TY  - EJOU
AU  - Ahrnberg, Hanna 
AU  - Appelqvist-Schmidlechner, Kaija 
AU  - Mustonen, Pekka 
AU  - Fröjd, Sari 
AU  - Aktan-Collan, Katja 

TI  - “I’m Now Braver than Ever.” The Perceived Impacts of the Finnish “Gutsy Go” Program for Enhancing Adolescents’ Psychosocial Well-Being: A Qualitative Study
T2  - International Journal of Mental Health Promotion

PY  - 2026
VL  - 28
IS  - 4
SN  - 2049-8543

AB  - <b>Objectives:</b> Positive Youth Development is an evidence-based, holistic approach that underlines adolescents’ strengths, competence, and interests instead of deficits, thus promoting psychosocial well-being in adolescents. This study aims to explore adolescents’ perceived impacts of the Finnish service-learning program “Gutsy Go”, which is based on a Positive Youth Development approach. <b>Methods:</b> The program educates 8th-grade comprehensive school students to perform good deeds in their communities and enhances adolescents’ psychosocial well-being. Focus group interviews were conducted two to three weeks after the program week with 61 program participants. The data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. <b>Results:</b> Four broad themes of the perceived impacts of the program were derived from the data: emotional impacts, impacts on competence, impacts within the group, and lessons learned for future use. <b>Conclusions:</b> The perceived impacts of the Gutsy Go program in this study were mostly positive and related to adolescents’ psychosocial well-being. More studies are needed regarding the underlying mechanisms between participation in the program and the perceived impacts.
KW  - Adolescence; psychosocial well-being; positive youth development; school-based program; service-learning

DO  - 10.32604/ijmhp.2026.077244