Dr. Ashley Vandermorris, Staff Paediatrician in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at SickKids and a member of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, provides an update on the SHARE (Sexual Health and Reproductive Empowerment) project.
The SHARE project was a two-phase study designed to explore the implications of COVID-19 for adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Ontario. In phase one, existing population-level health data linked and available at ICES were analyzed to determine changes in rates of key adolescent SRHR outcomes during COVID-19. Inequities in the effect of the pandemic on adolescent SRHR outcomes were assessed by socioeconomic position, immigration status, and geographic factors. These findings were used to identify three Ontario regions with the highest rates of adolescent SRHR need.
In phase two of the project, teams of four youth researchers, ages 16-19, were recruited from each of these three regions and trained to lead research studies using a youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) methodology. YPAR represents a collaborative approach that recognizes young people as experts in order to generate knowledge, empower youth through knowledge co-construction, and catalyze action to improve their health and wellbeing. YPAR ensures that data collected emphasizes and represents the intersectional experiences of the population with whom the research is conducted. After a 5-day training curriculum covering research methods, key concepts in adolescent SRHR, healthy equity and intersectionality, and research ethics, each youth team, supported by two adult research mentors, developed a research question. Over the subsequent six months, the youth-led teams each designed their study, collected data, and analyzed and interpreted their results. During a final project retreat in July 2022, youth-led teams developed and implemented dissemination plans for their study findings.
