title: Engaging youth in communities: a framework for promoting adolescent and community health.
abstract: Health researchers and practitioners increasingly recognise the important role communities play in shaping individual health. Health researchers recognise the role of community factors as causes or determinants of health problems; use community-based methods for understanding complex health issues; and design community-level health solutions. In this commentary, we propose a fourth way to think about the role of communities in individual health by arguing that the community engagement process itself has implications for individual health and strong communities. This topic is especially important during adolescence, a developmental window of opportunity during which individuals need meaningful opportunities to contribute to the world around them.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Parissa J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Ballard
authors.affiliation: University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.
authors.forename: S Leonard
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Syme
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000067697:Adolescent Health; D019058:Community Networks; D003256:Community Participation; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation
keywords: POLICY; PSYCHOLOGY; SOCIAL CAPITAL