Citation

Hasford J, Loomis C, Nelson G, Pancer SM. Youth Soc. 2016; 48(4): 577-596.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0044118X13506447

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This comparative study examined how participation in an early childhood development (ECD) program, Better Beginnings, Better Futures, for children (ages 4-8) relates to sense of community (SOC) in later adolescence (ages 18-19). Youths' stories (N = 96) about community experiences, collected by semistructured, open-ended interviews, were quantitatively coded for several narrative dimensions (specificity, positivity, prosocial content, and meaning-making) and for elements of SOC (membership, influence, needs fulfillment, and shared emotional connection).

FINDINGS show a significant positive relationship between all narrative dimensions and the total SOC score. Better Beginnings youths' stories (n = 64) were significantly higher on specificity and shared emotional connection than comparison youth (n = 32).

FINDINGS have implications for community-based ECD programs to impact later adolescence SOC and for using narratives to study these effects.

Language: en