Toolkit Glossary

Acceptance of diversity
Balance of power
Community-based programs
Early intervention
Emotional well-being/emotional health
Future thinking
Locus of control
Mental health
Mental health promotion
Non-punitive
Out of school settings
Outreach programs
Peer
Peer education
Peer influence
Peer leadership
Peer mediation
Peer mentoring
Peer support
Peer tutoring
Positive youth development
Prevention strategies in mental health
Protective factors/assets
References
Resilience
Risk factors
Safe space
Self acceptance/self liking
Self concept/self identity
Self confidence
Self-determination
Self-efficacy/self-competence
Self-esteem
Sense of belonging/social belonging
Social identity
Social networks
Social support
Transition support
Youth empowerment
Youth friendly
Youth participation

Peer

A peer is described as an individual who is of equal standing with another, belonging to the same societal group and sharing particular similar characteristics, e.g. age, status, sexual identity.¹ It can be differentiated between a ‘true peer’ versus a ‘near peer’. A ‘true peer’ is referred to as a person who is accepted as a member of a particular group, both by themselves and by other group members, while a ‘near peer’ is a person who is similar to the target group but differs in some small way (e.g. some years older).²

Peer education

Peer education has become an increasingly popular concept to disseminate accurate information and carry out health promotion activities with young people during the 1990s.³ It is typically characterised by the use of members of a particular social network who are trained to become ‘experts’ in a certain subject and encouraged to pass on the information to others in order to generate change among other members of the same group.^1,2 Peer education commonly aims at effecting modification of a person’s knowledge, attitudes, beliefs or behaviours and is often applied in context of drug education, HIV/AIDS/STD prevention and reproductive health promotion.¹

Peer support

Peer support relies on using peers as support agents or ‘friends’ who are trained to provide social and emotional assistance and to create a safe and trusting environment.⁴ It aims at providing social and emotional assistance and encouragement to enhance self-esteem and self-efficacy as well as coping and problem-solving skills amongst individuals that are considered to be of equal standing.^5-7

Peer mentoring

Peer mentoring aims to enhance supportive relationships between two people, commonly between two people of differing age groups and the mentor usually being older⁷ and aims to provide support, e.g. during transition periods, adverse life events or exam preparation.⁸

Peer leadership

Peer leadership is a concept that may be integral to any peer-based intervention but is most often found in peer education programs. Individuals who already possess natural characteristics of leading others are nominated to take on a leadership position to carry out a more directive and advising role.⁷

Peer tutoring

It is generally carried out in one-on-one sessions involving a tutor and a tutee, with the aim of improving low academic performances of students and is an approach more commonly applied in scholastic and academic settings.⁷

Peer mediation

Peer mediation aims at training young people as mediators to facilitate solutions to disputes among their peers and is used increasingly in school settings focusing on violence prevention and constructive conflict resolution.⁷

Peer influence

By developing more intensive connections and relationships to their friends and peers during adolescence, peer influence increases while parental and teacher influence tends to become less significant.

By strongly identifying with their peers young people regard their peers as credible sources of (social) information and as someone who they can trust, by whom they feel better understood and less embarrassed, and with whom they share values, attitudes and interests.

Peer relationships represent a vital source of emotional support for young people, as well as a major influence on their behaviour, attitudes and knowledge and have the potential to foster positive or negative health behaviours and development in a way that an adult would not be able to.^2,9-11

Positive youth development

Positive youth development refers to the promotion of youth’s social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development as well as enhancement of protective factors as a key to preventing problem behaviours.

Positive youth development programs are approaches that seek to achieve one or more of the following objectives:

Promotes bonding
Fosters resilience
Promotes social competence
Promotes emotional competence
Promotes cognitive competence
Promotes behavioural competence
Promotes moral competence
Fosters self-determination
Fosters spirituality
Fosters self-efficacy
Fosters clear and positive identity
Fosters belief in the future
Provides recognition for positive behaviour
Provides opportunities for prosocial involvement
Fosters prosocial norms.^12-13

Positive youth develpment programs further strive to create an environment that encourages the development of supportive relationships amongst youth, empowers young people, provides positive role modelling and opportunities for practicing healthy behaviours. Typical program activities carried out provide opportunities for skull development, broaden young people’s horizons, allow youth to engage in real and challenging activities, and attemt to elevate available supports.¹⁴

Youth participation

The terms ‘youth participation’ and ‘youth involvement’ are used interchangeably to describe one of the key strategies in positive youth development that relies on building mutually beneficial intergenerational partnerships by contributing and accepting expertise that is unique to each group.^15-20

Youth participation refers to numerous ways of involving young people as an integral part in the process of planning, identifying needs, finding solutions, implementing and decision making within organisations and communities.^16,19 Utilising meaningful youth participation can contribute to structuring programs, policies and services that affect young people’s lives to adequately address their needs and interests.^15,18

Youth friendly

The active involvement of young people as program participants, peer supporters, peer educators or peer leaders is characteristic of peer-based programs. A program that is labeled ‘youth friendly’ is associated with high levels of active youth involvement and is very consistent with a youth empowerment model described below.

Youth empowerment

Youth empowerment is described as an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and their community.²¹ It aims to provide young people with opportunities to develop competencies in order to foster youth-led and youth-directed initiative and increase youth representation in the service and decision-making life within local communities.²²

Factors identified by youth that influence their feelings of empowerment include:

Non-authoritarian adult leadership
Being able to experience and exercise power
Receiving education and training
Participating in critical analysis of issues
Experiencing an environment of safety, closeness and appreciation
Being able to honestly express opinions and emotions
Accepting diversity
Developing a voice
Being able to take action.²²

Youth engagement

Youth engagement describes a strategy that is employed by peer-based programs which attempts to engage at risk youth who are often disengaged from, or who have difficulties accessing, mainstream education and support services. Youth engagement strategies used by peer-based programs are often learner-centred, flexible programs based in community settings.

Community-based programs

Community-based programs can generally be described as a planned, coordinated, ongoing effort operated by a community that characteristically includes multiple interventions intended to improve the health status of members of the community. Community-based programs provide a possibility to engage with people outside of settings with a more specific target group (e.g. schools, health care centres). They are usually implemented in settings that have the capacity to reach the entire population; these include public facilitation, local governments and agencies, social services, faith and civic organisations.

Out of school settings

The term ‘out of school settings’ encompasses a variety of programs that serve a range of purposes, including providing child care and a safe space, improving academic achievement, fostering positive youth development, offering an opportunity for children/youth to explore their interests, and preventing undesirable behaviours.²³

Outreach programs

Outreach programs are health promotion/education programs designed to reach people outside of conventional education and health care settings who may not receive or have adequate access to more traditional services.

Social identity

Social identity refers to an individual’s perceived self concept which is influenced by the social groups they feel part of. Belonging to and being accepted by a peer group appears to be particularly significant during adolescence when young people tend to spend more time with their peers compared with their family. Not belonging to a peer group whom a young person can identify with can lead to confusion, isolation and mental health issues.²⁴

Social support

Social support can be described as the network of social relationships that an individual has. It can be measured in quantitative terms (e.g. number and frequency of social contacts) but also depends on how an individual perceives the support available to them as well as the quality of that support.²⁵

Social support can be further categorised into four different types of support:

Emotional support (such as love and caring)
Appraisal support (such as affirmation and feedback)
Informational support (such as suggestions or advice)
Instrumental support (such as financial aid).

Developing a sense of meaningful connection with peers has been found to be one of the most significant indicators determining mental well-being in adolescents.¹¹ Previous research suggests that individuals who have weaker social ties and are isolated from their peers are more susceptible to psychological problems, such as depressive symptoms suicide attempts and low self-esteem; whereas close relationships among adolescents contribute to higher peer acceptance, forming an adolescent’s self-concept and personal identity.^{9, 11, 26}

Safe space

A ‘safe space’ refers to a place where young people can meet with other young people who are experiencing or have experienced similar issues as themselves and where they don’t need to fear they will be judged.

Particularly of importance for at risk or marginalised young people encountering difficulties in meeting the norms and expectations posed by society, as a safe space offers an opportunity to help a person discover values and social expectations that may be more relevant to their own, which assists in promoting elevated levels of self-approval.²⁷

Balance of power

A characteristic present between two or more people who find themselves on equal standing, neither of them being in a position of exerting more power over the other. It can be regarded as an important characteristic of individuals belonging to a peer group as their relationships are usually based on an absence of power-imbalance.

Non-punitive

The term “non-punitive” is ususally used in the context of child rearing referring to a non-violent strategy that does not rely on punishment and but instead utilises rewarding strategies and aims to foster parent-child communication and democratic interaction.

Transition support

“Transition support” is referred to the support offered to a young person who is in the process of moving out from a program as they are either graduating or moving to another service in order to facilitate their adaptation to the new stage.

Early intervention

Early intervention aims to detect early signs of health problems in individuals before more serious symptoms and related health problems can manifest themselves, reducing the chances that a person will require medical or psychological treatment as a result of their circumstances.

Emotional well-being/emotional health

Emotional well-being or health can be described as the psycho-social health of a person. An absence of emotional well-being can be described as distress resulting out of unmanageable stress or an experienced crisis.

Mental health promotion

Mental health promotion is an overall term that covers a broad array of strategies and activities directly or indirectly related to the mental well-being component included in the WHO’s definition of health: “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease”. It is related to the promotion of well-being, the prevention of mental disorders, and the treatment and rehabilitation of people affected by mental disorders. Mental health promotion is the process of enabling individuals to improve their resources and skills in order to increase their control over and to improve their mental health and well-being, as well as fostering positive social and environmental factors.²⁸

Prevention strategies in mental health

Prevention strategies in mental health refer to a variety of interventions and strategies undertaken to reduce the prevalence of a mental disorder with the focus lying on the avoidance of risk factors. Preventive measures can be established at different periods before the onset of a disorder but may also be implemented after the onset in order to reduce the severity, course, duration and associated disability of the disease.²⁸

Protective factors/assets

Protective factors or assets are conditions that buffer children and youth from exposure to risk by either reducing the impact of the risks or changing the way that young people respond to risks (Communities that Care Survey). Key protective factors identified for positive mental health include strong bonding to family, school, community and peers. The Search Institute has developed 40 essential protective factors (“development assets”) which are crucial to young people’s healthy development, supporting them to lead healthy and successful lives.²⁹

Risk factors

Risk factors are conditions that increase the likelihood of a young person becoming involved in drug use, delinquency, school dropout and/or violence and developing poor quality of health as a result of these. Conditions identified as being risk factors include poverty, child abuse, early parental loss and family conflict, parental substance misuse and living in high-crime neighborhoods.^29,30

Youth empowerment

Youth empowerment is described as an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and their community²¹ It aims to provide young people with opportunities to develop competencies in order to foster youth-led and youth-directed initiative and increase youth representation in the service and decision-making life within local communities.²²

Factors identified by youth that influence their feelings of empowerment include:

Non-authoritarian adult leadership
Being able to experience and exercise power
Receiving education and training
Participating in critical analysis of issues
Experiencing an environment of safety, closeness and appreciation
Being able to honestly express opinions and emotions
Accepting diversity
Developing a voice
Being able to take action.²²

Youth participation

The terms youth participation, youth engagement and youth involvement are used interchangeably to describe one of the key strategies in positive youth development that relies on building mutually beneficial intergenerational partnerships by contributing and accepting expertise that is unique to each group ^15-20 Youth participation refers to numerous ways of involving young people as an integral part in the process of planning, identifying needs, finding solutions, implementing and decision making within organisations and communities.^16,19

Acceptance of diversity

Acceptance of diversity refers to a decrease of prejudices, stereotypes, myths and fears in the general population towards people of diverse sexual identity and gender, as well as an increase of tolerance and acceptance of these.

Emotional well-being/emotional health

Future thinking

The way a person believes their personal future achievements will be likely to turn out, foreseeing these either with an optimistic or a pessimistic attitude.

Locus of control

Locus of control generally indicates an individual’s belief to which extent they are able to control events in their lives. People can be categorised as having a more ‘internal’ or ‘external’ locus of control. A person with a strong external locus of control perceives that his or her situation is controlled and determined by external factors which can not be influenced, such as fate, luck, etc.; whereas a person with a stronger internal locus of control believes that outcomes of a situation are largely determined by the result of their own efforts.^31,32

Mental health

According to the World Health Organization²⁸ the conceptualisation of mental health may vary due to cultural and societal norms as well as to subjective assessments. In general, it may be described as the following:

“Mental health is not just the absence of mental disorder. It is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.”

Protective factors/assets

Protective factors or assets are conditions that buffer children and youth from exposure to risk by either reducing the impact of the risks or changing the way that young people respond to risks.³⁰ Key protective factors identified for positive mental health include strong bonding to family, school, community and peers. The Search Institute has developed 40 essential protective factors (‘development assets’) which are crucial to young people’s healthy development, supporting them to lead healthy and successful lives.²⁸

Resilience

Resilience refers to an individual’s ability to effectively adapt to and recover in the face of difficult and stressful life events. It describes a process that involves the interaction between risk and protective factors in a person and his or her environment. Resiliency is demonstrated if an individual who is experiencing significant stress is capable of utilising adequate coping skills and resources to deal effectively with the situation and recover from it.¹⁴

Self acceptance/self liking

Self accecptance or self liking is determined by a person’s experience of feeling accepted in a social environment.³³

Sense of belonging/social belonging

A sense of belonging can be experienced by an individual by identifying oneself as a member of a social group including feelings of being a valued group member and taking pride in one’s group. The absence of a group membership can result in social distress of a person if a strong desire exists to be part of a group, which can lead to the development of behaviour problems and emotional distress.³⁴

Self concept/self identity

Self-concept or self identity is explained as a complex and dynamic construct of learned beliefs, attitudes and opinions a person perceives to be true about themselves as well as how a person believes to be perceived by the environment. It can be described as the relatively permanent assessment of a variety of one’s personality attributes, knowledge and intellectual status, skills and competencies, physical appearance and attributes, popularity, happiness and satisfaction, and behavioural adjustment. Self concept/self identity is different to self-esteem as it is a more general construct and refers to the consciousness of oneself.³⁶

Self confidence

Self-confidence refers to a person’s belief in their personal judgment, ability and capacities.

Self-determination

Self-determination refers to an the internal will or motivation present in an individual.³⁶

Self-efficacy/self-competence

Self-efficacy or self-competence describes the level of confidence present in an individual to be capable of acting in a certain manner and to achieve one’s personal goals. A high level of self-efficacy/self-competence is associated with the ability of a person to choose health promoting behaviours in favor of risk-taking behaviours.^31,37

Self-esteem

Self-esteem is based on a person’s objective evaluation of their abilities as well as on their perception of social approval and acceptance.³³ It is highly influenced by the support and acceptance a person receives from their environment, e.g. peers, parents, teachers.³¹

Social networks

Social networks refer to the social connections provided by the environment and are distinguished by structural and functional dimensions. Structural network characteristics include dimensions such as size, density and multiplicity. Functional network characteristics refer to the provision of information, comfort, emotional support, material aid, etc.²⁵

Social support

Social support can be further categorised into four different types of support:

Emotional support (such as love and caring)
Appraisal support (such as affirmation and feedback)
Informational support (such as suggestions or advice)
Instrumental support (such as financial aid).

References

1. UNAIDS 1999, Peer Education and HIV/AIDS: Concepts, uses and challenges, Report of a Consultation, UNAIDS, Geneva.

2. McDonald, J, Ashenden, R, Grove, J, Bodein, H, Cormack, S, Allsop, S 2000. Youth for Youth: A Project to Develop Skills and Resources for Peer Education: Final Report, National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA), Adelaide.

3. Backett-Milburn, K & Wilson, S 2000, ‘Understanding peer education: insights from a process evaluation’, Health Education Research, Theory & Practice, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 85-96.

4. Cowie, H & Wallace, P 2000, ‘Peer Support in Action’, Sage Publications, London.

5. Doull, M, O’Connor, A, Robinson, V, Tugwell, P & Wells, G 2005, ‘Peer support strategies for improving the health and well-being of individuals with chronic diseases’, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, vol. 1.

6. Svenson, GR 1998, ‘European guidelines for youth AIDS peer education’, ed. Department of Community Medicine. Lund University & The European Commission, Malmo, Sweden.

7. Burmaster, E 2002, Youth to Youth: A review of peer program theoretical underpinnings, forms, functions, and process- and outcome-related findings 2001-02. A literature review, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

8. Parsons, M & Blake, S 2004, Peer support: An overview, Spotlight, National Children’s Bureau. http://www.citized.info/pdf/external/ncb/Final_Peer_support_aw.pdf

9. Quane, J & Rankin, B 2006, ‘Does it pay to participate? Neighborhood-based organizations and the social development of urban adolescents’, Children and Youth Services Review, vol. 28, no. 10, pp. 1229-50.

10. Stanton-Salazar, R & Spina, S 2005, ‘Adolescent Peer Networks as a Context for Social and Emotional Support’, Youth and Society, vol. 36, no. 4, p. 379.

11. Ueno, K 2005, ‘The effects of friendship networks on adolescent depressive symptoms’, Social Science Research, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 484-510.

12. Catalono, R.F., Berglund, M. L. Ryan, J. A. M., Lonczak, H. S. & J. Hawkins. 1998. Positive Youth Development in the United States: Research Findings on Evaluations of Positive Youth Development Programs, University of Washington: Seattle.

13. Catalano, R. F., Berglund, M. L. Ryan, J. A. M., Lonczak, H. S. & J. Hawkins. 2004. “Positive Youth Development in the United States: Research Findings on Evaluations of Positive Youth Development Programs.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science591(1): 98-124.

14. Oliver, K, Collin, P, Burns, J & Nicholas, J 2006, ‘Building resilience in young people through meaningful participation’, Australian e-Journal for the advancement of Mental Health, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1-7.

15. Advocates for Youth. n.Y. “Youth Involvement in Prevention Programming.” http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/iag/involvement.pdf.

16. Dotterweich, Jutta. “Practice Matters – Strengthening Youth Involvement.” New York City: ACT for Youth Center of Excellence, Cornell University, University of Rochester, the New York State Center for School Safety, and Cornell Cooperative Extension of New York City, 2004.

17. UNFPA (2005). Standards for Peer Education Programmes, Youth Peer Education Toolkit, United Nations Population Fund, Youth Peer Education Network (Y-Peer). Family Health International.

18. Civil Liberties and Public Policy program. n.Y. “Principles of Meaningful Youth Participation.” Beyond Borders, http://beyondborders.wordpress.com/2008/07/08/principles-of-meaningful-youth-participation/.

19. Mokwena, Steve. “Putting Youth Engagement into Practice: A Toolkit for Action.” London: Commonwealth Youth Programme, Commonwealth Secretariat, 2006.

20. Scheve, JA, Perkins, DF, Mincemoyer, CC, & Welsh, JA. n.Y. “Say Y.E.S. To Youth: Youth Engagement Strategies.” edited by Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development Department of Agricultural and Extension Education, The Pennsylvania State University.

21. Varvus & Fletscher 2006

22. Huebner, A.J., Examining “Empowerment”: A How-To Guide for the Youth Development Professional Journal of Extension, 1998. 36(6).

23. Kahn, J., J. Bronte-Tinkew & C. Theokas. 2008. Research to Results Brief: How can I assess the quality of my program? Tools for out-of-school time program practitioners, Part 8 in a Series on Practical Evaluation Methods. Child Trends: Washington, DC.

24. Tajfel, H. and J. Turner (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict, The social psychology of intergroup relations. WG Austin & S Worshel (eds), Montenery, CA, Brooks/Cole.Topping, KJ 2005, ‘Trends in Peer Learning’, Educational Psychology, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 631-645.

25. Procidano, M.E. & K. Heller, Measures of perceived social support from friends and from family: Three validation studies. American Journal of Community Psychology, 1983. 11(1): p. 1-24.

26. Hall-Lande, J, Eisenberg, M, Christenson, S & Neumark-Sztainer, D 2007, ‘Social Isolation, Psychological Health, And Protective Factors in Adolescents’, Adolescence, vol. 42, no. 166, pp. 265-83.

27. Olsson, C, Boyce, M, Toumbourou, J & Sawyer, S 2005, ‘The Role of Peer Support in Facilitating Psychosocial Adjustment to Chronic Illness in Adolescence’, Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 78-87.

28. WHO 2007, Mental Health, World Health Organization, Geneva. <http://www.who.int/topics/mental_health/en/index.html>

29. WHO Europe

30. Communities that Care, Risk and Protective Factor Scale Construction Summary, Communities That Care Youth Survey. http://download.ncadi.samhsa.gov/Prevline/pdfs/ctc/Risk_and_Protective_Factor_Scale.pdf.

31. Turner, G & Shepherd, J 1999, ‘A method in search of a theory: peer education and health promotion’, Health Education Research, vol. 14, no. 2, p. 235.

32. Nowicki, S. & B.R. Strickland, A Locus of Control Scale for Children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1973. 40(1): p. 148-154.

33. Tafarodi, R.W. and W.B. Swann Jr, Self-Liking and Self-Competence as Dimensions of Global Self-Esteem: Initial Validation of a Measure Journal of Personality Assessment, 1995. 65(2): p. 322-342.

34. Newman, B.M., B.J. Lohman, and P.R. Newman, Peer Group Membership and a Sense of Belonging: Their Relationship to Adolecent Behaviour Problems. Adolescence, 2007. 42(166): p. 241.

35. Piers, E.V., D.B. Harris, and D.S. Herzberg. 2002. Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale, Second Edition (Piers-Harris 2). http://portal.wpspublish.com/pdf/ph2.pdf.

36. Deci & Ryan 1985

37. Crockett & Peterson

My-Peer Toolkit