Bridging the Youth Health Gap: A Case Study of Laskar Pencerah

Fairuziana

, Olivia Herlinda

and ST Khumaidah

Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia

Center for Indonesia Strategic Development Initiatives, Jakarta, Indonesia

Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia

Keywords: Youth Health, Community Empowerment

Abstract: Laskar Pencerah (LP) was initially developed as a youth after school program to address some health

inequality issues such as child marriage, unwanted pregnancy, and lack of access to health service in Tosari

Bromo sub-district in East Java, Indonesia. After more than four years of implementation, LP has developed

and integrated its activity into the formal primary health care program. This paper aims to elaborate on the

LP’s process to grow as a youth organization and develop as a movement to drive social change in the

community. This is a qualitative study using case study method. The main research question studies the

contribution of LP for the youth community mental health and the factors that help LP to sustain. The data

was collected through observation and six in-depth interviews. The observation was done during the

program implementation in 2012-2015. The interviews were conducted in 2018 with 6 key informants who

represent different stakeholders from the internal and external of LP. The result shows that LP is perceived

positively and give various impacts to the teenage age group student’s self-development, which is associated

with the prevention of risky behavior and mental health problem. The drivers that keep LP to sustain are the

member’s internal and external motivation to make a social change in their community. Cultural factors

such as guyub and gotong royong are also rooted and unite them as Tenggernese community. The findings

contribute in understanding the process to develop and sustain community health intervention for adolescent

in rural areas

1 INTRODUCTION

As the epidemiological transition worldwide shifts

from communicable diseases to non-communicable

diseases, the rise of global epidemiology of mental

disorders is something that cannot be overlook

either. It is estimated by IHME (Institute for Health

Metrics and Evaluation) that over 1.1 billion people

worldwide had a mental or substance use disorders

in 2016. Not to mention, 20% of teenagers at school

suffer from mental disorders such as anxiety and

depression every year (WHO, 2017a). By 2020,

WHO predicted that mental health problem would

become one of the largest global burden. Further,

WHO reported that 10-20% children and adolescents

worldwide experience mental disorders.

In Indonesia, mental disorders among

adolescents are significant. There are over 65

million young people aged between 10 and 24 years

old, which accounted for 28% of the population. The

prevalence of emotional disturbance of students at

age 15 years old and above is about 6% (Riset

Kesehatan Dasar, 2013).

Adolescence is a vital period of transition

between childhood and adulthood between a certain

periods of age. In some culture, the transition is a

fluid concept. For instance, a person being married

or employed marks a social responsibility to be seen

as an adult (Patel et al, 2007). Given the significant

changes in physical, emotional, and psychological

during the transition changes, half of mental

illnesses start by the age of 14 and three-quarters by

mid 20s. If not treated well, it may influence the

adolescent’s development, educational attainment

and potential to live fulfilling and productive lives.

Poor mental health might contribute to the higher

tendency of substance abuse, alcohol and tobacco

use, adolescent pregnancy, school drop-out and

delinquent behaviors (WHO, 2017b). Vice versa,

young people’s involvement in risky behaviors also

makes them vulnerable to experience mental health

problems.

Various sources reported indications of risky

behaviors among adolescents group in Indonesia.

Fairuziana, ., Herlinda, O. and Khumaidah, S.

Bridging the Youth Health Gap: A Case Study of Laskar Pencerah.

DOI: 10.5220/0008591605250534

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Psychology in Health, Educational, Social, and Organizational Settings (ICP-HESOS 2018) - Improving Mental Health and Harmony in

Global Community, pages 525-534

ISBN: 978-989-758-435-0

525

One in five adolescence between 13 and 15 years old

smoke, which is the highest rate in the region

(GYTS, 2014). The Global School Health Survey

2015 in Indonesia

indicated that approximately 5%

of adolescent students aged 12-19 years old had ever

had sexual intercourse. Of those, 83% had sexual

intercourse for the first time before the age of 14

years and only 34% indicated that they had used a

condom during their last sexual intercourse. This

also reflects through the rate of teen pregnancy in

Indonesia, as reported by Indonesian Health

Ministry who shows that the percentage of teenage

who gave birth in young age (15-19 years old) is

1.97%, and younger ages (<15 years) is 0.02%

(Riskesdas, 2013). That has absolutely give

consequences, that adolescent girls who give birth

have a much higher risk of dying from maternal

causes, and babies born to adolescents face a

significantly higher risk of death compared to those

born to older women (WHO, 2018a; WHO, 2018b).

In the long run, the proportion of young people

who constitute significantly out of the total

population, estimated to be a demographic dividend

and will have an imperative role as the main driver

of economic growth and social change in Indonesia.

These young people are envisioned to be the group

of well-educated, socially mobile and digitally

interconnected group. Hence, a targeted and

effective intervention should be planned and

implemented carefully to achieve national or even

global development goals.

However, it is not uncommon to find young

people with difficulties to develop their potentials

with good education facilities and proper guidance

to envision for their future. Geographical barriers

and underdeveloped areas in some rural places in

Indonesia has become real challenges for the

adolescents to receive the equal opportunity. Study

shows that adolescents living in rural areas are more

vulnerable to mental health problems compared to

those in urban areas (Maharani & Turnip, 2018).

Service and information access for young people in

rural areas deserves a specific intervention, so that

they would have the same chance to move forward

Indonesia’s development.

1.1 Tosari Bromo

One of a rural area in Indonesia that will be

discussed in this paper is Tosari Bromo. Tosari

subdistrict is a home to Tenggernese ethnic with a

population of 18.526 people (Statistics Indonesia,

2014), composed of 5860 households, in which

28.8% of them are considered living in poverty. It is

located in Pasuruan district, East Java province, 30

minutes driving from the infamous Mount Bromo.

The administration of sub-district is divided into 8

villages: Baledono, Kandangan, Mororejo,

Ngadiwono, Podokoyo, Sedaeng, Tosari dan

Wonokitri. Most of the people find a living by

farming, or driving the tourists, or owning a guest

house. The nearest city is 2 hours driving by car or

riding a motorcycle. The majority of Tosari’s

population is Hindunese, followed by Muslims and

Christians. Tosari consists of significant proportion

of young people aged between 10 to 19 years old,

which is 13.7 % of total population (Statistics

Indonesia, 2013). However, not everyone can reach

a high education level due to geographical and

financial barriers. Last census in 2013 shows that of

all population, there are 56% population who only

finished their primary education and not continue

further.

The authors had lived with this community for

three years in sequences and conducted a case study

to report significant findings from the youth health

community based organization called Laskar

Pencerah. Since its invention in 2012 until current,

the movement has become a driver for social

change, both for the young people and larger Tosari

sub district through young people as the main

drivers.

1.2 Laskar Pencerah (LP)

Laskar Pencerah (LP) is a youth organization

formed with the aim of being young peer educator in

Tosari sub district to improve adolescent knowledge

about health, lifeskills and leadership, as well as role

model for other adolescents to perform positive

behaviour.

In the year of 2012, Pencerah Nusantara First

Batch initiated Laskar Pencerah. In 2012, LP has 29

members who are junior and senior high school

students. LP has 14 members as the daily

administrators. As an organization, LP has an

organizational plan including vision and mission,

organizational structure, and work plan

organization. The vision is unifying the youth to

explore their talent in health, education, leadership

and culture. Its missions are, 1) Forming cadre of

teenagers equipped with leadership skills. 2)

Creating peer educators who inspire people to care

about health and environment. 3) Motivate and

encourage young people to pursue higher education,

and 4) Increase youth interest in art and culture.

The organization structure of the LP consists of;

leader, secretary, financial division, recruitment

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division, health division, environment division,

education and culture division, and entrepreneurship

division. There are a wide range of various

acitivities that has been implemented, such as; LP

Gathering, partnership with PIK-R Pasuruan and an

information and counselling center for youth, LP

public expose and work plan implementation with

the local government, “Kelas Inspirasi” or

Inspirational Class for elementary school and junior

high school, health counseling in a school, peer

educator training, the worlds tobacco- free day

campaign, dancing class and Posyandu Remaja.

Every week, teenage cadres received material

supplies on TRIAD KRR (Sexuality, HIV & AIDS

and Drugs), adolescent nutrition, life skill as well as

skill to perform peer counseling. The mentoring

process has been conducted by Pencerah Nusantara,

Health Workers at Puskesmas Tosari and PLKB

(Petugas Lapangan Keluarga Berencana). In the year

of 2015, LP has initiated activity of Posyandu

Remaja to spread health information to teenagers in

villages and increased youth involvment in

development.

As the results, in the first year of establishment

up to the third year in 2015, LP has recruited 72

teenage cadres. The cadres are spread in every

school (junior and high school) and eight villages in

Tosari sub district. The practice has been is

implemented in 7 out of 8 villages in Tosari sub

district or 87,5% that have Posyandu Remaja. The

Posyandu are active and managed by teenage cadres

and fully supported by the local government and

other relevant stakeholders.

According to the secondary data collected from

the Puskesmas, the number of pregnant women

under the age of 20 year old are 20 women in 2014,

which went down to 17 women in 2015, and went

even lower to 12 in 2016. This raw calculation is

perceived to be associated with LP’s activity in the

community since 2013.

1.3 Why LP is Important

Studies suggest enhancing social skills, problem-

solving skills and self-confidence can help prevent

mental health problems such as conduct disorders,

anxiety, depression and eating disorders as well as

other risk behaviors including those that relate to

sexual behavior, substance abuse, and violent

behavior (McKewan et al, 2007; NIHCM, 2005).

Intervention like LP provides a platform for

adolescents to contribute to the society through their

innovation and creativity, as well as to improve their

self-esteem and to have a support peer-group.

Youth community-based organization such as LP

aims to promote youth mental health by enhancing

the protective factors to conduct activities from and

for the youth. This kind of activity generates

independence among the youth, increase the self-

confidence and esteem, and develop the youth’s

social skill. These protective factors avoid the youth

from experiencing psychological risk factors such as

physical, sexual, and emotional abuse neglect abuse

or other maladaptive behaviors (Patel et al, 2007).

This paper aims to elaborate on LP’s process to

grow as a youth organization and develop as a

movement to drive social change in the community.

The research question are contribution of LP for the

youth community mental health and the factors that

help LP to sustain.

2 METHOD

This is a qualitative study using case study method.

Case study is a method to analyse a single bounded

system (Merriam, 2009). The research process is

conducted within a contemporary phenomenon in

the context of its’ real condition (Yin, 2008). The

case is usually limited to an event, condition, or very

small geographical scope. The current study uses

case study method to report the observation of a

youth community based organization according to

its context and place of origin, Tosari Bromo.

The observed variables are the social and cultural

determinants of the youth’s community based

organization as the protective factor of the youth’s

mental health. The main research question studies

the contribution of LP for the youth community

mental health and the factors that help LP to sustain.

2.1 Data Collection

The study was conducted through an unstructured

observation of the authors as the community

organizers in 2012- 2015. Follow up observation

and field visit were conducted during and up to

2018. Report and notes during the community work

were gathered to answer the research questions.

The participants are key persons in the

community and the youth who runs the organization/

movement. They were selected by identifying the

key players of LP’s sustainability until recent. Those

include the LP members, the Puskesmas (Primary

Health Care) of Tosari Sub District which consist of

the Head of Puskesmas and health cadre, and the

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527

school community including a school principal and

school teacher.

The interviewers are all the authors who were

previously Pencerah Nusantara members from the

first and third batch. Pencerah Nusantara was the

community health workers who assisted the

invention of Laskar Pencerah in Tosari.

The interview was conducted via phone call for

30- 45 minutes per person. The voice was recorded

with a phone apps and key points are written down

with note taking. The participants were asked

several questions regarding 1.) Their understanding

of LP’s activity 2.) LP’s impact in the community,

3) Community needs on LP, and 4.) Factors that

keep LP sustain in the community, including the

cultural and social factors. The observation and

interviews are analyzed using thematic content

analysis.

3 RESULT

In this study, observation and six in-depth interviews

were undertaken. The observation was done in

Tosari sub-district in the period of 2012-2015. The

interviews were conducted in 2018 with 6 key

informants who represent different stakeholders

from internal and external LP. This is done to gather

different yet fair perspectives and insights on LP

from different stakeholders in LP. The key

informants included two members of LP, one head

of Puskesmas, one health cadre, one school

principal, and one community representative.

Selection of the results of the observation and

interviews have been chosen that illustrate the four

main themes identified: (a) Community’s

perspectives on LP and what makes it different; (b)

Impacts of LP; (c) Community needs on LP; (d) The

drivers that help LP to sustain.

3.1 Community’s Perspectives on LP

and Things That Make It Different

The keywords that were mentioned by all the key

informants are “teenager”, “students”,

“empowerment”, “health education”, and “school”.

Both the youth and the primary health care

stakeholder share a positive definition about LP

“LP is a group of teenager who wants to make a

better change for their community”

Figure 1. LP Members.

“LP are students who do activities not only on

health promotion, but also teenager, children and

youth empowerment so they can be more useful for

the community.” (Head of Puskesmas)

Key informants consider LP different and unique

compared to other extracurricular activities due to

factors such as family-like kind of closeness, gotong

royong, a platform to gather teenagers from across

Tosari, and the willingness to work on the ground at

grass root level.

“They want to go straight to the field, like if

someone smokes they dare to tell him/her that it is

not allowed. They receive a good impression from

the community, as a results they continue to trigger

other students to volunteer on tobacco-free program

in the field. They have fresh ideas and insights as

well” (School principal).

“LP offers an important learning and information

that are not provided by schools or other

extracurricular activities” (School teacher).

3.2 Impacts of LP

The keywords that were mentioned by all the key

informants are “Leadership”, “Public health”,

“Reproductive health” and “youth education”.

According to respondents from internal LP, the

biggest impact of LP to themselves are: (1)

Increased organizational and leadership skills; (2)

Increased sensitivity and awareness to the

surrounding environment; (3) Increase motivation

about education; (4) As a space to discuss with peer

groups.

The LP activities have improved the youth’s

social skill, both in organizational work and

community engagement.

“After participating in LP, I have become more

familiar with working in an organization”.

"Before joining LP, I was shy and did not care

about the environment, but now I’m active in the

community and feel motivated to keep learning"

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The impact of LP for the internal community of

LP, according to the LP members are: (1) Increased

motivation of adolescent to pursue higher education;

(2) Improvement in youth knowledge about the

dangers of early marriage and drug; (3) The place to

improve youth creativity.

"LP is a place to improve adolescent creativity

and can be harnessed to learn about organization as

well".

"According to our teacher the impact of LP is

very large, especially in providing information

related to early marriage, smoking, alcohol and

drugs".

Figure 2. Peer Counseling.

The impact of LP on the community and society

as a whole was expressed by an LP member are: (1)

Improvement in general health of adolescents; (2)

Reduced early marriage rates; (2) Prevention of drug

abuse; (3) Increased creativity of youth.

"LP helps the village government to promote

adolescent health in village” (School teacher).

"LP and Posyandu Remaja contribute to reduce

the rate of early marriage and the prevention of drug

use" (Head of Puskesmas).

"The poster competition and anti-smoking

campaign activities make students more creative”

(School Teacher).

Figure 3. Poster Competition.

The main keywords of LP's impact on the

community are to help prevent early marriage,

prevent drug use, and train adolescent leadership.

3.3 Community Needs on LP

All of the key informants indicated agreement on the

statement that LP should continue and be sustained

in Tosari. Some looked into the needs of self-

development and psychological perspective.

“They need mentor and approach from the other

teenagers.”

"LP needs to continue because it needs other

teenagers who are at the same age to learn about

organization so they can lead better in the future."

Some saw the imperative role of LP on keeping

them away from negative things. Some of the

agreement made based on the needs of common

problems around teenagers in Tosari such as

smoking, high alcohol consumption, early marriage,

and teenage pregnancy.

“... because a lot of teenagers have the potential

to do negative things, hence there is LP that can help

to spread the right information."

"LP really needs to continue, with the Posyandu

Remaja and youth health promotion, I hope it can

prevent teenagers from early marriage and alcohol.

LP also helps me to form a character of the

adolescent in the community" (Health cadre)

“Really, really necessary for the life of Tengger

people, because here those who have not passed

junior high school are commonly married by being

pregnant first. It is very important to continue LP for

the future, so the teenagers focus on something else

and delay their marriage.” (School principal).

Bridging the Youth Health Gap: A Case Study of Laskar Pencerah

529

Figure 4. Group health promotion.

3.4 The Drivers That Help LP to

Sustain

LP is not only a youth organization. Its need and

impact has created a movement among the

community structures to keep the activities going.

While the local government role is not specifically

defined, formal support from the health and

education institution such as the Puskesmas and

schools become main drivers to support LP. “The

biggest support for LP comes from the Puskesmas.

“For schools, there are some schools that

specifically support and ask for LP to conduct

counselling in their schools. The village is

indifferent whether we have an activity or not.

Probably because the LP members maintain less

communication with the local government after the

PN officers left (LP member)”.

Pencerah Nusantara (PN) who were the early

founders of LP consist of older youth. The school

principal argues that LP still needs adult supervision.

”To sustain, they need a coach or older leader. Right

now they are in the same age and working among

their own friends” (School Principal).

The Puskesmas admits that it is the youth

themselves who keeps their optimism to drive LP.

Posyandu Remaja, as a result of LP’s program in the

Puskesmas, highly depends on them. “The initial

members have the energy to rebuild LP while they

have not start a family yet. Members who already

have one, do not have the time to care anymore.

When LP’s activity is low, Posyandu Remaja also

become slow because the drivers are in LP. The new

recruitment plan to have members with younger

age” (Head of Puskesmas).

Figure 5. Cross sector advocacy.

In addition, support from the health cadre is also

essential. One of them expressed the need of LP and

Posyandu Remaja. In her village, the local

government and health cadre helps LP to endure.

“LP and Posyandu Remaja exist due to the need of

everyone. The local government fully support it. We

are helping the youth cadre to regenerate the

Posyandu Remaja”.

The LP members are motivated to keep their

friends away from early marriage through LP.

“What makes LP continue is the concern and social

spirit of the youth who wants to change the region to

be better. The main drivers occur when we see our

friends who become pregnant in such a young age.

Our hearts are touched and moved to make changes

and prevent the case to happen again in the future”

(LP member).

The members also share some quality of

personal characteristic and deep sense of belonging

to stay together as a movement. “The members are

committed and high spirited. They can unite despite

different personal character and religion (school

teacher)”.

While an LP member said “It is like a second

family, we like to gather and feel useful for the

community. We also receive many supports”.

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530

Figure 6. Height measurement at the Posyandu Remaja.

While external support and internal drive helps

LP to sustain, social and cultural factors create an

interaction of both the driving and restraining force.

For example, the way of living in the community

sometimes is against the effort to prevent early

marriage. An LP member explained “The existence

of “ngapel” culture or dating by staying at the

women’s house, often triggers out marriage due to

pregnancy and of course this becomes important so

that is why LP is still there. In addition, the students

want to continue learning from LP, so we are

motivated to continue LP”. (LP member).

The main driving force still comes from the

Puskesmas. “The culture here is to marry at young

age. Puskesmas encourages LP to stay around in

Tosari so that they can continue to make impact in

decreasing the early marriage prevalence” (Head of

Puskesmas).

Most of the cultural influence comes from the

community characteristic and values in maintaining

social relationship among each other. “The culture

of “guyub” and “gotong royong” makes it fun to

work together. The LP members keep their spirit up

and make effort to organize events even sometimes

they are underestimated by the community members.

They have the cohesiveness and unity as Tengger

society despite having different language dialects.

They also like to conduct events without thinking

about the cost. That shows their motivation”.

(School teacher).

The health cadre resonates the same perspective

"The members are friendly and like to stay together.

I respect the fact that they keep the program running

in Tosari, conduct the activities and work well

together, even it has been a long time (since it was

first initiated)”.

Figure7. The world tobacco-free campaign during the

Tawar Agung Celebration, before the Day of Silence.

The LP member views the movement has a

constructive role in the community. "LP can invite

people to do positive things, for example when

cleaning the field in Tosari. If LP is not there, then

who else would spread the health information. The

youth need the information even though they do not

mention it. LP takes the role to conduct the health

promotion (among the youth)" (LP member).

4 DISCUSSION

Stephenson et al (2008) and Kim and Free (2008)

argue that, the term ''peer'' refers to persons of the

same status. Posyandu Remaja as one of LP’s

program is defined as a peer group activity, which is

an extended relationship out of the school

interaction. The interaction between young people

(adolescent) will enable more open and culturally

relevant communication on the subject of

reproductive health, drug abuse, and other related

youth risky behaviors.

The interface with peer colleagues who present

the information is more interesting, fun or

comfortable than teachers or health workers. In

addition, LP’s role to provide education, particularly

on reproductive health, to adolescents makes the

youth community feels more comfortable to discuss

with friends at their age. The widespread

information among youth by LP as a peer group or

peer counselor then contributes to lower early

marriage rate in the community.

In line with the opinion above, Harahap and

Andayani (2004) preventing risky behaviors for peer

educators consists of a variety of activities aimed at

developing knowledge, attitudes and actions of a

Bridging the Youth Health Gap: A Case Study of Laskar Pencerah

531

person or group of people related to the prevention

of cases, including the knowledge of reproductive

health with specific cases of early marriage and drug

abuse.

Further, Imron (2012) argues that peer educator

also plays a role in designing supporting activities

such as religion, sport, art, and soft skills such as

leadership. This is in common with LP’s activities

which was established as an organization to train the

member’s leadership and accommodate the

supporting activities.

From the observation and interviews, the

community perceived LP positively, in terms of the

organization, as well as the activities. The activities

were perceived to give a platform for the adolescents

to learn and carry out things related to health and

leadership. Further, the key informants also linked

the behavior risks among teenagers in Tosari as the

reasons why LP is still needed. LP is perceived to

contribute to the prevention of risky behavior such

as alcohol consumption, smoking, teenage

pregnancy, and early marriage. All in all, the key

informants felt that there is a need to sustain LP in

their community. There is a need of this kind of

youth organization as a platform for young people in

rural areas to channel their curiosity, creativity, and

energy to conduct positive activities, such as what is

provided by LP.

Community members who recognized LP’s

activity share their interest and support to have LP

sustain. The LP members intention to prevent their

peers from early marriage and promote healthy life

among youth become the main internal drivers. The

Puskesmas and school also support that LP’s activity

is to encounter the culture to marry young among the

Tengger community. The way of living with

traditional values such as “guyub” and “gotong

royong” among the youth also enables LP’s activity

to occur despite the individual differences and

religion diversity.

According to Maton & Salem (1995), there are

some features of an organization to appear as an

empowering community setting, which are: 1).

strength based and focus beyond self 2).

Multifunctional and highly accessible role structure

3.) Provides sense of community and strong support

4.) Inspiring leaders with commitment to others.

According to those point, LP has provided a space

for the youth to work for the community’s

wellbeing. Their commitment to prevent early

marriage and promote a productive life for other

youth in the community has come beyond their own

self. In addition, the commitment and sense of

belonging among the LP member and other

supporting community stakeholders has become the

strength to become a community based organization

that could drive for social change.

LP has become a protective factor for youth in

the Tosari community to improve mental health by

reducing unwanted pregnancy. That indicator is

perceived by Puskesmas to link closely with LP

activities. Previous studies show that unwanted

pregnancy results in a poor later life mental health

outcome (Herd, et.al, 2016). The impact does not

only threat the mother’s mental health, but might

also influence the children’s early life experience.

Further, unintended pregnancy contributes to

parenting stress (Bahk, et.al, 2015). Child marriage

or marrying before 18 years old is associated with

the risk of having mental health problems such as

depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. The risk of

reduced mental health and wellbeing often occurs to

women for their responsibility of childbearing and

child rearing, marital responsibilities, and partner

sexual demands (Steinhaus & John, 2016).

Having social skills and the ability to make

decision for their life would prevent the adolescent

to approach risky behaviour. Risky behaviour itself

is commonly accompanied by depression and other

comorbid factors (Rutman, 2008). Growing from an

adolescent to young adult requires a healthy

environment. Adolescent look up to their peers and

other adults and have the opportunity to model them

in a positive way (Haggerty et.al, 2008). In Tosari, it

is common for adolescent to marry right after high

school.

Thus, LP provided a space for the adolescent to

participate in various activities to plan for their adult

life and contribute to their community. Making plans

during their early adulthood avoid them to marry or

having children in school age. LP also encourage

students to make conscious decisions for their plans

after high school, such as continuing to higher

education and developing as a person and

professionally.

5 CONCLUSION

The main findings of this study are: (1) LP and their

activities are perceived positively by the key

informants (2) LP has various impacts to self-

development of the members, as well as to the

community, particularly the teenage age group

students, which also associated with the prevention

of risky behaviour; (3) Considering problems related

to adolescent health in Tosari and the way LP can

provide a platform of positive activities, hence the

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532

key informants feel the need to keep LP going in

Tosari; (4) The drivers that keep LP members to

sustain the activities are the member’s own

motivation, spirits, optimism, the feeling of wanting

to make a social change in their community as well

as support from schools and community. Cultural

factors such as guyub and gotong royong are also

rooted and unite them as Tenggernese community.

Given the findings, LP works as a platform or a

hub for adolescents in Tosari to gather to do positive

activities, to share their creativity, and to learn

together channelled in different outlets. LP is seen as

a positive intervention for youth in rural community.

By enhancing their social skills, problem solving

skills and their self-esteem, that helps the adolescent

to develop themselves as well as to prevent them

from mental health problems such as risk sexual

behaviours, smoking, alcohol consumption, and

substance abuse. Strong social capital in Tosari also

contributes to the change contributed by LP. LP is

predicted to exist to this day because of the

willingness, participation, commitment of the

members, and strong support from the local

government and other relevant stakeholders.

The study also discovered that since youth is a

fluid concept which is bind by social and cultural

responsibility, LP’s membership also expires when

the students commit in marriage, leave school and

have an occupation. To ensure the quality and

programs implementation, LP needs a mentor to

monitor the program implementation and new

member recruitment. At the moment, only senior LP

members have the legacy to take such role.

This study is limited to capture findings

regarding LP’s impact from a larger scope of

beneficiaries, such as youth who are not LP

members. Future studies should include other

members in the community and explain the

mechanism of LP’s impact to the community mental

health. In addition, it is suggested to consider

epidemiology method to measure the social cultural

predictors of LP.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Pencerah Nusantara, Laskar

Pencerah, Health Cadres, Puskesmas Tosari, Local

Government, Tosari Sub District Community for

enabling the long term engagement.

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