A hybrid model for youth engagement in adolescent health studies: insights from the teen research advisors program at a Midwestern pediatric Academic Medical Center in the United States

Background Engaging adolescents in research ensures studies are relevant, ethical, and beneficial while fostering authentic and applicable findings. Traditional in-person advisory boards face barriers to equitable participation, highlighting the need for innovative, flexible models tailored to specific research programs and individuals with lived experience. The primary aim of this article is to describe a novel hybrid youth advisory board suitable for informing ongoing operations of a research program while supporting youths’ education and career exploration. Our secondary aim was to evaluate initial impact over the first 2 years of the program (2023–2024). Methods Adolescents aged 12–21 with prior involvement in mental health research at Children’s Mercy Kansas City (Kansas City, United States) were invited to join a hybrid teen advisory board. The advisory board structure and priorities were continuously shaped by youth. Participation included monthly discussion boards, quarterly huddles, enrichment events, and one-on-one mentorship for personal and professional development. Through a mixed-methods approach, initial program evaluation assessed alignment with the Advisor-defined objectives, program engagement, and bidirectional impact through thematic qualitative analysis and quantitative metrics. Results During the first 2 years, 11 youth (aged 13–20 years) participated as Teen Research Advisors (TRA) for an average of 12 ± 8 months. For any given monthly online, asynchronous discussion (n = 23 discussions), >80% of TRA contributed comments and peer responses. Quarterly Huddles (n = 7 huddles) were attended by 70% of TRAs and in-person enrichment events (n = 4 events) received positive feedback (“very helpful,” “fun,” “interesting,” “glad I came”). Five youth participated in the one-on-one mentoring and several TRAs requested letters of reference for scholarship and college applications, including schools of nursing and medicine. TRA insights were critical to inform clinical trial protocols (NCT05509257, NCT04935931), recruitment strategies, and dissemination to scientific and lay communities via manuscripts and infographics (linktr.ee/StancilStudyTeam). Conclusion We present a novel hybrid youth advisory board that reduces barriers to participation, fosters professional development, and substantially impacts the research program. Youth were highly engaged in online and in-person activities as well as collaboration synchronously and asynchronously. This model offers a scalable blueprint for engaging diverse adolescent populations in research, paving the way for more inclusive and impactful studies across disciplines.