A Typology of Youth Participation and Empowerment for Child and Adolescent Health Promotion

2010/06/11 by Naima T. Wong, Marc A. Zimmerman, Edith A. Parker · 541 citations
Health Professions · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Categorization #Children's Rights and Participation #Community Health and Development #Developmental psychology #Empowerment #Health promotion #Health psychology #Identification (biology) #Medicine #Nursing #Political science #Positive Youth Development #Promotion (chess) #Psychology #Public health #Public relations #Social psychology #Sociology #Typology #Youth Development and Social Support #Youth empowerment

paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10464-010-9330-0

published in American Journal of Community Psychology 46(1-2), 100-114 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2010/06/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Research suggests that increasing egalitarian relations between young people and adults is optimal for healthy development; however, the empirical assessment of shared control in youth-adult partnerships is emerging, and the field still requires careful observation, identification, categorization and labeling. Thus, our objective is to offer a conceptual typology that identifies degrees of youth-adult participation while considering the development potential within each type. We use an empowerment framework, rooted in evidence-based findings, to identify five types of youth participation: (1) Vessel, (2) Symbolic, (3) Pluralistic, (4) Independent and (5) Autonomous. The typology is constructed as a heuristic device to provide researchers, practitioners and policy-makers with a common language for articulating degrees of youth participation for optimal child and adolescent health promotion.

Citations

• Psychological empowerment: Issues and illustrations

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