Research Tools
Existing measures of youth-adult partnerships and/or contexts of engagement
Snapshot youth engagement survey (CEYE)
The Snapshot of Youth Engagement survey includes two tools. The first is the Engagement Portrait survey, which measures an individual’s engagement in an activity. It includes questions about what youth do in the activity and what we call the Head, Heart, Feet and Spirit aspects of young person’s activity involvement. The second tool is the Engagement Landscape survey. It includes questions about the qualities of the activity setting, or the ‘landscape’ where youth are participating.
The tools are available for use by youth organizations, government, and researchers. The use of the tools has received clearance from the Brock University Research Ethics Board.
Youth and adults can complete the Surveys based on their involvement in a specific organization or group or based on any other activity that they choose. They can complete it once or two or more times to measure change over time. Youth ages 14 and older can provide their own consent online for participation. Youth under 14 years of age can use the survey with parental consent.
Responses to online questionnaires will be saved as part of our anonymous database, which we will use to assess and improve these two questionnaires. In addition, our analyses will allow us to explore the nature of engagement and how it may be related to characteristics of specific activities. Individuals and organizations will not be identifiable to researchers using this database.
Download the Snapshot of Youth Engagement survey in two parts: the Engagement Portrait survey and the Engagement Landscape survey.
Get more information about the Snapshot Youth Engagement survey here. The snapshot survey is also available online at: www.engagementsurvey.ca/snapshot
Head, Heart, Feet, Spirit Sheet (CEYE)
This measure is a more open-ended way to collect responses from participants on their engagement experiences. Specifically, the different components of the HHFS Sheet examine the following aspects of participants’ experiences:
- Head: what they learned from the experience (cognitive aspect)
- Heart: what they felt about their participation in the experience (affective aspect)
- Feet: what they intend to do as a result of their participation (behavioural aspect)
- Spirit: How their experience connects/contributes to something outside of the self
According to the CEYE’s research, full engagement consists of all of these aspects, Head, Heart, Feet and Spirit (Pancer et al., 2002). The Head Heart Feet Spirit (HHFS) sheet can be used by youth and adults in various ways and is flexible for reflecting on an experience of engagement, for evaluating the experience, and for providing feedback about an engagement activity.
Download the Head Heart Feet Spirit (HHFS) sheet and HHFS User Guide.
Youth Engagement ‘Map’
This blank version of the Youth Engagement framework can be used as a tool for youth and adult participants to describe their experiences in youth-adult partnerships. They can fill in initiating and sustaining factors, qualities and characteristics of the youth engagement context, and outcomes at the individual, social and systems levels.
Download the Youth Engagement framework.
Youth Engagement Evaluation (CEYE)
This tool was developed to examine youth-adult partnerships in youth conferences, with a particular focus on shared contibution and decision-making. This was developed specifically for evaluating the Young Decision Makers conference and process, but could be adapted for other youth conferences.
Download the Youth Engagement evalution.
Youth Development project (from Dr. Zeldin’s project in Portugal)
This tool features quantitative measures related program quality (e.g. youth engagement in decision-making and youth-staff partnership) and positive developmental outcomes (sense of belonging, empowerment, agency and beliefs about society) on a 5-point Likert scale.
Youth Experiences Survey
The Youth Experience Survey (YES) was developed to survey high-school aged adolescents about their developmental experiences in an extracurricular activity or community-based program. The YES includes 18 scales that assess self-reported experiences in the activity or program within six conceptual domains of development: Identity Work, Initiative, Basic Skills, Teamwork and Social Skills, Interpersonal Relationships, and Adult Networks. Five scales dealing with negative experiences that may interfere with development are also assessed. The instrument was designed for use with multiethnic youth and for use across a wide range of youth programs and activities.
Download the Youth Experience Survey (YES) sheet. Source: Hansen, D., Larson, R, & Dworkin, J. (2003). What adolescents learn in organized youth activities: A survey of self-reported developmental experiences. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13 (1), 25-56.
Check out additional information on the Youth Experiences Survey.
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Being Y-AP Savvy
The Being Y-AP Savvy manual is designed to help strengthen the quality of Youth-Adult partnerships (Y-AP) in organizations and communities, including tools to: 1) Acquire core knowledge about Y-AP; 2) Establish a point of view about Y-AP and communicate it to others; 3) Build consensus on issues regarding Y-AP. This manual includes tools/questions for stakeholders to use together to implement and improve Y-AP within their organization. Available for download at:
Download the Being Y-AP Savvy manual.
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Youth-Adult Partnership in Community and Government website
This website includes several resources for research, evaluation, planning and implementation related to youth-adult partnerships. The resources on this website have been developed by a team of researchers and youth development coordinators (including Dr. Shep Zeldin) at the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension.
Browse the Youth-Adult Partnership in Community and Government website.
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The Involvement and Interaction Rating Scale Survey (Kenneth R. Jones, 2005)
This tested survey tool identifies strengths and weaknesses within existing youth-adult groups, and allows participants (youth and adults) to rate the quality of their experience. Research related to this tool has been published: Jones, Kenneth R., Perkins, Daniel F. (2006). “Youth and Adult Perceptions of Their Relationships Within Community-Based Youth Programs.” Youth Society. 38: 90-109.
Check out these links to learn more:
https://core.human.cornell.edu/resources/measures/IIRSS.cfm and
http://www.joe.org/joe/2005october/a5.php etc… We will be adding more tools as we go
