This article draws on ethnographic research of a youth theatre program within a Hmong arts organization to explore the ways in which a culturally responsive program nurtured critical consciousness among Hmong immigrant youth. Hmong youth "named" struggles with stereotypes and acculturation expectations, and constructed positive ethnic identities as Hmong Americans in the theatre program. The study contributes to the after-school youth development scholarship by explicating the ways arts programs within co-ethnic, community-based organizations may afford immigrant youth with a means to rescript life stories, confront injustices perpetrated against them, and feel a sense of agency.
Whereas much has been written about the role of resources and motivation for activating adolescents to become engaged citizens, less work considers the role that recruitment within schools might play in shaping youth civic engagement patterns. Drawing on interviews with over 100 high school students and over 40 school officials, our research illuminates the critical role that school-based recruitment plays in fostering youth civic engagement. We find that while a majority of the students we interviewed are actively involved in their local community, a sizable portion of students remain unengaged and that a lack of recruitment from school officials is one important factor explaining this phenomenon. We also find that teachers, especially social studies teachers, can play a key role in recruiting and motivating students. However, teachers tend to act as "rational prospectors" who selectively recruit certain subsets of students (i.e., advanced students)—something that likely contributes to later inequality in participation.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most frequently diagnosed disorders in early adolescence and can lead to a multitude of negative life outcomes, highlighting the need for early and effective intervention to mitigate depressive symptoms. Recognizing the preference of youth to seek informal sources of help for mental health issues, which may include the Internet, the social networking site Facebook was investigated as a potential source of support and help for youth suffering depressive symptoms or disorder. This study examined the content of online Facebook support groups targeting adolescents with depression. A total of 508 posts from six Facebook groups were analyzed. The majority of post content on these Facebook groups consisted of self-disclosure (32.48%), feedback between posters (24.80%), and offers and recommendations of help (24.61%). Posters seem to utilize adolescent Facebook depression groups mainly to connect with those who might share a similar experience and to share information about mental health resources. Future studies should investigate the potential to use the information exchange that occurs in these groups to promote traffic to online and offline evidence-based mental health resources.
Although the psychology of globalization is a burgeoning area of research, literature on the topic remains primarily theoretical to date. This study empirically examined the moral psychological impact of globalization in northern Thailand, a rapidly globalizing cultural context. Eighty participants (20 adolescents and 20 parents in both a rural and an urban community) took part in semi-structured interviews on perceptions of morality and globalization. This article shares three sets of mixed-methods analyses of participants’ private moral experiences. Results indicated varying conceptions of morality and self across cultural and dyadic lines, and thus revealed a double-gap in moral personhood across contexts of globalization. Whereas the moral experiences, evaluations, and reasoning of rural adolescents and parents were characterized by similitude, those of urban adolescents and parents were characterized by divergence. Findings indicate an emergent intergenerational moral disconnect in the urban Thai setting. Situating interview data in light of ethnographic evidence gathered in community, school, and home contexts, this study suggests that globalization profoundly impacts moral reasoning and perceptions of oneself as a moral person.
Intergroup attitudes of Muslim immigrant youth and native youth in the Netherlands were examined in relation to perceived parental socialization. Our aim was to gain insights into parent-child (dis)similarity in antagonistic and egalitarian attitudes and to understand differences between these two groups in this respect. Data come from qualitative interviews with 22 Turkish Dutch, Moroccan Dutch, and native Dutch youth (aged 16-22) who were prone either to intergroup antagonism (i.e., held hostile and negative attitudes toward out-groups) or to egalitarianism (held egalitarian attitudes). Interviews were analyzed using the constant comparison method. Results show that in the majority youth group, egalitarianism as well as intergroup antagonism were quite comparable across two generations. The attitudes of Muslim minority youth diverged more from those of their parents and appeared to be related to the pedagogic relationship between parents and children. Minority youth prone to antagonism perceived a lack of adequate parental responses to their negative experiences in the context of Islamophobia. Egalitarian minority youth reported that their parents were quite sensitive to their communications about perceived exclusion and that they responded with advice and support. Findings are discussed with reference to the social learning theory and the ethnic socialization strategies identified by Hughes et al.
Organized after-school activities promote positive youth development across a range of outcomes. To be most effective, organized activities need to meet high-quality standards. The eight features of quality developed by the National Research Council’s Committee on Community-Level Programs for Youth have helped guide the field in this regard. However, these standards have largely been defined in terms of universal developmental needs, and do not adequately speak to the growing ethnic and racial diversity within the United States, which is further complicated by issues of power and social class differences. Given U.S. population shifts and after-school funding priorities, the time has come to consider new ways to provide organized after-school activities that are responsive to youth’s culture and everyday lives. The goal of this article is to explore how we can help ensure that after-school activities are culturally responsive and address the specific needs of the youth who participate in these activities. Based on theory and empirical evidence, we provide proposed practices of cultural responsiveness for each of the eight features of quality for program structure and staff. The article concludes with future directions for research and strategies to implement culturally responsive practices and harness resources.
This study sought to better understand the relationship between affluence and elevated risk for psychosocial distress among adolescent girls. In-depth qualitative interviews at two time points with three cohorts of girls (sixth-, eighth-, and 10th grade; T1 n = 57, T2 n = 58) from two independent girls schools Grades 6 to 12, along with their parents, and their teachers were conducted. Through narrative thematic analysis, four overarching sources of significant stress were identified: (a) pervasive experiences of pressures to perform, (b) narrow constructions of success, (c) peer competition, and (d) misalignments in expectations between some girls and their parents. These pressures were even more heightened among the older girls. Although all of the girls reported experiencing these stressors, those girls who reported a more other-oriented sense of purpose also reported stronger connections with peers and seemed better able to manage the pressures.
The process of conducting peer interviews has not been widely reported on as a participatory method. Youth gardens are known to support individual and community health and well-being. Producing for the Future utilized the principles of community-based participatory research within a gardening and microenterprise program for low-income youth. In addition to several mixed-methods data collection techniques, a process was implemented in which youth participants designed, conducted, and debriefed peer interviews in order to address their own questions about program impacts. Participants in the peer interview process observed four emergent themes, which were not identified elsewhere in the data, focusing on individual outcomes and the successes and challenges of implementation within unique community settings. A methodological discussion of the process of peer interviewing within a participatory research project is presented. Researchers found that the benefits of the peer interview process included high levels of youth engagement in research, shared learning and new ideas generated by youth, and building youth capacity for critical social awareness. Researchers present lessons learned from the peer interviewing process, as well as implications for using peer interviewing in future participatory research and evaluation projects.
This study examined how adolescents recall and interpret caregivers’ personal stories about a difficult time. Respondents were 49 ethnically diverse adolescents (M = 15.76 years; 63% girls; 53% from immigrant families). Analyses examined story features (topic, narrator, elaboration, and meaning) and variations due to gender, age, and immigrant background. Four overarching topic categories were identified: family hardship (39.5%), caregiver’s personal problems (25.6%), family interactions and dynamics (20.9%), and interpersonal situations outside family (14%). Youth extracted a variety of personal lessons from caregiver stories, with meanings differing across some topic categories (e.g., stories about family hardship typically emphasized that youth should persevere/work hard). Story features differed based on characteristics of storyteller and listener, particularly gender and immigrant background. For example, adolescents (particularly girls) were most likely to narrate a story heard from their mother, and more boys than girls retold stories emphasizing perseverance and hard work. Adolescents from immigrant families told stories that were more elaborated than those told by nonimmigrant youth, and stories told by caregivers reflected unique life experiences and goals. Findings contribute to the literature on family storytelling and have implications for future research and practice with diverse populations.
There has been limited research into how teachers view and respond to relational aggression in girls. The existing research is largely quantitative and questionnaire based and has indicated that gender stereotypes may influence teachers’ perceptions of female aggression. The present study adopted a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews to explore how seven teachers (six females and one male) working in a single-sex girls’ school experienced and perceived female student aggression. The results were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and three themes were identified: the physicality of female aggression, aggression as the presence or absence of control, and community—aggression as a means of expressing belonging. These themes were discussed in the context of the need for a new language of female aggression, which promoted a genuine language of assertion for girls and women.
The aim of this study was to investigate how peers influence adolescent body image, and whether this influence was positive and/or negative from young peoples’ perspectives. One hundred and eleven adolescents aged 13 to 18 years from the Republic of Ireland participated in this study, in 17 focus groups. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Findings demonstrated that peers have an overwhelming negative impact on adolescent body image, and consequently, health. Both boys and girls revealed that the peer environment is characterized by a significant pressure to conform to appearance expectations, and deviations from such expectations lead to negative peer experiences. Positive peer influences were also revealed but to a far lesser extent.
Although the transnational migration and its impact on families and society has received considerable attention from scholars, still little is known about its effects on the family members who stay in their home country. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore adolescents’ experiences of close relationships in the context of transnational migration. The study was based on in-depth interviews with male and female adolescents whose parents had migrated. For administration of these interviews, a tool consisting of 15 pieces of wood was developed in order to invite participants to represent family members in an expressive modality that could facilitate discussion and decrease tension provoked by parental migration. Thematic analysis showed that adolescents experienced growing up within tri-generational families whose structure and dynamics allow for a sense of stability. In these families, adolescents experience meaningful relationships that are important sources of support to cope with the delicate emotional situation inherent in transnational families. However, the present study also revealed that adolescents experience the relationship with their migrant parents as a recurrent source of distress and emotional ambivalence, leading to a potential perspective on the parent-child separation in the context of transnational migration as an experience of an ambiguous loss.
Social networking sites, first embraced by youth, have become increasingly popular among older generations. With more parents joining the sites, young people today are likely to encounter their parents on these platforms. However, there is limited information about how youth respond to the changing landscape, especially during the transition to a residential college, when parental support is particularly important but parent-child interaction may be disrupted by geographical distance. Drawing on literature of college transition, youth’s relationship with parents, and "context collapse," this study explores how college freshmen react to parents’ participation in Facebook. Fifty-one semistructured interviews were conducted with 28 first-year students attending a major residential U.S. university (age M = 18.14, SD = 0.45; 50% female; 75% White, 11% multiethnic, 7% Asian, and 7% Latino). Findings showed that college freshmen overwhelmingly accepted parents and family adults as their Facebook Friends and offered them equal access as that offered to peers. Facebook provided a space for college freshmen and parents to bond and express affections, although freshmen sometimes considered family adults as being overresponsive or overreactive to Facebook posts. The implications of "friending" parents on Facebook for college freshmen’s privacy negotiation, parent-child relationship, and identity development are discussed.
Youth in juvenile detention suffer from various health disparities that warrant access to health and mental health care. Although adjudicated youth receive health care while detained, many are disconnected from youth-serving institutions that may facilitate access to care when in the community. Examining the unique challenges impacting detention youth’s independent access to health services has the potential to improve health care services for this high-risk population. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 detention youth, and five health professionals serving justice-involved youth to identify barriers preventing detention youth from independently accessing care. Individual-level and structural barriers were identified. Individual-level barriers included youth’s lack of knowledge in a variety of areas, including fear, disinterest, and instability. Structural barriers included clinic restrictions on when patients can access services, challenging scheduling processes, and difficult interactions with clinic staff and providers. Several barriers limiting detention youth’s ability to independently access care were identified. Based on study findings, programs fostering health care utilization among detention youth should address both individual-level factors and structural factors.
Youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience significant challenges transitioning to adulthood, but we have few firsthand accounts of these issues due to youth’s limited participation in research. In this study, we utilized a qualitative methodology, Photovoice, to understand youth’s perspectives on becoming adults. We recruited 11 youth with ASD, aged 18 to 25, from urban and rural counties in Missouri. Youth described their experiences of becoming adults with pictures; attended group, individual, and discussion photo-sharing sessions; and exhibited their work publicly. This methodology facilitated dialogue and the collection of an array of data including 201 transcription pages and 184 pictures. Thematic analysis identified important topics and patterns. Youth’s discussions and photos captured difficulties transitioning out of school, socialization challenges, and their connection with animals. Five themes emerged: (a) difficulty transitioning into adulthood, (b) desires for and problems with relationship building, (c) feeling different from peers and family, (d) animals as a coping mechanism for negative feelings, and (e) animals as a source of companionship. This study is the first to elicit experiences of youth with ASD during the transition to adulthood and coping techniques. Although youth described many challenges, they showed resilience and used animals as a source of support and socialization.
This study used a focus group methodology to explore the experiences of stress and coping among 40 Hispanic, Caribbean Black, Haitian, and African American cisgender sexual minority girls living in the southeastern United States. An analysis of the data using grounded theory strategies revealed that participants were part of a cultural context in which few boundaries existed between family, religion, and culture, and that they tended to believe that they were betraying family and culture because of their sexual minority identities. Participants described (a) real or perceived transgressions of gender expectations and roles, (b) violating religious doctrine, and (c) emotional exclusion and taunting by family members. In the same context, the theme of HERoic Coping described participants’ resilience that manifested as (a) serving as the family educator, (b) being "out" in the open with family, and (c) creating safety. This study found that the negotiation of complex family, religious, and community environments is critical to understanding resilience in ethnoracial sexual minority girls.
Child soldiering affects the well-being of thousands of young people globally and inflicts significant challenges on entire socio-ecological systems, confronting them with culminating stressful living conditions and immense loss. This study sought to explore how former child soldiers’ transition trajectories are shaped by the dynamic interplay between these encountered challenges and available personal and communal resources. We conducted and analyzed in-depth interviews with 48 northern Ugandan former child soldiers using cluster analysis (K-means) and interpretative-phenomenological analysis. The results showed divergent post-child soldiering trajectories of stability, improvement, or decline across time. Regarding resources, the cases showed ongoing resource depletion, threat to remaining resources in the face of significant challenge, and loss of resources that could not be replenished. However, there was also evidence that halting the depletion of resources, utilizing existing resources, and valuing remaining resources could offset distress, especially when individual initiatives were environmentally scaffolded. This study calls for a comprehensive approach to the interconnected challenges and resources as well as the intersecting personal and communal responses to these challenges in the aftermath of child soldiering.
Previous research has linked stress to adverse mental health outcomes among Latino adolescents living in the United States. The mechanism through which this process operates continues to be explored, especially in regions of the country where Latin American immigrants and their children have only recently begun to migrate. Our study aimed to contextualize the processes of stress and coping among Latino adolescents growing up in an emerging Latino destination in the United States—North Carolina. All adolescents in our study were either the first- or second-generation children of immigrants from Latin American countries, including Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico. We used a longitudinal qualitative design, conducting in-depth interviews with 12 parent-adolescent dyads during each adolescent’s first year of high school (2006-2007) and approximately 4 years later (2009-2010). We identified four stress-coping trajectories that varied on the following dimensions: primary sources of stress, buffers countering these stressors, coping approaches, and the effects of these processes on adolescents’ striving for socioeconomic mobility. Our findings underscore the interplay between family, school, and community environments within an emerging Latino destination.
In this article, we examine the roles of Coleman’s social capital in university attendance among Cambodian young adults, utilizing grounded theory that includes in-depth interviews with 10 purposefully selected third-year university students. Results indicate that self-motivation, parental expectations, extended family assistance, mentors’ assistance, sibling inspirations, and social norms serve as student-acquired resources that facilitate university attendance. Under Coleman’s framework, numerous studies concentrate on the role of authoritative figures (e.g., parents or parents’ networks) in children’s developmental trajectories, viewing parents as sole distributors of resources to children whose outcomes depend on what they receive—in the absence of which, their positive developmental outcomes would be negated. This study, however, provides further evidence that children are capable of assisting each other, motivating themselves, and overcoming adverse social norms to help them advance academically, in the absence or lack of parental attention and/or involvement. This study suggests that individuals’ self-motivation be integral in social capital concepts.
The study examined cultural similarities and differences in how adolescents deal with conflicting expectations of parents and peers. It was tested to what extent adolescents’ interdependence values and satisfaction with family and friendships predict the way they would solve the disagreement, where they had planned to go out with friends, but their parents wanted them to stay at home to do chores. Moreover, adolescents’ reasons for their reported actions were examined. The sample included 894 Estonian, German, and Russian adolescents (M age around 15 years). Russian adolescents were more likely than their Estonian and German peers to comply with parents’ requests. This was possibly due to interdependence values being more important for them. Satisfaction with family relationships and friendships was not linked to adolescents’ compliance. Adolescents from all cultures were similar in terms of suggesting self-oriented reasons for noncompliance, while Estonian and German adolescents expressed their need for autonomy more explicitly. Russian adolescents were, however, more oriented to maintaining good relationships with parents and friends, respectively, in their reasons for compliance and noncompliance. They were also less likely to suggest compromise.
Migration to a new country can be very difficult for adolescents as they are also experiencing a critical transition into adulthood. The current study investigates cross-cultural transition issues facing Iranian immigrant adolescents living in Malaysia. Data were gathered from individual interviews with 100 Iranian adolescents (ages 14-18 years), who have lived in Malaysia for between 2 months and 5 years. Descriptive phenomenology qualitative research was used to explore the impact of the migration process on Iranian adolescents. Analysis revealed five major themes regarding participants’ life experiences in Malaysia: (a) initial expectations; (b) differences in ethnicity, religion, and beliefs; (c) communication barriers; (d) differences in personal evaluations; and (e) psychological issues. The results of this study clearly show that migration for Iranian adolescents in Malaysia is a time of unexpected challenges that may not be experienced by other migrant adolescents in other countries. Our findings contribute to the literature on the unique experiences of Iranian adolescents living in Malaysia and also build on the current research on adolescents who have recently immigrated. In addition, our results further uncover the process of immigration for individuals who are moving from a monocultural society (such as Iran) to a multicultural context (such as Malaysia).
Group mentoring is an increasingly popular intervention, but is still under-studied. This article reports findings from a qualitative study of the Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP), a combined group and one-on-one mentoring program for early adolescent girls. Protégés (n = 113) were interviewed post-program about changes they made as a result of the program and mechanisms of those changes. Girls reported making changes in four major domains as a result of YWLP: (a) Academics (e.g., study habits), (b) Relational Development (e.g., trusting people), (c) Self-Regulation (e.g., thinking before acting), and (d) Self-Understanding (e.g., being yourself). Relational development and self-understanding were the most frequently reported types of change. Protégés reported mentors as contributing to changes in academics more often than the mentoring group. They reported the mentoring group as the change mechanism more often than mentors for relational development. Protégés reported the mentors and mentoring groups about equally as the mechanisms of change for self-regulation and self-understanding. The findings support prior research on group mentoring and suggest that social and relational skills are a developmental domain in which group-based mentoring programs for early adolescent girls may be particularly effective at intervening.
Using a narrative approach, we explored acculturation gaps, parent-child relationships, and conflict (intergenerational conflict and ethnocultural identity conflict) in a sample of immigrant Arab Canadian emerging adults. Our findings revealed that perceived acculturation gaps co-occurred with intergenerational conflict (Theme 1) and ethnocultural identity conflict (Theme 2). Furthermore, the parent–emerging adult relationship was observed to play a role in the co-occurrence of perceived acculturation gaps and conflict. Specifically, participants described strong parent–emerging adult relationships as minimizing the co-occurrence of perceived acculturation gaps and intergenerational conflict (Theme 3), as well as perceived acculturation gaps and ethnocultural identity conflict (Theme 4). On the other hand, participants described weak parent–emerging adult relationships as exacerbating the co-occurrence of perceived acculturation gaps and intergenerational conflict (Theme 3), as well as perceived acculturation gaps and ethnocultural identity conflict (Theme 4). We presented these analyses using thick and rich data extracts from the participants themselves.
Asian American adolescents have been reported to have the lowest amount of communication with health care providers regarding sexual health topics (sexual activity, contraception, sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancy prevention). This study identified Asian American adolescents’ attitudes/beliefs regarding how health care providers can be most helpful in communicating about sexual health topics. Twenty participants revealed the following information: (a) confidentiality concerns resulted in lying to health care providers about sexual histories or refusing hormonal contraception, (b) a general lack of knowledge regarding sexual health topics, and (c) a hesitancy to discuss sexual histories with Asian American health care providers. Asian American adolescents expressed a need for privacy from parents regarding their sexual behaviors, and want health care providers to initiate conversations and provide information about sexual health topics.
Through interviews with 22 middle-class mothers and their adolescent children, we explored contemporary approaches to parenting in urban China. The participants provided evidence of authoritative parenting style. We also examined the applicability of Chao’s construct of Chinese parenting guan (管) for adolescence; the participants seemed to support the idea, but viewed the underlying meaning of guan differently than described in earlier studies conducted with mothers of younger children. We thus argue that guanjiao (管教), which means "to govern and to educate/teach," may be a more appropriate word to use than guan to describe urban, middle-class Chinese mothers’ approach to parenting of adolescents. The findings also suggest that neither Chao’s construct of guan nor Baumrind’s prototypes could fully capture its essence. Additional elements, such as modeling, self-sacrifice, and expression of affection through behavior, also emerged as common themes.
Research suggests that nonstudent emerging adults may be at elevated risk of alcohol-related problems in adulthood. The present study utilized a qualitative approach to broaden our understanding of the drinking-related perceptions and experiences of heavy drinking nonstudents, with the ultimate goal of generating meaningful knowledge that could aid intervention planning. Research aims were to identify nonstudent (a) drinking motivations and (b) drinking consequences. Eleven focus groups were conducted (n = 64 participants). Data analytic techniques were used to code transcripts and generate themes emerging from the group data. Three main themes emerged regarding nonstudent reasons for drinking (i.e., emotional, social, enhanced experiences). Four prominent themes were identified for drinking consequences (i.e., physical health, psychological health, risk-taking, life functioning). Our findings underscore several considerations related to intervening with this at-risk and understudied population.
Organized activities have been found to provide positive experiences for Latino adolescents to develop confidence and learn critical life skills; however, these programs are sometimes a context where youth encounter negative experiences related to ethnic/racial microaggressions (ERMs). This qualitative study explores the types of ERMs that Mexican-origin parents and adolescents encountered in their organized activities experience. Parents were mainly concerned about SB-1070 and the associated law enforcement practices that posed a threat to transporting their children to and from the organized activity site. Adolescents reported that they encountered overt (e.g., ethnic teasing) as well as covert forms of discriminatory behavior (e.g., implicit ethnic stereotypes) from peers and adult leaders. Attention to the processes of ERM is critical to helping practitioners promote positive intergroup relations so that more Latinos will participate and stay active in organized activities.
Preterm birth represents an interruption to the normal development of maternal identity and is considered a highly stressful event for adult mothers. However, no research has investigated whether or how preterm birth affects the adolescent mother’s transition to motherhood. The current study aimed to explicate the experience of being a mother for adolescent women who experienced a preterm or term birth in Australia. This Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Study analyzed interviews with 14 primiparous, English-speaking adolescent mothers (15-19 years; 10 preterm and 4 full term) who participated in three interviews over a 12-month period. Findings suggested few differences in the experience of being a mother due to infant birth status. Instead, the experience of being a mother was fundamentally about transformations to the self. The young women constructed themselves differently as a result of being mothers. Changes included moving away from delinquent behaviors, development of internal resources, growth of a positive view of self, gaining meaning in their lives, and reconciling idealized and actual notions of self and other. This research adds to our understanding of how motherhood shapes the adolescent women’s lives, while also challenging our assumptions about the impact of preterm and full-term birth for adolescent mothers.
Despite the high prevalence of mental health concerns in university populations, students are unlikely to seek formal help. The current study examined help-seeking behaviors among emerging adults in a university setting using a mental health literacy framework. Responses from 122 university undergraduates were examined. Students ranged in age from 17 to 25 years (M = 20.67 years, SD = 2.03 years). Quantitative data were collected to determine students’ knowledge and use of campus services and to compare students’ awareness and appraisal of common mental health symptoms. Narrative data were collected to identify the key symptoms that are appraised to be "early warning signs" versus "early action signs," and to identify barriers and facilitators to help-seeking. Mental health symptoms were more likely to be assessed as warning signs than signs warranting action. Lack of knowledge and stigma were barriers to help-seeking, while urging from family and friends, increased knowledge, and confidentiality were identified as facilitators to help-seeking. Emerging adults in a university setting tend to make distinctions between warning and action signs. Although demonstrating good awareness of the signs of declining mental health, students may respond reactively rather than proactively to symptoms.
The development of civically engaged citizens is vital for democratic societies. Although several studies have explored children and adolescents’ conceptualizations of civic engagement, less is known about youths’ understanding of the individual skills and attributes best suited for civic action. The current study utilized a Q-sort methodology to explore the types of character strengths children and adolescents (n = 87; Mage = 13, 9-19, 52% female) assigned to people who engage in different types of civic activities. Participants sorted 12 character strengths (amazed, creative, forgiving, future-minded, generous, grateful, humble, joyful, leader, purposeful, responsible, and thrifty) into five categories ranging from "most like" to "least like" based on their perceptions of individuals engaged in four distinct civic activities: volunteering, voting, protesting, and engaging in environmental or conservation behaviors. Youth not only differentially applied certain character strengths to individuals engaged in distinct civic activities but also identified a set of character strengths (future-minded, leader, purposeful, and responsible) as core to multiple forms of civic engagement. Results provide new insights into youths’ budding conceptualization of the individual characteristics, attributes, and motivations, which undergird different forms of civic action. Qualitative analysis of youths’ justifications for their rankings provided additional nuance into their developing understanding of civic actions.
Central to debates about the construction of masculinity in sociology is the influence of culture and what constitutes acceptable displays of masculinity. This article adopts a novel approach in examining this question. It adopts a summative content analysis, combined with a semiotic analysis, of 1,100 Facebook photographs, in order to explore the underlying meanings within the photos and the performances of masculinity. Facebook photographs from 44, straight, White, male, early emerging adults attending the same university are used as a representation of an individual’s ideal self. These are then analyzed in order to determine the behaviors endorsed by peer culture. It was found that the sample overwhelmingly adopted inclusive behaviors (including homosocial tactility, dancing, and kissing each other), and inclusive masculinity theory was utilized to contextualize participants’ constructions of masculinity. Thus, this research shows that emerging adult males at this university construct their masculine identities away from previous orthodox archetypes. It is argued that the reducing importance of gendered behavior patterns may represent an adoption of what are perceived as wider cultural norms and act as a symbol of adulthood to these early emerging adults.
This article examines the experiences of 25 youth of color living in East Oakland, California. Building on empirical studies examining violence prevention efforts on the behalf of and among youth and using an ethnographic approach, this study samples young people, with varying levels of education, income, and motivation for involvement, attending the same youth-serving organization in East Oakland. The findings offer a frame of "violence management strategies" for the active ways in which youth strategically avoid unsafe spaces and people and seek out safe spaces and people on a daily basis within their neighborhoods marked by high rates of crime, violence, and physical disorder. These findings lift up youth as experts of their own neighborhoods. The implications of these findings for adolescent research, practice, and policy are discussed.
Early romantic relationships have been described as the "learning context" and "training ground" for future intimate relationships; however, research has yet to examine the lessons that individuals take away from such relationships. In the present mixed-methods, longitudinal study, 348 adolescents and emerging adults (53% girls/young women) between the ages of 15 and 23 years were asked to reflect on and report the lessons they learned from romantic relationships in which they were involved 1 year ago (Time 1). These lessons were found to reflect the areas of romantic competence proposed by Shulman et al., including social cognitive maturity, romantic agency, and coherence. Quantitative analyses revealed that girls/young women more often referenced all three of the investigated areas of romantic competence than did boys/young men. In addition, emerging adults and individuals whose relationships were still intact at Time 2 more often referenced social cognitive maturity and coherence, whereas adolescents and individuals whose relationships ended by Time 2 more often referenced romantic agency. Furthermore, qualitative analyses revealed important gender and age differences in the ways adolescent girls and boys and emerging adult women and men described their lessons. In general, results suggest an experiential component to the development of romantic competence that complements developmental factors.
Despite the heightened awareness of body image concerns in early adolescence, there has been little research in Ireland regarding young people’s own perspectives on associated factors. Eight focus groups with young adolescents were conducted to explore common perceptions and influential processes occurring within the current Irish appearance culture. Three main themes emerged reflecting (a) appearance-related norms and processes operating in young adolescents’ immediate environment, (b) means by which more distal levels of sociocultural influences are transmitted, and (c) individual characteristics that shape the experience of the appearance culture. On the whole, the appearance-related values and behaviors of significant others were highly influential, especially those of peers. Cultural norms were evident in the young adolescents’ conceptions of the ideal body, and these appeared to be further negotiated and reinforced in proximal contexts. The collective interaction in the focus group discussions allowed alternative perspectives to be considered and generated new insights and perceptions. Outcomes indicate that the transmission of processes from distal and proximal environments are often interrelated and highlight the need to place greater emphasis on the interactive nature of sociocultural influences and the multiple processes by which appearance-related messages are transmitted.
The negative impact of early marriage on girls’ psychosocial well-being is well documented in the literature, but little is known about the girls’ motivations and experiences within marriage. A phenomenological case study approach, combining artwork and semi-structured interviews, was used to investigate the motivations and experiences of early marriage among 10 engaged and married young Muslim women who married young in Israel. The findings regarding the engaged women point to their decision to use marriage as a way to fulfill their need for freedom, their wish to experience love in a culturally respectable frame, and to escape from poverty and from difficult family. Conversely, the married women’s narratives point to the heavy price and limited benefits of early marriage, in creating intense new problems and not providing relief from former problems. The regret over having not studied, intense loneliness, lack of money, and the search for a more respect-based marriage are predominant themes. The financial and social motivations for marriage found among the women studied suggest that in their decision to marry young, they were not passive victims of love or society but were rather taking an active pragmatic decision within the very limited options open to them.
This qualitative study explored second-generation Chinese American adolescents’ nondisclosure to parents on the basis of their experiences in daily interactions. The research questions were as follows: (a) What role does adolescents’ nondisclosure play in parent-adolescent relationships in second-generation Chinese American families? (b) How do factors of adolescent nondisclosure interplay with the cultural context? In-depth individual interviews were conducted with 16 adolescents (6 boys and 10 girls, average age 15) and 11 immigrant parents in a large urban area in the Western United States. The principal theme of the findings shows nondisclosure as an adaptive strategy to pursue autonomy in harmony with parental regulation. Findings are interpreted in light of cultural influences. These findings suggest that Chinese American parents need to make adaptations in the way of their parental control and should focus more on adolescents’ current interests.
Families are theorized to influence adolescents’ participation in skill-based after-school activities, but research has focused on the role of parents while neglecting the role of siblings. Siblings might be especially critical for Mexican-origin youth, the fastest growing youth population in the United States, due to a high value of family as well as having a larger number of and spending more time with siblings compared with other groups. This mixed-method study of 34 Mexican-origin seventh-grade adolescents provides preliminary evidence for how siblings might influence adolescents’ skill-based organized and informal after-school activities. Qualitative findings suggest that siblings influenced adolescents’ activities through eight unique behaviors (i.e., support, provider of information, role modeling, comparison, negativity, babysitting, transportation, and activity co-participation). Follow-up quantitative analysis suggested some sibling behaviors were more likely to be mentioned based on sibling characteristics, individual characteristics, and neighborhoods. The study highlights new theory, emerging future directions, and ways to promote positive after-school activities via siblings.
This study examined social network processes related to interpersonal violence using a sample of 360 homeless youths from Los Angeles. Results indicated that violence is pervasive among homeless youths. Consistent with previous findings, hard drug use and childhood maltreatment experiences were closely related to violence experiences. Social network analyses revealed that having a higher proportion of violence-engaged peers in a youth’s network is associated with increased risk of personal violent behavior as well as having a high k-core number within the larger overall homeless youth network. The findings have important implications for the development of violence prevention programs for homeless youths, particularly the potential for network-based programs.
Extant theories of resilience, or the process of adjusting well to adversity, privilege the voices of minority-world young people. Consequently, the resilience of marginalized, majority-world youth is imperfectly understood, and majority-world social ecologies struggle to facilitate resilience in ways that respect the insights of majority-world youth and their cultural and contextual positioning. Accordingly, this article makes audible, as it were, the voices of 181 rural, Black, South African adolescents with the purpose of explicating which resilience-supporting processes characterize their positive adjustment to disadvantaged life-worlds, and how contextual and cultural realities shape such processes. Deductive and inductive analyses of a narrative and visual data set, generated in the qualitative phase of an explanatory mixed-methods study, revealed that universally occurring resilience-supporting mechanisms inform positive adjustment. Importantly, which mechanisms these youth prioritized, and the form these mechanisms take, are shaped by contextual realities of absent men and commonplace suffering, and a cultural reality of strong women, human and spiritual care, and valorization of education. Attention to these adolescents’ voices not only prompts specific, culturally and contextually relevant leverage points for resilience but also reinforces the importance of attending to young people’s preferred pathways of resilience in order to understand and champion resilience in socially just ways.
The purpose of this study was to determine the links between school adjustment, friendship, and identification with both the cultures of origin and with the host culture. Our overriding hypothesis was that integration in Berry’s terms, that is, simultaneous identification with both the culture of origin and the majority Spanish/Catalan culture, would predict better school adjustment. We also expected the same integrated acculturative stance to be linked with closer and less conflictual friendships. The participants were 682 students, in six public high schools in Catalonia, Spain. Of these, 226 were first- and second-generation immigrants, and this subset was used in most of the analyses reported herein. The results showed that acculturation to the host culture and acculturation to the culture of origin are both adaptive but in different ways. These results applied to both first- and second-generation immigrants. Identification with the culture of origin was a significant predictor of closeness in friendship. In contrast, identification with the host culture is linked with school adjustment. Integrated adolescents, who identify simultaneously with host culture and culture of origin, do best at school according to teachers but not significantly better than assimilated students, who identify primarily with the host culture.
For young men, the transition to adulthood may be a time of heightened adherence to traditional gender roles and norms of masculinity. However, recent research with young men in gender-specific contexts has indicated that some contexts support a construction of masculinity that is more inclusive. Through a theoretical thematic analysis of interviews with young men in their first week at an all-male trade school, we explored if and how participants talked about gender and its role in their lives, how these discussions of gender may reflect individual gender ideologies, and how these discussions may inform participants’ experiences in particular developmental contexts. The themes we identified included the following: Becoming a man as an active process, experiences of male embodiment of size and strength, intersections of school identity and being a man, students’ perceptions of their all-male school environment and what it means to not have female classmates, and their reflections on the parts of themselves they see as feminine. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research with adolescents and young adults in relation to gender, relationships, and professional development.
Nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) among U.S. adolescents is a burgeoning public health problem. Previous studies have observed differences in rates of NMUPD among ethnic/racial groups. However, less is known on the social and cultural processes and mechanisms, which may influence adolescents’ prescription drug beliefs and practices. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 diverse 13- to 17-year-olds in an adolescent psychiatric inpatient unit to elicit in-depth, context-sensitive information about social factors relevant to NMUPD. Data analysis was completed using grounded theory and interpreted with a social ecological approach. Results highlighted the myriad of important contextual influences on adolescent NMUPD. Responses reflected factors within microsystem, exosystem, and macrosystem contexts as well as important intrapersonal factors. Furthermore, adolescents who identified as an ethnic minority also described cultural values (e.g., religion) and culturally based beliefs (e.g., mental health stigma), which influenced their prescription drug beliefs. Narratives revealed the interplay between intrapersonal factors and socialization agents, such as parents, peers, and the media, influencing prescription drug behavior. Our findings present ecologically framed insights as a first step in understanding this health risk behavior among U.S. adolescents. Implications as well as important next steps for future research and interdisciplinary prevention and intervention program development are discussed.
This research examined the construct "sense of indebtedness toward parents" (SIP) as a concept that helps explain positive change in Korean American (KA) emerging adults’ views of their parents despite experiencing a high level of parent-adolescent challenges. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 KA emerging adults. Most described experiencing SIP, defined as "a person’s recognition of his or her immigrant parents’ child-centered immigration aspirations and their sacrifice for the sake of children." Findings showed that the formation of SIP was facilitated by processes related to developmental and contextual changes pertaining to emerging adulthood. These processes helped participants reinterpret their experiences with parents as entailing sacrifices made on their behalf. The findings highlight diverse emerging adulthood experience due to immigrant or cultural context.
The experience of the first intercourse at an early age is a well-established sexual risk behavior as it is related to adverse physical and mental health outcomes. However, the diversity within the group of early starters as well as the actual processes that make early first-time intercourse (potentially) more harmful remain understudied. The goal of this research is to understand the mechanisms that make an early experience of the first intercourse either more or less emotionally harmful. Therefore, a combination of quantitative and qualitative data are used. The quantitative data stem from a population survey (ages 14-35 years; N = 705); the qualitative data were gathered by in-depth interviews among 24 young people (ages 16-18 years) with an early first-time intercourse (at age 14 years or younger). Quantitative analyses show that the age at first-time intercourse is positively related to the feeling of readiness. For the male respondents only, it is also positively related to the general experience of the first intercourse. For female respondents, the age at the first intercourse is only related to the general experience of it in interaction with the age difference with the first partner. Qualitative analyses show that much variation goes behind these statistical regularities. Successful early starters can be differentiated from problematic early starters based on relationship characteristics, the preceding sexual trajectory, and the preceding sexual decision making. Practical implications are described, and recommendations for further research are made.
For same-sex attracted youth (SSAY), the Internet affords a unique combination of opportunity, risk, and benefit. The present study provides a narrative analysis of four diverse SSAY’s experiences (ages 18-20 years), selected from a larger sample (N = 32) to highlight variation in (a) frequency of Internet use (extensive, incidental) and (b) impact of Internet use (pivotal, missed opportunity) during identity development. Presenting narratives individually, we depict how variations in frequency and impact of Internet use interact with the content, tone, and overall form of these youths’ identity development narratives. We also explore the individual and contextual factors (e.g., family relationships, peer norms) and characteristics of the Internet (e.g., increased anonymity) that appear to relate to these SSAY’s Internet use.
Conversations with friends are a crucial source of information about sexuality for young gay men, and a key way that sexual health norms are shared during emerging adulthood. However, friends can only provide this support if they are able to talk openly about sexuality. We explored this issue through qualitative interviews with an ethnically diverse sample of young gay men and their best friends. Using theories of sexual scripts, stigma, and emerging adulthood, we examined how conversations about sex could be obstructed or facilitated by several key factors, including judgmentalism, comfort/discomfort, and receptivity. Gay male friends sometimes spoke about unprotected sex in judgmental ways (e.g., calling a friend "slut" or "whore" for having sex without condoms). In some cases, this language could be used playfully, while in others it had the effect of shaming a friend and obstructing further communication about sexual risk. Female friends were rarely openly judgmental, but often felt uncomfortable talking about gay male sexuality, which could render this topic taboo. Sexual communication was facilitated most effectively when friends encouraged it through humor or supportive questioning. Drawing on these findings, we show how judgmentalism and discomfort may generate sexual scripts with contradictory norms, and potentially obstruct support from friends around sexual exploration during a period of life when it may be most developmentally important.
Although interpersonal respect is considered an important quality in successful romantic relationships, limited attention has been paid to this concept. We examined the meaning of respect in romantic relationships as conceptualized by low-income, sexually active, heterosexually identified, African American adolescents aged 15 to 17 (N = 50). Qualitative analysis revealed meanings of respect within the romantic dyad that could be divided into three broad themes: (a) performance of pro-social behaviors within the dyad, (b) inhibition of antisocial behaviors (e.g., violence), and (c) showing respect in the community, either through avoidance of situations that might embarrass one’s romantic partner or performance of pro-social acts in public contexts (e.g., with friends or family). Gender, social class, and cultural differences in displays of respect and their interpersonal functions are discussed. A conceptual model is proposed both to understand the potential role that respect plays in adolescents’ lives and relationships and as a guide for future study.
Emerging adulthood has been defined as a distinct developmental stage in which youth experience opportunities for identity development and transition toward independence. While this period has been examined for youth in the general population, less is known about how foster youth experience this transition. This study uses qualitative interviews with 20 foster youth to understand their experiences during emerging adulthood. Consensual qualitative research is used to analyze data and develop core themes around youth experiences. Foster youth not only report sharing many characteristics with youth in the general population during this stage but also have experiences that are uniquely tied to their foster care history. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.
What is the relation between parents’ views of their own friendships and their beliefs and practices about their children’s friendships? Do parents who enjoy high-quality adult friendships understand and support adolescent friendships in ways different from parents who do not have close adult friendships? Relying on systematic analysis of interview data, this article demonstrates discrepancies between six Shanghai mothers’ perceptions of their own friendships and their beliefs, attitudes, and concerns about their adolescent children’s friendships. The article also presents five themes underlying the mothers’ ideas about adolescent friendship: (a) no time for friendship, (b) good friends must have good grades, (c) it is important to make new friends, (d) ambiguous feelings and contradictory attitudes, and (e) weariness of peers and society. The findings are interpreted from three cultural and contextual perspectives: The Chinese tradition of emphasizing academic learning and proper behavior during adolescence, the collectivist philosophy and practice of using peer pressure to improve social behavior, and Chinese parents’ anxiety over their children’s gaining edges in intense academic and job competition.
The topic of youth civic engagement is increasingly popular in social science research; however, the question of why some youth are civically involved while others are not is not well understood. This article addresses the following questions: What motivations and barriers do youth report for civic involvement? How do motivations and barriers differ across school contexts? A qualitative study using in-depth semi-structured interviews with youth (N = 22) was used to identify four categories of motivations and two categories of barriers for civic involvement. Variation emerged in the motivations and barriers for civic involvement both within and across school contexts. Understanding civic motivations in context uncovers new insights about how to structure opportunities to better facilitate youth civic involvement.
In this article, we examine how Black youth in rural South Africa construct role models and connect them to their own life aspirations. We pay particular attention to individual and group identity development in shaping these perceptions. Based on analysis of qualitative data from 99 Black male and female youth aged 14 to 22, we find that (a) the choice of role models reflects a balancing strategy to reconcile individual and group identity development; (b) while the reasons they give for choosing role models are aligned with dominant models of upward mobility in the new South Africa (and globally), our respondents are also attuned to the difficulty of attaining such success; and (c) the choices underscore the continued importance of close and extended kin amidst an increasingly ego-focused life strategy aimed at individual status attainment. These findings can contribute to improving the effectiveness of intervention programs aimed at strengthening the role of positive influences in the lives of Black youth in South Africa.
Identity expression through the design of urban adolescents’ bedrooms in Gaborone, Botswana, was the focus of this qualitative study. Interviews were conducted to determine the manner in which decorative and personal items played a role in identity exploration and expression. The findings indicated a clear interplay between personalization and identity formation for adolescents. Identities expressed through personalization of bedrooms were private self, gender identity, age identity, family/social identity, and relationships; past, present, and future roles/identities; and religious identity. In addition to these, boys clearly expressed sport identity, self-image, creative self, and achievements through their bedroom personalization. A model is presented that illustrates the interplay between personalization and identity formation.
The present article responds to Males and Brown’s "Teenagers’ High Arrest Rates: Features of Young Age or Youth Poverty?" which claims that the widely observed pattern of crime rates peaking in late adolescence or early adulthood is an artifact of age differences in poverty. We note that the authors’ interpretation of their aggregated data is an example of the ecological fallacy. Drawing inferences about individual behavior from macro-level data can lead to erroneous conclusions and does so in the case of Males and Brown’s analysis. Moreover, the authors overlook research that has used more appropriate methods to examine age-related change in criminal behavior while accounting for the effects of economic factors and still found a robust age–crime curve. Males and Brown’s characterization of the literature and their claims about the relationship between age and crime should be regarded with a great deal of skepticism.
The association of more crime with youthful age is widely accepted in social science. However, a literature search revealed no studies of the age-crime relationship that controlled for young ages’ economic disadvantage. This research gap is addressed using the California Criminal Justice Statistics Center’s arrest detail and Census poverty statistics for 2010. When poverty rates were controlled, younger and older ages’ violence disparities largely disappeared. Where teenagers and emerging adults display typical middle-aged demographics (two thirds non-Latino, White, or Asian, poverty levels under 10%), they display "middle-aged" violent crime rates; where ages 40 to 69 have typical teenage demographics (54% Black or Latino, 17% in poverty), they display "teenaged" violent crime levels. These findings challenge conventional theories associating violence with young age.
This study identified predictors of transience among homeless emerging adults in three cities. A total of 601 homeless emerging adults from Los Angeles, Austin, and Denver were recruited using purposive sampling. Ordinary least squares regression results revealed that significant predictors of greater transience include White ethnicity, high school degree or equivalent, homeless residence in the 6 months prior to the study, longer period of homelessness, history of arrest and juvenile detention, earning income through informal sources, history of physical abuse, alcohol/drug addiction, and resilience characteristics. Quantitative findings were expanded upon with data from in-depth interviews with 145 of these homeless emerging adults regarding their reasons and motivations for transience. Identifying predictors of transience will facilitate customizing interventions that, when needed, aim to stabilize homeless emerging adults, prevent their mobility, and/or offer mobile services to them on the road.
While openness in adoption has become more common in the United States, little research has examined contact between birth and adoptive families as adoptees become adults. Using quantitative and qualitative data from 167 emerging adult adoptees, factors characterizing contact (e.g., type, frequency, with whom), satisfaction with contact, and the influences of transitional events and significant relationships were explored. Among these variables, satisfaction with contact with birth parents in emerging adulthood was significantly associated with greater openness levels. Four qualitative case studies, representing increasing openness levels with increasing satisfaction, provided illustrations of variability in emerging adult adoptees’ experiences of contact with birth parents. Overall, with regard to openness in adoption, emerging adulthood represents a transitional period marked by substantial individual variation.
Little is known about how youth with LGB (lesbian, gay, and bisexual) parents experience various forms of sexual stigma (i.e., homophobia and heterosexism). Previous studies have focused primarily on frequency of teasing and harassment; therefore, much less is known about how indirect and institutional types of sexual stigma play out in the lives of these youth. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 emerging adults with lesbian parents to ascertain how they experienced and coped with sexual stigma during middle school and high school. Findings revealed that both enacted (direct and indirect) and structural sexual stigma were salient to participants during their adolescence. The reactions that participants had to sexual stigma varied and were categorized as: fearful, defiant, or detached. Coping strategies, as well as factors that influenced the impact of sexual stigma on participants, were identified. Findings have implications for family professionals, policymakers, and future research.
Localized understandings of adolescent romantic relationships are needed to expand our knowledge of the diversity of adolescent romantic experiences and to challenge negative discourses of adolescent heterosexual relationships. This study explored the constructions of intimacy of 20 adolescent men and women in romantic relationships from one low-income community in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Using Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory method, we found that our participants reproduced dominant romantic and gender discourses in their intimacy constructions within a community context of limited and limiting discourses. We argue that they could benefit from alternative discourses, more opportunities to interact privately and intimately with their partners, and to reflect on and articulate their romantic relationship experiences.
This study examined South African youths’ perceptions of religion during a period of social and economic transition. In-depth interviews were conducted with 55 Black South African youth (age 18) living in the Johannesburg-Soweto metropolitan area. Data were analyzed in a manner consistent with grounded theory methodology and structural coding. Beliefs about the function of religion were captured by the following themes: provides support, connection to the past, moral compass, promotes healthy development, and intersections between African traditional practices and Christian beliefs. Themes are discussed and directions for future research are presented. In addition, applications of the current research and implications for promoting youths’ resilience are offered.
American children gain more autonomy as they progress through adolescence, however, autonomy-granting for Latina adolescent girls from immigrant families is a relatively unexplored question. In this study, we identified behaviors that Mexican mothers and their daughters deemed to be appropriate when they reach the age of La Quinceañera, a cultural rite of passage at age 15. Daughters hoped for rules regarding social activities to become less strict whereas mothers intended to continue to exert control, especially in the areas of peer and social activities, household duties, and homework responsibilities. The mothers were open to granting more independence in personal areas such as physical appearance and they were also willing to allow their daughters to group date. Although the mothers and daughters expected the mothers to continue to engage in a controlling and protective parenting style, both mothers and daughters anticipated more mutual decision-making and open communication when daughters turned 15 years of age.
Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in America, with approximately 6 to 7 million Muslims living in America within the past decade. However, there has been little psychological research conducted focusing on the development of the Muslim American self. This inquiry addresses that gap by focusing on how familial religious affiliation during childhood and the everyday environmental activity systems of emerging adulthood impact religious practice and the construction of the religious self among Sunni-Muslim American emerging adults (N = 63, 18-29 years) via the development of diverse mediational strategies. Utilizing an applied cultural historical activity theory–based analysis, the authors found that participants’ religious development emerged as a diverse and dynamic process developing in relation to the interacting activity systems and sociorelational contexts of emerging adulthood.
Despite considerable fiscal and structural support for youth service programs, research has not demonstrated consistent outcomes across participants or programs, suggesting the need to identify critical program processes. The present study addresses this need through preliminary examination of the role of program empowerment in promoting positive identity development in inner-city, African American youth participating in a pilot school-based service program. Results suggest that participants who experienced the program as empowering experienced increases in self-efficacy, sense of civic responsibility, and ethnic identity, over and above general engagement and enjoyment of the program. Preliminary exploration of differences based on participant gender suggests that some results may be stronger and more consistent for males than females. These findings provide preliminary support for the importance of theoretically grounded program processes in producing positive outcomes for youth service participants.