Grant: Prize - IHDCYH Talks

CIHR and IHDCYH has a mandate for supporting research into youth development, their trajectories of health, mental health and resilience issues. The Maltreatment and Adolescent Pathways (MAP) Research Study, its primary and secondary analyses, have been CIHR-funded. Youth who have experienced childhood maltreatment are at elevated risk for emotion dysregulation and more challenged relationships across development. The MAP study evaluates maltreated youth, at-risk for adverse health outcomes in adolescence, young adulthood, and across the lifespan, and tracks health-related issues at the stage-salient time of mid-adolescence, as well as maps issues over time, to young adulthood. The MAP Research Study randomly selected youth who were system-involved (receiving child welfare services) to participate in a longitudinal tracking of mental health outcomes, obtaining a large sample of youth (N=561). Maltreatment among youth may go undetected, leaving these youth vulnerable to environmental stress, being mobile and street-involved, under-resourced, and disconnected to adolescent services. Normatively, mid-adolescence is a developmental window of health risk behaviours, with transition to high school and emergent adult role-taking, along with their attendant stresses. It can be a window of resilience from risk. Following 561 youth (aged 14-17) over a 3-year period, the MAP maps issues in at-risk youth, and potential resilience factors. This video focuses on the under-recognized problem of adolescent dating violence, and self-compassion as a resilience factor for dating violence, mental health, and substance use problems. This knowledge exchange effort identifies important change targets, and strategies for promoting resilience in youth. It highlights issues in child welfare system-involved youth, challenging for a better coordination and collaboration among social service and healthcare systems to support youth who exit their primary system of help by virtue of their age.