Theory+and+Concepts

A. Learning Theory- Teaching & Shaping
 * 1.** __**Classic Theories- Process of Positive Development (Larson & Walker, 2005)**__
 * Process of human change is an abstract process, unfolding over long periods of time and partly occuring within the private thoughts & feelings of youth
 * Theory of Change
 * Young people have a tremendous potential for growth... highly motivated to develop
 * Adults have knowledge, which they teach to youth.
 * Youth develop by faithfully learning what they are taught.
 * Key to learning is the "reinforcements" that the teacher uses to shape behavior
 * If, in a specific situation, an experimental subject's behavior was followed by a reward, subject likely to repeat that behavior again.
 * Connection between behavior and reward occurs over and over, behavior becomes habituated or automatic
 * Key finding 1: Rewards are more effective than punishment in shaping behavior.
 * Key finding 2: Progressive use of reinforcement along a sequence of steps permits shaping of complex patterns of behavior.
 * Warning! Teacher has to be alert that undesired behavior is not getting reinforced.
 * Proponent of Learning Theory: B.F. Skinner- saw learning as mechanistic process that occurs the same across humans & animals.
 * Social Learning Theory- Albert Bandura (1986)
 * recognizes humans as conscious beings
 * example: punishment not very effective because can make a person feel inept or "I can't do anything right" so they stop trying.
 * Punishment can make person angry and resentful and start to think about how unfair the situation is, not about how they can perform desired behavior.
 * most effective reinforcement occurs through modeling and watching others.
 * Learning theory is useful in youth development because it helps us think about what rewards youth are getting and the influence of these rewards.
 * Limits:
 * relies on adult direction
 * learners in this situation are in a passive and dependent role (Freire, 1970)
 * no ownership of learning process- leads to being alienated and unmotivated
 * not learning to be reflective and make decisions for themselves

B. Constructivist Theory: Youth as Producers of Their Own Development
 * Organismic Model (Lerner, 2002)- organisms creatively adapt to environment- humans adapt by actively learning and figuring things out
 * young people are highly motivated to learn
 * Jean Piaget- theorized that infants start with no knowledge at all; learn through active process of experimentation and making deductions from what they experience.
 * Humans highly motivated to organize the experiences they have into concepts and theories of how the world works.
 * Key finding: young people learn best on their own or with peers. Knowledge that is taught them lacks the depth of understanding that comes from this process of figuring things out.
 * Warning! learning turned over entirely to youth, they may flounder and spin their wheels

C. Collaborative Learning- Guided Participation
 * Vygotsky- stop thinking of development as something that happens inside a young person's mind.
 * development comes from interactions between the child and other people
 * focus on shared interaction
 * Youth still active producers of their development, active in cooperation with others
 * Guidance= Scaffolding/ Support/ Structure
 * not rigid or fixed; creatively adapted in response to the learner
 * How to do it: Mutual process- Guide makes use of cues from learner to determine what scaffolding (if any) is needed.
 * Guide directs youth's attention to important clues or help to simplify a task
 * Guide models behavior
 * Guide provides words that help lead youth to key concepts
 * Motivational support- offer encouragement, challenge youth to stretch, steer away from situations that will create high frustration
 * Process also includes youth requesting help from Guide when he/she wants it
 * example: break complex problem down into simpler pieces that are easier for youth to solve
 * Pose questions, ask for ideas for solutions
 * allow youth to troubleshoot, try solutions
 * support active learning and intervene to keep learning process on track
 * Maintaining right balance of supporting youth ownership and intervention is by no means easy
 * Balance may differ according to situation, age of youth and subject matter
 * in some domains, example: moral development, youth appear to grasp concepts more effectively through interactions with peers and without adults (Rogoff, 1998)

D. Relationship Theories: Caring Connections as a Base for Development
 * It often takes little to make humans- especially children and youth- feel distressed, angry or crushed
 * Starting point for psychoanalysis (Freud, 1953, 1961) and derivative theories such as attachment theory, object relations theory and self-psychology (Bowlby, 1969; Kohut & Wolf, 1978; Winnicott, 1975)
 * Close relationship with caring adults essential to human development- this relationship provides a secure base for development
 * Early adolescence can be a time of new emotional challenges and threats to self esteem. Also a time of greater autonomy from parents- increases value for adolescents to have this type of caring, safe and stable relationship outside of the family.
 * Research suggests that a long-term relationship with a mentor can help youth, especially younger adolescents, by providing empathy, acceptance and help with learning to regulate emotions and threats to self esteem (Rhodes, 2002)
 * Role of program leaders in providing supportive environment most apparent when something happens that triggers youth's emotional insecurities

E. Sociological Theories: Learning Norms and Aquiring Social Capital
 * sociologists view humans as social creatures. Development is a process of coming to take your place within social groups and society.
 * learn to follow or navigate "norms" of the group
 * develop social identity as part of the group- acquired through social interactions
 * when young person enters society, many norms, rules & ways of thinking are already in place
 * youth may create new norms, example: youth today download music instead of buying it in a store
 * youth from different cultural backgrounds have different frameworks for how youth and adults relate (Serpell & Hatano, 1997) which can shape their expectations for relationships with adult leaders (Villarreal, Perkins, Borden & Keith, 2003).
 * Although adult leaders cannot force positive norms onto a group, they can play a major role in cultivating an organizational culture that supports prosocial behavior (Eccles & Gostman, 2002)
 * Across all these theories, adults need to find a balance between providing guidance around obstacles and keeping youth involved as critical actors in their own development.
 * When youth are engaged, experience ownership, and can see an unobstructed path ahead, their energy for positive development is unfurled.

As discussed by Hamilton (1999), the concept of PYD was understood in at least three interrelated but nevertheless different ways:
 * 2.** __**Positive Youth Development: Processes, Programs & Problematics (Lerner et al, 2011)**__
 * as a developmental process
 * as a philosophy or approach to youth programming
 * as instances of youth programs and organizations focused on fostering the healthy or positive development of youth.

A. Positive Youth Development as a Development Process- emphasize that basic process of human development involves mutually influential relations between developing individual and multiple levels of his/her changing context.
 * These (developmental systems theoretical) models emphasize that the basic process of human development involves mutually influential relations between the developing individual and the multiple levels of his/her changing context.
 * History, or temporality, is part of the ecology of human development that is integrated with the individual through developmental regulations. As such, there is always change and, as well, at least some potential for systematic change (i.e., for plasticity), across the life span (Lerner, 2002). This potential for change represents a fundamental strength of human development.
 * Given the enormity of the individual and contextual changes characterizing the adolescent period, and the fact that, in adolescence, the individual has the cognitive, behavioral, and social relational skills to contribute actively and often quite effectively to his or her own developmental changes (Lerner & Walls, 1999), adolescence is an ideal ―ontogenetic laboratory for studying the plasticity of human development and for exploring how coupling individual and contexts within the developmental system may promote positive development during this period.
 * If adaptive developmental regulations emerge or can be fostered between the plastic, developing young person and features of his context (e.g., the structure and function of his/her family, school, peer group, and community), then the likelihood will be increased that youth may thrive (that is, manifest healthy, positive developmental changes) across the adolescent decade.
 * Study of Purpose- William Damon
 * central indicator of positive youth development and youth thriving is engagement in pursuits that serve the common welfare, and makes meaningful contributions to communities
 * assesses the ways in which youth go beyond their own self-centered needs and extend outward to the pursuit of goals that benefit the world beyond
 * To Damon (2008), a purpose is a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and is of intended consequence to the world beyond the self. It is an ―ultimate concern or overall goal for one’s life, helping to organize one’s life decisions and actions, and is thus manifested in one’s behavior. The purpose is internalized, or ―owned by the individual, and therefore is central to his or her identity. As such, the operational criteria of purpose are:
 * the person must have all elements of the definition: something to accomplish, a beyond-the-self rationale, plans for future action, meaningfulness to self, and incorporation into one’s identity (that is, behavior that is not driven by oughts);
 * the concern must function to organize the person’s decisions and activities in support of the concern
 * the person must manifest the concern with visible action; and
 * the person cannot imagine himself/herself without the concern, it is necessary to do the activities related to the concern.


 * Developmental Assets- Peter Benson and The Search Institute (e.g., Benson, 2008; Benson, Scales, & Syvertsen, 2011)
 * integral in providing the vocabulary and vision about the strengths of young people and the communities in which they reside. Coining the term―developmental assets, Benson and his colleagues describe "internal or individual assets, which are a set of ―skills, competencies, and values" of a young person, grouped by four categories (Benson et al., 2011):
 * 1) commitment to learning
 * 2) positive values
 * 3) social competencies
 * 4) positive identity.
 * These individual assets represent the talents, energies, strengths, constructive interests, and "sparks" that every young person possesses (Benson, 2008).
 * Thriving occurs as a result of aligning these individual strengths with a community’s ―external or ecological assets, which are conceived as ―environmental, contextual, and relational features of socializing systems and are organized into four categories (e.g., Benson et al., 2011):
 * 1) support
 * 2) empowerment
 * 3) boundaries and expectations
 * 4) constructive use of time.
 * These developmental assets have been conceptualized in a way to emphasize and encourage their practical application by highlighting the role of communities in fostering well-being and positive development among young people. Current work by Benson and colleagues (e.g., Benson et al., 2011) seeks to extend the applicability of the approach to diverse youth, both in the U.S. and internationally.
 * Study of Stage-Environment Fit & Motivation: Jacquelynne Eccles
 * schools and youth programs must be developmentally appropriate for the youth populations they serve in order to ensure a "stage-environment fit" that motivates adolescents and promotes their positive youth development (e.g., Eccles, 2004).
 * examines the roles of motivational beliefs, values, and goals on an adolescent’s positive development.
 * individual’s activity choice, persistence, and performance are related to his or her expectations of success and value for the activity which, in turn, are also influenced by a variety of other personal and contextual factors (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002).
 * Study of Motivation, Active Engagement and Real-Life Challenges: Reed Larson
 * For Larson (2006), PYD is "a process in which young people’s capacity for being motivated by challenge energizes their active engagement in development" (p. 677).
 * the motivational system must become activated and remain engaged in multiple domains of development while young people deal with everyday real life challenges.
 * Defining initiative as "the capacity to direct cumulative effort over time toward achievement of a long term goal"(Larson, Hansen, & Walker, 2005, p. 160), Larson (2000)posits that initiative is a central requirement for components of PYD, such as creativity, leadership, altruism, and civic engagement (p. 170).
 * Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) Model: Margaret Beale Spencer
 * takes into account structural factors, cultural influences, and individual experiences, as well as individuals’ perceptions of these features (Spencer, 2006).
 * emphasis on the ways in which youth make sense of their contexts, and the role that these understandings play in their perceptions of events, people, and opportunities in their environments.
 * emphasizes the role of coping strategies that youth develop in different contexts, which in turn provide feedback regarding the adolescent’s emerging identity and lead to positive or negative developmental outcomes.
 * Positive Adolescent to Adult Transitions: Stephen and Mary Agnes Hamilton
 * particular emphasis on the school-to-work transition and the role of adults, programs, and institutions in supporting this transition.
 * transition to adulthood is defined by changes in social roles, as adolescents shift from being dependent upon adults to being capable of caring for self and others. This shift is structured by the many contexts in which a youth is embedded – family, school, work, society.
 * Study of Resilience- Ann Masten
 * Masten (2001) notes that to be considered "resilient", an individual must not only be identified as experiencing adversity, but he or she must also be deemed as doing "good" or "OK" in terms of the quality of adaptation or developmental outcome.
 * Study of Individual Context Relational Processes and Positive Youth Development (Lerner et al)
 * if positive development rests on mutually-beneficial relations between the adolescent and the assets of his/her ecology, then thriving youth should be positively engaged with and act to enhance their world. As well, they should be less prone to engage in risk/problem behaviors.
 * Figure 1 presents an illustration of this conception of the PYD developmental process.

B. Positive Youth Development as a Philosophy or Approach to Youth Programming

1. Four Domains that represent health & wellness (Eccles & Gootman, 2002)
 * physical development
 * intellectual development
 * psychological and emotional development
 * social development.
 * Positive development does not require possession of all assets. Having more assets, however, is better than having fewer and it is beneficial to have assets in all four domains
 * Youth need access to contexts that facilitate their development through exposure to positive experiences, settings, and people, and to contexts that provide opportunities to develop and refine real-life skills.

2. Building on the work of both Roth and Brooks-Gunn (2003) and Blum (2003), as well as others (e.g., Rhodes, 2002), R. M. Lerner (2004) argued that there are three fundamental characteristics of effective PYD programs. These "Big Three" characteristics are:
 * Positive and sustained adult-youth relations, relations (relations between a young person and an adult who is competent, caring, and continually available, for at least a year, such as a mentor, coach, or teacher)
 * Life-skill building activities (e.g., enhancing skills pertinent to the selection, optimization, and compensation skills we discussed earlier; Gestsdóttir & Lerner, 2008)
 * Opportunities for youth participation in and leadership of valued family, school, and community activities.
 * Lerner argued as well that these features of youth programs needed to be simultaneously and integratively present for PYD to be effectively promoted.

3. Five Youth Development Program Frameworks (Heck and Subramaniam, 2009) they defined as conceptualization that "helps give direction and purpose to a program" (p. 2).
 * Targeting Life Skills
 * Developmental Assets (as conceptualized by Search Institute; e.g., Benson, Scales, Hamilton, and Sesma, 2006)
 * The Four Essential Elements- identified as belonging, mastery, generosity, and independence and were originally proposed as the "Circle of Courage" (Brendtro, Brokenleg, & Van Bockern, 1990)
 * The Five Cs (R.M. Lerner, et al., 2005): Competence, Confidence, Connection, Character and Caring.
 * The Community Action Framework for Youth Development (Gambone, Klem, & Connell, 2002; Gambone & Connell, 2004)
 * building community capacity and conditions for change
 * implementing community strategies to enhance supports and opportunities for youth
 * increasing supports and opportunities for youth
 * improving youth development outcomes
 * improving long-term outcomes in adulthood.
 * To implement these strategies programs must meet five key requirements: adequate nutrition, health and shelter; multiple supportive relationships; challenging and engaging activities and experiences; meaningful opportunities for involvement; and physical and emotional safety.
 * In addition, Heck, Subramaniam, and Carlos (2010) discuss a sixth framework, the Step-It-Up2-Thrive Theory of Change that was formulated by the Thrive Foundation for Youth. The goal of this theory of change is to put youth on thriving trajectories. The theory is composed of several research-based components that build upon each other and follow a logical sequence in order to improve the likelihood that a youth will thrive:
 * Identify and develop "sparks" (Benson, 2008);
 * Adopt a growth mindset
 * Reflect on twelve indicators of thriving (that can be organized within the Five Cs of PYD and the ―Sixth C‖ of youth contribution; Jeličić, et al., 2007; R. M. Lerner et al., 2005), and identify indicators to focus on as part of the mentoring relationship (King et al., 2005; R.M. Lerner et al., 2005)
 * Build goal management skills through goal selection, pursuit of strategies, and shifting approaches in the face of challenges (e.g., Gestsdóttir & Lerner, 2007, 2008).
 * The Step-It-Up-2-Thrive model emphasizes also the importance of positive and caring relationships between an adult and youth, foci that are emphasized in other PYD approaches to youth programming (such as "The Big Three" described earlier).

Finally, Dukakis et al. (2009) argue that, in order to understand how to support the positive development of youth, practitioners need to focus on more than indicators of individual outcomes. They argue that a tri-level perspective that considers the context of youth development ―is critical to identifying implementation issues associated with policies and practices intended to facilitate youth development and to addressing shortfalls and sharing successes (p. 2). They present a model that specifies:
 * Individual-level indicators, that is, indicators of the progress of a young person along a PYD path and the outcomes of PYD
 * Setting-level indicators, that is, indicators of the resources associated with or the opportunities provided by a youth program
 * System-level indicators, meaning indicators of the policy context pertinent to youth and of the youth development infrastructure present in a neighborhood, community, state, or nation.

> 1. Adult engagement: Community adults build sustained, asset-building relationships with children and youth, both within and beyond family. The target is to mobilize and > engage a critical mass of community adults. > 2. Youth engagement: Adolescents use their asset-building capacities with peers and with younger children and in actions that help settings, places, programs, and adults > undergo transformations in the direction of asset building. The target is to mobilize and engage a critical mass of adolescents. > 3. Sector engagement: Families, neighborhoods, school, congregations, and youth organizations activate their asset-building potential. The target is for most of these places > and contexts to weave asset building into their strategic and operational fabric. > 4. Programs: A community infrastructure of quality early childhood after-school, weekend, and summer programs is available and used by children and youth. As in sector > transformations, the goal is to weave asset building into their DNA. > 5. Community supports: Financial, leadership, media, and policy resources are mobilized to support and sustain the transformations described in strategies 1–4.
 * 3. __Developmental Assets: An Overview of Theory, Research and Practice (Benson, 2007)__**
 * The theory and research undergirding developmental assets and asset-building community are designed, in part, to reframe the targets and pathways of human development around images of strength and potential.
 * one (hypothesis) that arguably is the strongest point of theoretical consensus across scholars, research programs, and practitioners within the positive youth development ﬁeld is the belief that assets are enhanced when contexts and settings are conﬁgured and organized in speciﬁc ways. Context matters and contexts can be changed.
 * Intentional change in our view is the purposeful effort to enhance the fusion of person and context, and because of the dynamic, bidirectionality of this interaction, these are three major points of potential intervention. The three of these, in combination, generate developmental assets, thereby increasing the probability of adaptive developmental regulation. These are:
 * Increasing the developmental attentiveness of contexts (to increase their capacity to nurture, support, and constructively challenge the developing person).
 * Enhancing the skills and competencies of youth (to further enable their “natural” capacity to engage with, connect, change, and learn from their social contexts).
 * Creating processes and opportunities to invite youth to actively exercise and utilize their capacity to engage with and change their social contexts. In practice and research, this form of intentional change travels under such concepts as youth leadership, service learning, youth empowerment, and youth engagement.
 * The framework synthesizes research in anumber of ﬁelds with the goal of selecting for inclusion those developmental nutrients that (a) have been demonstrated to prevent high-risk behavior (e.g., substance use, violence, dropping out of school), enhance thriving, or build resilience; (b) have evidence of generalizability across social location;(c)contribute balance to the overall framework (i.e.,of ecological and individual-level factors); (d) are within the capacity of communities to effect their acquisition; and (e) are within the capacity of youth to proactively procure.
 * The developmental assets are assessed in a 156-item self-reporting survey instrument, administered anonymously
 * Adolescent health is often understood as the absence of symptoms, pathology, or health-compromising behavior.This incomplete view of well-being mimics, of course, the “medical model” approach to health. The emerging ﬁeld of youth development places particular emphasis on expanding the concept of health to include the kinds of skills, behaviors, and competencies needed to succeed in employment, education, and civic life.
 * creating asset-building communities: 5 interrelated strategies (Benson, 2002; Benson et al., 2003). These are as follows:


 * 4. __Kilroy et al (2007)- Youth Voice__**

This is something that a current trend in urban education. Example: Long Branch, New Jersey High School [] Student Researcher Program

The Carnegie Corporations Schools for a New Society Initiative to transform large urban high schools into small learning communities

Outcomes of small learning communities in urban area:


 * small size of school is not end but means to ensure all students:
 * Engage in rigorous academic curriculum
 * Youth participation
 * At first adult facilitators but over time students took over group leadership roles

- Challenging for adults to let students take over leadership roles


 * Students feel more invested, stronger likelihood of future participation
 * Teachers took into consideration student researchers, that every student will want to participant differently.

- Success rate has yet to be measured. But we do know there are still areas in need of improvement


 * Partnership between businesses, universities, parent, student groups

A student in a small learning community states “we need more voice and we need more action on our voice from administrators (E2007, pp. 392).

5. __Perkins & Caldwell (2005)- Resiliency, Protective Processes, Promotion, and Community Youth Development__
Perkins & Caldwell (2005) state a question that has not been addressed yet “How do some youth who live and develop in less than ideal circumstance mature into responsible adolescent and adults, with others succumb to presses in their high risk environments and get into trouble with the police or participate regularly I unhealthy and unproductive behaviors?”

Main points:
 * Resiliency- Masten (2001) states that “resiliency involves competence and adaptability in the face of adversity.Instead of focusing on negative developmental outcomes. One needs to focus on how youth adapt to challenging conditions, adversity. With program which focus on positive development.

Myth 1: All people who survive their childhood and adolescence are resilient. Some youth at greater risk than others. Myth 2: Resilient individuals are completely successful in every area of their lives. Might overcome problems in academics. But not have social skills. Myth 3: Resilience stems from an internal personality trait. People have to take a vested interest in youth people for them to thrive. But circumstances of life can play a major factor in having problems again in life. Myth 4; Resiliency is rare. About 30% don’t recover from adversity. .


 * Bronfenbrenner (1998) Protective Factors
 * Individual Level- Problem solving skills, intellectual abilities.
 * Family Level- Close relationship with one parent.
 * Peer Level- A close friend.
 * School Level- Positive school climate.
 * Community Level- Positive relationship with nonparental adults.
 * Prevention
 * Promotion

5 C’s by Lerner
 * Competence
 * Confidence
 * Connection Character
 * Caring
 * Contribution

Examples:

Freehold, NJ YMCA which doesn’t charge children 8 and up. http://www.ymcanj.org/freehold-borough.html

Mentoring, Relationally Driven- Relationships must be long term to be effective.

Aslan Youth Ministries Red Bank, NJ faith based nonprofit Works with at risk youth in Monmouth County, NJ, Ouanaminthe, Haiti, along the northeastern border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. []

Big Brothers Big Sisters.

III. New Resources = = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZolcNG3GVCs

NBC's Brian Williams discusses how summer learning loss puts students at a disadvantage academically.

For more information, go to gradelevelreading.net, http://www.acacamps.org/education/summer-learning-resources


 * 6. __Larson (2000). Toward a Psychology of Positive Youth Development.__**

A. Development of initiative


 * Initiative is the ability to be motivated from within to direct attention and effort toward a challenging goal. A perfect example from my experiences is the Marine Corps. Initiative is a hallmark characteristic of a successful United States Marine, and one of the Corps’ 14 leadership traits ([]). Many youth programs use these traits, to include initiative, as a template for their programming. A current example of this is the TRUST Youth Program which is one effort within My Tactical Advantage LLC’s Fitness and Training Center ([|http://www.mytacticaladvantageonline.com/#!trust-youth-program]).
 * The context best suited to the development of initiative appears to be that of structured voluntary activities (typically sports and the arts).
 * Recent studies have found that boredom is greatly responsible for deficiencies in positive youth development.
 * Initiative is a core requirement for other components of positive development, such as creativity, leadership, altruism, and civic engagement.
 * The keys to successful transition to adulthood can be found in the existence of initiative.
 * Young adults in our society fail to carry through on a high rate of the intentions they set for themselves (Gollwitzer, 1999). This is an area that could be approved upon by positive youth development programs. Youth need to have the examples of positive role models and appealing images of what their futures can hold. A shining modern example of this worthwhile endeavor is Big Brothers Big Sisters ([|www.bbbs.org]).
 * Finally, the ultimate key to initiative is sustaining a cumulative effort over time. This effort must include intrinsic motivation and a concerted engagement with the environment. One last example I will provide is that of training to land a jet on an aircraft carrier. As stated in Larson’s definition, initiative must have an end-state in mind. The challenging goal of catching your tailhook on the arresting wire of a floating runway out in the middle of the ocean must be kept in the forefront of your mind as you go through the rigors of the lengthy training syllabus.

B. Contexts of Adolescents’ Daily Experience

1. Structured voluntary activities provide a fertile context for positive development. In particular, the development of initiative. 2. They provide a unique combination of intrinsic motivation and concentration (two critical elements of initiative). 3. By definition, a criteria for this category is that these activities be voluntary, and not a school requirement. Additionally, this participation must occur within a system involving constraints, rules, and goals. 4. Sports is probably the best example in this category. In addition to providing what Larson believes would be an excellent opportunity for the harvesting of initiative, studies have affirmed the arguments linking participation in structured leisure activities to positive youth development, and have also shown that participants in most extracurricular activities achieved better educational outcomes than non-participants (Eccles, Barber, Stone, and Hunt (2003)). Real-world examples of this would obviously include all school athletic teams as well as extra-curricular sports clubs.
 * One major block of adolescents' daily experience is schoolwork. Studies have concluded that schoolwork is not productive in the context of experiencing initiative. This is believed to be true due to the pattern of concentration without intrinsic motivation.
 * Additionally, exerting effort in an environment of challenge and complexity is critical.
 * While intrinsic motivation is vital, it must be present in the context of concentration and challenge. Gibson and Rader (1979) called this "other-directed attention." They referred to this as a “mental effort that is under the control of incentives and structuring provided by adults.”
 * Most adolescents spend their time in opposing situations. Schoolwork involves concentration and challenge without being intrinsically motivated, while leisure time provides the experience of intrinsic motivation but not in a context of concentration and challenge.
 * Structured Voluntary Activities

Example: When it is Girl Scout cookie sales season Girl must develop a sales pitch. Brain storm who, where they are going to sell. Along with develop methods for keeping track of orders. Girls learning goal setting. Theories exhibited include intrinsic motivation, concerted enjoyment, temporal arc. Service activities are an important sub category of youth activities which provide proactive experience for young people. From my experience with Girl Scouts, Circle K in college, now there parent organization Kiwanis International it is interesting to point out that “Hanks and Eckland (1978) found that youth who participated in extracurricular activities in high school were more likely to be involved in voluntary associations at age 30” (Larson, 2000, pp 175). As you will rarely see someone join a community service organization as a volunteer or a participant as an adult who didn’t have that experience as a teenager.

Example: Girl Scouts Gold Award Boy Scouts Eagle Scout

Practice examples:
 * Studies have shown that Little League coaches who uses positive reinforcement players are more likely to return (Larson, 2000 pp 180). That is why training a coach is so important.
 * Rutgers Youth Sport Council http://youthsports.rutgers.edu/

C. Outcome Research


 * Most existing evaluation research on structured youth activities is too general, and has not sufficiently examined outcomes from activity participation with a focus on initiative.
 * “Participation in school extracurricular activities and community youth organizations has been found to be correlated with higher self-esteem, feelings of control over one's life, lower rates of delinquency, and higher educational aspirations and achievement” (Holland & Andre, 1987; Larson, 1994).
 * The claim that structured youth activities promote positive developmental outcomes is more adequately tested by longitudinal studies.
 * Although not classically structured youth activities, adventure programs, such as Outward Bound ([|www.outwardbound.org]), can be useful in outcome research because they lend themselves to rigorous pre and post evaluation.
 * Structured voluntary activities can have powerful, sustainable, positive effects on development.
 * It must be noted that most outcome research does not allow us to conceptualize or discriminate what processes or experiences create positive development in some activities but not in others.
 * Recent research by Shirley Brice Heath (1999) provides a window on processes that are more internal, organismic, and better suited to explaining the development of initiative.


 * 7. __Saito and Sullivan (2011). The Many Faces, Features and Outcomes of Youth Engagement.__**

A. Youth Engagement


 * Youth Engagement means different things to different people
 * Has been called youth leadership, civic engagement, youth participation, youth voice, among others names.

B. The Rings of Engagement

1. Participation - strengthened through opportunities for connection to positive people and places. 2. Passion - commitment to ongoing growth and development in a particular area of pursuit. 3. Voice - requires opportunities for youth to have input into decisions that affect them. 4. Collective action - includes shared power and decision-making authority among youth and adults.
 * The intent is to conceptualize, convey and stimulate alternative ways of thinking about youth engagement by integrating learning from scientific research, practice-based literature, and the experiences of practitioners and youth.
 * Four critical dimensions of Youth Engagement:
 * All are dependent on a core of authentic relationships and a context of engaging people, places and programs.
 * A fifth ring surrounds the other four (people, places, programs). The theme of authentic relationships is within the context of this 5th ring.
 * Practitioners do not see the rings as hierarchical.

C. Three important ideas about all the forms of youth engagement:


 * Youth as Contributors and Leaders - recognition and belief that young people have skills, perspectives and expertise that can be tapped to help make activities and programs relevant, engaging and effective at promoting growth and development.
 * Developmental Perspectives – the kinds of programs and opportunities change as the youth develops.
 * Reciprocal Relationships at the Core – Engagement depends on ongoing, authentic relationships between youth and adults.

D. An Agenda to Increase and Advance Youth Engagement


 * There are many forms of youth engagement as expressed and seen through the inclusive lens of the Rings of Engagement framework. Done well, any form of youth engagement can benefit young people, youth programs, and communities.
 * Successful programs and opportunities will be more attractive when they meet adolescents’ natural developmental needs for experiencing increasing levels of autonomy, voice and decision-making authority.
 * No single organization has to provide all of these opportunities.
 * There needs to be a coordinated system of useful research leading to research-based professional and product development, marketing, technology and other infrastructure systems to support communication, connection and learning.

E. A comprehensive agenda to promote and support youth engagement should include the following:


 * Useful research - to deepen our understanding of the benefits of youth engagement.
 * Deepen and broaden the practice of youth engagement through the development of useful tools and vehicles for practitioners and other stakeholders to learn from and with each other.
 * Create effective communication and awareness-raising tools. These should translate research tools and messages that pique the interest and meet the needs of a variety of audiences.
 * Build system - level opportunities, resources and technology. These should support collaborative training, research, communication and connections across people, programs and communities.

F. Final thoughts


 * Youth Engagement is more than a method or tool. It is a shift in our thinking about the relationships and opportunities that can exist in our communities between young people and adults.
 * We will continue to strive for developmental opportunities for engagement and leadership in programs and communities.
 * We will always remember that youth engagement requires a personal commitment.
 * We will recognize that all people, regardless of age, have strengths to offer and that young people have a right and need to walk alongside us. In the process, we will learn from each other and work together to get it right. (Sullivan, 2011).