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Youth-Nex

  • Research Center

What We Do

Youth-Nex is a trans-disciplinary center with a translational approach to scholarship and innovation that is central to its work. 

Our Focus

We focus on three core domains: a) Out-of-School Time; b) Educational Systems: Middle School; and c) Community Engagement: Civic and Political.  

Our Aim

We aim to expand and apply the science of Positive Youth Development to enhance the strengths of youth and to prevent developmental risk such as violence; physical and mental health issues; substance abuse and school failure 

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What's New

Check out the latest news and resources this month from Youth-Nex. Click arrows below to scroll to the left or right for more.

Teen sleeping on pile of papers at a desk
Teens’ Lack of Sleep is a Problem Parents Can Solve

Teen author Lia says sleep deprivation is happening more than parents realize and shares advice for how parents can help.

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Grid of six faculty headshots
Come Study at Youth-Nex!

These professors are accepting Ph.D students this application season to start Fall 2027! Come study at Youth-Nex and build your career here.  

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Coach claps with teen athletes standing around
Engaging the Teens in Your Life and How We Can Strengthen Afterschool

Professor Zabek shares how afterschool isn’t just extra time but a powerful space that too many adults overlook.

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Three panels with youth photos, each talking at a conference. "Youth-Led Event Planning" typed across the top.
New Guide and Checklists for Youth-Led Programs

Youth-Nex releases a new comprehensive resource guide with practical strategies for engaging youth in collaborative event planning and event execution.

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Youth-Nex Initiatives and Projects

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Youth-Nex Newsletter

View recent archives of the Youth-Nex newsletter & sign up to receive monthly updates.

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Students Engaging at Youth-Nex

If you are a college student interested in working with Youth-Nex, complete this interest form to join our database that our scholars check when expanding their research teams.

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Youth-Nex Research

More Youth-Nex Research

“Will we Get Called into a Principal’s Office?” Teacher Perceptions of Measures of Culturally Sustaining Practices

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Cultural Humility in Action: Contextualizing Coping Power for Middle Schools in Guadalajara, Mexico

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Integrating School-based and Out-of-School Supports for Youth Mental Health: A Liberatory Design Approach

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Leveraging Machine Learning to Understand the Link Between School Climate and Youth Substance Use: a Focus on Cannabis and Alcohol Use

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The protective power of connection: a proposed conceptual model of social supports in the context of youth adversity, disrupted attachment, and trauma symptoms

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Exploring Profiles of Risk and Protective Factors Among Youth Mentees: For Whom Does Mentoring Work?

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Coaching Teachers to Implement Equity and Social and Emotional Learning Focused Curricula in the Classroom: Insights from a Randomized Controlled Trial

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YN YPAR Youth and YPAR Adult: Survey Item Validation

This resource for both adults and youth examines the clarity, relevance and coverage of items on survey measures.

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YN YPAR Youth: Interview Prompts

This resource supports youth researchers in obtaining more in-depth responses from their peers during interviews.

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Youth-Nex News

All Youth-Nex News

Related Labs

Explore Research
  • RMS
  • Research Lab

Remaking Middle School

Remaking Middle School is a multi-phase initiative, elevating the innovation that is present in middle schools across the country and soliciting national input on how we ensure all students thrive in, and grow from, their experience in the middle grades. 
 

  • PIT CREW
  • Research Lab

Preventive Interventions Team: Collaborative Research on Engagement and Wellbeing

We are a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research lab with a focus on prevention interventions that optimize implementation of evidence-based practices to improve behavior, classroom, and school experiences for youth and school personnel, and/or reduce risk for behavioral and mental health problems. 

  • READY
  • Research Lab

Relationships, Ecologies and Activities for Developing Youth Lab

We are interested in how settings and interactions can be optimized to best meet adolescents’ developmental needs. In particular, we are focused on the role that relationships (with peers, mentors, non-familial adults) and activities play in adolescent development.

  • CTL
  • Research Lab

Contemplative Teaching and Learning Lab

The Contemplative Teaching and Learning Lab applies the contemplative sciences to informing our understanding of life-span development and education.

Youth-Nex Events

All Events

AI Disclosure Discussion, September Youth-Nex Meeting

  • - EDT
  • Hybrid
RSVP

Talk: Black Youth Aesthetics as Pedagogy & the Work of Resisting Antiblackness

  • - EDT
  • Bavaro Hall, Holloway Hall Rm. 116

No Registration Required

Contact Us

Mailing Address

  • PO Box 400281
    405 Emmet Street South
    Charlottesville, VA 22904