Primary Submission Category: Infants/children/youth
Redefining Emotional Health: A Youth-Led Approach to Stress, Self-Awareness, and Coping in Rural Black Communities
Authors: Leah Frerichs, Charity Lackey, Erin Dobbins, Tessel Peterson, Ellie Sellers, Patricia Norman, Doris Stith, Maria Zoco,
Presenting Author: Leah Frerichs*
Emotional stress is a critical population health issue. Nearly half of US high school students experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Unfortunately, there has been a failure to prioritize youth, especially those from rural Black communities, in this research. This is troubling since these youth are exposed to unique stressors. We intentionally built Young Visionaries for Health (YV4H) to be a safe, shared space for youth-led emotional health research. We trained and guided n=15 rural, predominantly Black youth to use systems science to redefine and understand their stress and coping needs. Through this process, youth redefined the problem of poor emotional health as one of “limited self-awareness”. Furthermore, led by the youth, we conducted dyadic in-depth interviews with n=23 youth and adult caregivers and two focus groups with community leaders. We analyzed qualitative data within the descriptive phenomenology paradigm and grounded in Black Feminist Theory in order to deeply describe youth experiences and elevate the embodied knowledge of Black youth and women. Our analyses further unpacked the meaning of “limited self-awareness” and uncovered that stress, self-awareness, and emotional control negatively reinforced each other. Further, this dynamic was embedded in a population context of high exposure to multiple forms of violence. The analyses also guided development of multi-level, co-created solutions. These included the need for widespread dissemination of novel and youth-relevant mindfulness practices and changes to institutional discriminatory and punitive in-school suspension policies. Our highly engaged, youth-driven approach led to novel and redefined understanding of emotional health. We are currently working with YV4H youth to use art and performance as a channel to disseminate their findings and generate support for their solutions in a way that reclaims their identity and voice in the process.