TY - JOUR
T1 - Youth–Adult Partnership
T2 - Exploring Contributions to Empowerment, Agency and Community Connections in Malaysian Youth Programs
AU - Krauss, Steven Eric
AU - Collura, Jessica
AU - Zeldin, Shepherd
AU - Ortega, Adriana
AU - Abdullah, Haslinda
AU - Sulaiman, Abdul Hadi
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Brian Christens (University of Wisconsin-Madison) for his valuable feedback during the writing process. This study was supported by Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Research University Grant Scheme (Vote No. 9315100).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2013, Springer Science+Business Media New York.
Copyright:
Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2014/9/1
Y1 - 2014/9/1
N2 - Youth–adult partnership (Y–AP) has emerged as a key practice for enacting two features of effective developmental settings: supportive adult relationships and support for efficacy and mattering. Previous studies have shown that when youth, supported by adults, actively participate in organizational and community decision-making they are likely to show greater confidence and agency, empowerment and critical consciousness, and community connections. Most of the extant research on Y–AP is limited to qualitative studies and the identification of organizational best practices. Almost all research focuses on Western sociocultural settings. To address these gaps, 299 youth, age 15 to 24, were sampled from established afterschool and community programs in Malaysia to explore the contribution of Y–AP (operationalized as having two components: youth voice in decision-making and supportive adult relationships) to empowerment, agency and community connections. As hypothesized, hierarchical regressions indicated that program quality (Y–AP, safe environment and program engagement) contributed to agency, empowerment and community connections beyond the contribution of family, school and religion. Additionally, the Y–AP measures contributed substantially more variance than the other measures of program quality on each outcome. Interaction effects indicated differences by age for empowerment and agency but not for community connections. The primary findings in this inquiry replicate those found in previous interview and observational-oriented studies. The data suggests fertile ground for future research while demonstrating that Y–AP may be an effective practice for positive youth development outside of Western settings.
AB - Youth–adult partnership (Y–AP) has emerged as a key practice for enacting two features of effective developmental settings: supportive adult relationships and support for efficacy and mattering. Previous studies have shown that when youth, supported by adults, actively participate in organizational and community decision-making they are likely to show greater confidence and agency, empowerment and critical consciousness, and community connections. Most of the extant research on Y–AP is limited to qualitative studies and the identification of organizational best practices. Almost all research focuses on Western sociocultural settings. To address these gaps, 299 youth, age 15 to 24, were sampled from established afterschool and community programs in Malaysia to explore the contribution of Y–AP (operationalized as having two components: youth voice in decision-making and supportive adult relationships) to empowerment, agency and community connections. As hypothesized, hierarchical regressions indicated that program quality (Y–AP, safe environment and program engagement) contributed to agency, empowerment and community connections beyond the contribution of family, school and religion. Additionally, the Y–AP measures contributed substantially more variance than the other measures of program quality on each outcome. Interaction effects indicated differences by age for empowerment and agency but not for community connections. The primary findings in this inquiry replicate those found in previous interview and observational-oriented studies. The data suggests fertile ground for future research while demonstrating that Y–AP may be an effective practice for positive youth development outside of Western settings.
KW - Adolescents
KW - Community connections
KW - Personal agency
KW - Positive youth development
KW - Psychological empowerment
KW - Youth–adult partnership
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84927633098&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10964-013-0027-1
DO - 10.1007/s10964-013-0027-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 24122395
AN - SCOPUS:84927633098
SN - 0047-2891
VL - 43
SP - 1550
EP - 1562
JO - Journal of Youth and Adolescence
JF - Journal of Youth and Adolescence
IS - 9
ER -