Study Background
“You do need to know that children’s opinions matter. Take that into mind.” – Josh, PHRAME participant
Young people actively participate in shaping the social institutions around them and have distinct knowledge and experiences to share about health. Yet too often their actions and perspectives go unheard in health programming and research. Even when young people are included in program design and research processes, their involvement can get tokenized or misinterpreted. However, their input is critical to designing more sensitive, effective policies and programs that account for their strengths and needs.
Young people act and make meaning within the contexts in which they live.
The PHRAME study examined the varied and complex ways that the young people in rural southern Illinois thought and talked about health.
Click here to watch a video and learn more about how our study was conducted.
The PHRAME study was not just about doing public health research more artistically and playfully. It was also about using the arts and play to disseminate the work. We are doing this through zines, a StoryMap, and a temporary art installation.
We want audiences to have hands-on experiences with our methods and findings. Our zine series gives readers the opportunity to get into the interview and surprise themselves with their own drawings and new understandings of health and care. At the same time, the reader will learn from the children participating about what health and care meant to them.
In our StoryMap, we place the young people’s photographs and interview content alongside county level health data. We divided the StoryMap according to the most prominent themes identified in the photographs. However, the photos and interview content often cut across themes, so we encourage you to explore and look for other connections as well.
These came together in an installation we created at the Society for Visual Anthropology & American Anthropological Association/CASCA meeting in November, 2023.
Funding Information
Jean Hunleth received funding to carry out the study from the National Cancer Institute (P50CA244431) and the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Peer Reviews
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09075682231176899?journalCode=chda