The impact of community-wide teen pregnancy prevention initiatives (CWIs) on local U.S. birth rates among adolescents aged 15 to 19 years was examined using synthetic control methodology within a quasi-experimental design. CWIs were implemented in 10 U.S. communities from 2010 to 2015. Each initiative implemented evidence-based teen pregnancy…

In 2021, approximately five million young people in the United States were not in school or working. This group of young people transitioning to adulthood, roughly ages 16 to 24, are often referred to as "opportunity youth" and sometimes "disconnected youth." Young people from low-income families and from communities of…

Recent studies have reported that strengths-based programs, leveraging autistic adolescents' abilities and interests, could improve their skills and facilitate social engagement. However, little is known about the long-term impact of strengths-based approaches. This study aimed to explore the long-term outcomes of community strengths-based…

Adolescent girls face distinct challenges that require tailored and girl-centered responses. This brief draws on the knowledge of program implementers and researchers who work on community-based girl group (CBGG) programs (often called "safe spaces") in various low- and middle-income settings and the US. It summarizes emerging lessons…

This essay reflects on the challenges of facilitating a community program partnership with the Prince George's Memorial Library System. The program, "Community Justice," uses a public syllabus to introduce local teens to social justice concepts, theories, and methods. While issues of sustainability and retention are examined in this…

Perceptions of program safety for youth might include such features as physical safety, psychological safety, and social-relational safety. A holistic sense of safety, or one that inclusively encompasses and integrates features of, and relations with, the ecology in which youth develop, could be engendered through programmatic designs that attend…

This paper explores young people's aspirations and the influence of community drama in shaping these arts-focussed aspirations. Research was undertaken using creative drama methods with young people who attend a youth drama group. The young people identified career and personal aspirations, recognising the hard work and support that it can take to…

This article explores the risks and potentials of staging vulnerability in community theatre with teenage girls. By drawing on postconstructionist and spatial theories, the article elaborates on how aesthetic spaces emerge when interwoven with spaces of vulnerability. Exploring how vulnerability becomes a generative, or restrictive force, the…

This brief is the first of a series of applied research briefs that focus on specific challenges and opportunities public media faces in its approaches to youth content and engagement. Drawing from priorities surfaced through focus group interviews with youth across the country, these briefs highlight recent research and public discussions about…

Using a 3-Round Delphi Technique, the current study aimed to ascertain consensus regarding parents' thoughts about the school, home, and community protective factors (i.e., preventive behavior interventions, behavior resources) needed to prevent adolescents from referral to behavior school and subsequent involvement in the juvenile system. A…

This article takes up three interrelated elements of Iris Murdoch's moral philosophy into an initial conceptual framework for moral education and explores a practical application of this framework to a lesson plan. The three elements are moral vocabulary, moral perception, and the quality of our states of consciousness. The framework constituted…

This study investigates how bullying and banter are conceptualised and rationalised by those in male adolescent community football. The authors employ a social constructivist, interpretative phenomenological analysis approach using qualitative, semi-structured interviews. These methods explore the meanings behind the perceptions and experiences of…

Large-scale disparities in computing exist for many youth of color. Learning in informal settings can increase the participation of youth in computing; however, computing education programs have typically been developed by adults for youth. We argue computing education can contribute toward decolonization by directly involving youth from…

To create a truly regenerative future, simply reforming teacher education to prioritize Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) will not create the wide-ranging changes in the education system needed to meet the environmental challenges facing humanity. A holistic strategy involving community collaboration with teacher education stands a…

Mentoring is widely cited as a strategy to increase the representation of Latinx in technology, but the role of informal relationships with adults outside their family remains unclear. This study explores how natural mentoring is utilized by Latinx youth at a community-based organization, including the perspectives of both mentors and mentees,…