the dissemination work in national and international conferences. Furthermore, several stakeholders were present during the event, including a nationwide broadcasting TV network that gave airtime to the Dream Teens project and participants.

Finally, the Dream Teens also caught the attention of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education that have acknowledged the project on their Web page. This was an important step because youth felt valued giving advice and receiving feedback in relation to their policy recommendations.

Although further research is needed in terms of the cost savings and increased reach of this particular project, the Dream Teens innovative model of encouraging meaningful youth participation through online media tools may serve as an example for a possible solution to maximize action at the local level to serve youth’ real needs nationwide. This can be a useful model for countries facing spending restrictions and limited resources to motivate young people to learn how to design and led research and feel that their ideas are being effectively heard by peers and stakeholders.

In terms of limitations, there is the possibility of self-selected bias since participants volunteered and choose their groups of preference. This can also explain why the sample age was somewhat skewed to older ages. Thus, it is possible that the inclusion of these participants, probably the most motivated young people, has an effect on participation levels that may not be reflected by other type of participants who are less likely to be willing to participate. Nevertheless, we believe that these self-selected young people can act as agents of change in their communities and may help motivate other young people to participate in their projects. Young people also reported the need of having more time in person together. Taking into account other studies, this could have affected the efficacy of the project (Weiss, Little, & Bouffard, 2005). In the future, the project could consider a higher frequency of in-person events to meet this need.

Moving forward, our dual aim is that this two-pronged strategy, with events and online participation, and then in the local partnerships, will enable Portuguese youth to (1) become more involved with and interested in their communities and (2) continue to develop positive, supportive relationships with adults and peers that can buffer stresses during the current economic recession.

Thus, Dream Teens is now establishing closer partnerships with local councils and community partners (e.g., schools, scouts, and sports’ clubs). The aim of these improved partnerships is to empower youth to become increasingly engaged in their communities as agents of change by establishing small action groups and projects related to health promotion. Preexisting evidence suggests that youth working in collaboration with their communities may ultimately allow for more effective strategies for delivering social, health, and well-being promotion activities to address wider needs (Ballard & Syme, 2016; Cavet & Sloper, 2004; Minkler & Wallerstein, 2008). Additionally, the Dream Teens is exploring collaborations to join forces with other innovative interventions to empower the scaling up of PYD in other countries such as the United States and Norway (http://yparhub.berkeley.edu/; Holsen, Larsen, Tjomsland, & Servan, 2015). Last, given that the WHO’s International Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study is moving toward a more participatory model of youth, we expect that Dream Teens will have further international participation. In the future, the Dream Teens is also interested in evaluating how the young people got organized in terms of their research and intervention projects, if they were supported by their local stakeholders (e.g., local authorities and schools), what were the main setbacks, and what was the potential impact of the Dream Teens on health outcomes and civic engagement levels.

Conclusion

This article provided the rationale and overview of an innovative model that uses online media tools and YPAR principles to nationally engage youth participation toward the promotion of youth well-being in a European country facing economic recession. Initiatives that foster youth participation can potentially yield positive outcomes, including empowering youth to take ownership over their own actions and to lead the development of organizations and communities. Dream Teens is a pioneer project in that it has increased young people’s visibility and participation related to well-being issues nationwide and has put youth participation on society’s radar as a topic of increasing interest. Additionally, the Dream Teens project has been acknowledged as a good practice example for innovative work with young people by the WHO Collaborative Centre for International Child and Adolescent Health Policy, raising the visibility of this type of approach internationally.

This article shared preliminary results and valuable insights for continuous improvement. Dream Teens provided a setting for the development of partnerships between researchers, civil society, and health policy makers that emphasized a continuous process of youth engagement and empowerment. Young people deemed this process effective at creating meaningful space for their voices to be heard.

In sum, the present project serves as an important exemplar of practices that empower youth through active participation and positive development in a country currently stricken with a grave economic crisis and very low historic rates of civic engagement. This model has strong potential applications for other country contexts and for helping address challenges regarding how to develop meaningful approaches to youth engagement and research.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We also acknowledge the support of Programa Escolhas, Portuguese Institute for Sports and Youth—IPDJ, General Directorate for Intervention on Addictive Behaviors and Dependencies—SICAD, National Register of Youth Associations of IPDJ, National Plan for Ethics in Sport of Portugal—PNED, Child Support Institute of Portugal—IAC, and National Commission for the Protection of Children and Young People of Portugal—CPCJ.

We are grateful to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for providing indispensable funding and to the Portuguese Society for Health Psychology and Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, for their support.

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