PRESENTATIONS
Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum
Montreal, QC | June 19-21, 2024
CHART Lab graduate student, Julia Kaufmann, attended the Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum in Montreal last week! Themed around “building capacity for knowledge mobilization and research impact,” Julia presented (and lead a discussion) on youth engagement in knowledge mobilization.
“CKF24 was a great opportunity to connect with other knowledge mobilizers, discuss challenges and opportunities in the field, deepen my theoretical understanding, and learn tangible skills for working collaboratively to increase research impact. I will definitely bring what I’ve learned back to the CHART Lab team!”
CAIS National Leaders Conference
Vancouver, BC | April 15, 2024
Dr. Samji’s presentation, “Spotlight on student mental health and well-being: findings from the YDI and leveraging data for action,” highlighted the critical role of adolescence as a “window of opportunity” for promoting mental health and youth well-being, emphasizing the significant social and personal transitions occurring during this period.
The session illustrated the opportunity to integrate quantitative data with experiential, qualitative data to provide key insights into youth well-being in school communities. Drawing from recent YDI data, Dr. Samji discussed inequities in BC, where certain groups face greater mental health challenges and experience school less positively than others.
Sharing examples of recent projects, Dr. Samji highlighted opportunities to use data for mental health promotion planning, specifically to support context-appropriate understanding and implementation. She emphasized that the active engagement of all school community members is key to addressing the province’s current challenges.
BC School Superintendents Association 2024 Spring Forum
Vancouver, BC | April 12, 2024
In April, Dr. Hasina Samji, alongside Ari Zwinge (CHART Lab Youth Advisory Council member and grade 12 student in the Abbotsford School District) and Dr. Nathan Ngieng (Deputy Superintendent of the Abbotsford School District and past president of BC CAISE), delivered a joint presentation at the BC School Superintendents Association Spring Forum.
Their talk, titled Engaging Student Voice in School Policy and Practice: Examples from the Youth Development Instrument Project, emphasized the role of student agency and engagement in driving meaningful, student-led changes in school policies and practices.
The presentation highlighted key findings from the 2024 Youth Development Instrument (YDI) on student engagement across 31 school districts. Dr. Samji, Ari, and Dr. Ngieng shared their experiences on how students can be actively involved in mobilizing YDI data to effect positive change across school districts in the province.
Attendees were introduced to the CHART Lab Youth Advisory Council (YAC) and learned about their role in the YDI’s development, including refining the survey content, introducing it to schools, and translating research findings into actionable initiatives. Examples of successful student engagement were also showcased, such as the YDI Summer Research Institute and the Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project. Additionally, Dr. Ngieng shared his work with the Abbotsford School District YDI Action Symposium as an example of student involvement.
The session underscored the value of cross-sectoral collaborations promoting student engagement among students, school districts, and researchers. It was also an opportunity to reflect on the importance of hearing directly from BC students about how school districts can boost student engagement and promote well-being.
Annual Cascadia Symposium on Environmental, Occupational, and Population Health
Blaine, Washington | January 11 - 12, 2024
Judy Wu, our doctoral student, won the ‘Best Oral Presentation’ award at the Annual Cascadia Symposium on Environmental, Occupational, and Population Health in Blaine, Washington.
Judy’s presentation, “Climate Concern and Eco-anxiety in BC Youth: Findings from the 2023 Youth Development Instrument Survey,” detailed important research findings related to her doctoral thesis, which seeks to generate new knowledge on the mental health impacts of climate change and other environmental issues on youth. Specifically, she is interested in the phenomenon of ‘eco-anxiety’ – the negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, and sadness associated with climate change and environmental issues.
From the YDI data, 45.0% of respondents (n = 5089) reported ‘feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge’ regarding climate change and other environmental issues within the past two weeks. Additionally, 40.7% (n = 4530) felt anxious that their personal behaviours would do little to help fix the problems. However, a smaller proportion of students (13.5%) were identified to have a significant number of eco-anxiety experiences (i.e., different experiences of eco-anxiety at moderate to high frequency). Interestingly, several demographic factors were also found to be associated with having a significant number of eco-anxiety experiences including experiencing financial pressure and identifying as LGBTQIA2S+. These findings point to areas where greater research work is required, including collaboration with youth to further interpret and contextualize quantitative YDI results and co-development of youth-specific resources for eco-anxiety.
2023 Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health
New Orleans, LA | December 5 - 7, 2023
In December, Dr. Hasina Samji and Dr. Jacquie Maloney from the CHART Lab teamed up with YDI Youth Advisory Council members, Daniel Chen and Harnoor Dhaliwal, and our colleagues Mari del Casal and Dr. Alexander Gist at BC Children’s Hospital Mental Health Promotion and Literacy Team to represent Canada at the 2023 Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health in New Orleans.
The conference theme was Building Hopeful Futures for All Youth. Their joint presentation illustrated the value of cross-sectoral collaborations for supporting adolescent mental health and the importance of including youth perspectives in mental health initiatives.
Banff International Conference on Behavioural Science
Banff, Alberta | March 19 - 22, 2023
The 52nd Banff International Conference on Behavioural Science topic was School Mental Health: Utilizing Science, Culture, and Context to Inform Practice. It aimed to highlight both the challenges and opportunities in school mental health, with an emphasis on identifying practical strategies for mental health professionals, educators and administrators, and researchers.
CHART lab members Judy Wu and Julia Kaufmann attended the conference and presented five posters that covered various topics related to youth mental health and well-being, such as eco-anxiety, mental health literacy, the impacts of COVID-19, and school belonging, all using YDI data!
The posters featured contributions from many members of the CHART lab team—Dr. Hasina Samji, Dr. Jacqueline Maloney, Dr. David Long, Dr. Jenna Whitehead, Jillian Herring, Rachel Correia, and Mari del Casal. The conference was an opportunity to learn about all the ways researchers across Canada and the US are promoting youth mental health and well-being, as well as showcase some key mental health findings from the YDI.
Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium
Irvine, California | March 2 – 4, 2023
CHART Lab director Dr. Hasina Samji presented The “Wicked” Challenge of Worsening Youth Mental Health – Pandemic Impacts and Beyond at the 33rd Kavli Frontiers of Science U.S. Symposium in Irvine, California. Her presentation illuminated the impact of COVID-19 on youth mental health using both data from the YDI and other sources. She discussed protective and risk factors for youth mental health and highlighted the importance of taking a public mental health approach to prevent worsening mental health outcomes in adolescence.
