2026 Theses Doctoral

Voices and Visions: Engaging Youth in Addressing Stigma Using Community-Based Participatory Approaches

Sun, Yihang

This dissertation brings together three papers on adolescents and young adults (AYA) engagement with a youth-developed digital crowdsourced intervention. Drawing on data from the JasSpark Study, this dissertation explores how the intervention was experienced by AYA, how it was evaluated by AYA compared to the conventional public health materials, and what influence it has on AYA’s HIV perceived testing barriers. The JasSpark Study uses community-based participatory approach that engages AYA to develop and pilot test a crowdsourced digital intervention to reduce HIV stigma and promote HIV self-testing among AYA in Kazakhstan.

The first qualitative paper explores AYA’s experiences and perspectives of the crowdsourced intervention. The second paper examines differences in AYA’s ratings of the digital crowdsourced content and the conventional public health materials in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). The third paper compares the digital crowdsourced content and existing public health materials in their effects on decreasing perceived barriers to HIV testing among AYA in Kazakhstan using the RCT. The findings from this dissertation demonstrate that youth-centered digital HIV-related content can support testing promotion among AYA in Kazakhstan when it is understandable, safe to discuss, and connected to private, accessible testing options. Future efforts may combine crowdsourced and conventional materials to balance youth relevance with accurate testing information.