More and more research is including lived experience. This means working together with people who the research will affect. There are lots of different terms to describe this way of working. One of these is codesign.

We want to find the best ways of doing codesign with young people. But we first need to understand what factors support or do not support doing this kind of research. This study aimed to identify what these factors are.

We needed to gather information from other studies to find out more. We followed a process called a ‘scoping review’. We found 41 studies which used codesign to work with people aged 15-24 years old. The studies looked at what factors can make it easier or harder to codesign research with young people.

We then grouped the different factors from all the studies under six categories:

1. Resources

   This includes things like time, money, and staff. Having enough of these made it easier to involve young people.

2. Communication

   How people shared information and how they spoke to young people. Being flexible to working online or in person made it easier to do codesign with young people. Difficult language made it harder to involve young people.

3. Process

   How research was planned and carried out. Having clear roles and being flexible made it easier to involve young people.

4. Agency

   How researchers shared power with young people. If young people could control or influence decisions, this made codesign easier. Stigma and unclear expectations made it harder.

5. Investment

   A commitment to working with young people in the long term. Accessibility was important to support codesign, and poor training did not support codesign.

6. Relationships

   This is the connections between people, like researchers and young people. Trust and respect were important.

Each of the categories could support working with young people or make it harder to work with young people. It depended on how researchers managed them. We also found that all six things interact with each other and are essential for doing codesign with young people well.

These things make it easier to codesign research with young people:

• Having enough resources

• Being able to work online or in person

• Having clear roles

• Being flexible

• When young people could control or influence decisions

• Working in small groups

• Accessibility

• Trust and respect

These things made it harder:

• Not enough resources

• Researchers using words that were hard for young people to understand

• Poor payment

• Stigma

• Unclear expectations

• Poor training  

• Lacking trust or confidence

Every research project is unique. But any project that involves young people needs to consider the six categories. This will support young people to be involved in research.

About the author:

Rosie (she/they) is one of RAY's lived experience research assistants. She is a poet and physiotherapist living with mental illness. They work on unceded Gweagal and Gadigal land.