Citation

Ramey HL, Lawford HL, Rose-Krasnor L. J. Adolesc. 2017; 55: 129-138.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Brock University, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.adolescence.2017.01.001

PMID

28086143

Abstract

Youth contributions to others (e.g., volunteering) have been connected to indicators of successful development, including self-esteem, optimism, social support, and identity development. Youth-adult partnerships, which involve youth and adults working together towards a shared goal in activity settings, such as youth-serving agencies or recreation organizations, provide a unique opportunity for examining youth contributions. We examined associations between measures of youth's participation in youth-adult partnerships (psychological engagement and degree of partnering) in activity settings and youth contributing behaviors, in two Canadian samples: (a) community-involved youth (N = 153, mean age = 17.1 years, 65% female) and (b) undergraduates (N = 128, mean age = 20.1 years, 92.2% female). We found that degree of partnering and psychological engagement were related to each other yet independently predicted contributing behaviors. Our findings suggest that youth-adult partnerships might be one potentially rich context for the promotion of youth's contributions to others.

Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Contributing behaviors; Psychological engagement; Youth contributions; Youth engagement; Youth-adult partnerships