Effect of HOBY Leadership Seminar on Self-Reported Psychosocial Outcomes in Adolescents
Abstract
Civic engagement is important for the positive development of adolescents. As such, many youth development programs promote civic engagement, particularly community service and volunteerism. This report is a program evaluation of a youth leadership seminar that seeks to empower adolescents to engage in community service. Using a pre to post mixed-methods design, we evaluated 114 adolescent participants on several psychosocial outcomes. Findings indicated that participants experienced positive change that was consistent with program goals. Quantitative findings demonstrated self-reported increases in areas of cognitive autonomy, moral ideal and social responsibility. Qualitative findings included the important themes of an increased desire to volunteer, confidence, and positive feelings towards self. Implications of these findings and future directions are also discussed.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Alder, R. P. & Goggin, J. (2005). What do we mean by “civic engagement”? Journal of Transformative Education, 3(3), 236-253. doi:10.1177/1541344605276792
Alt, M. N. (1997). How effective an educational tool is student community service? NASSP Bulletin, 81(591), 8–16. doi:10.1177/019263659708159103
Ballard, P. J. (2014). What motivates youth civic involvement? Journal of Adolescent Research, 29(4), 439-463. doi:10.1177/0743558413520224
Beckert, T. E. (2007). Cognitive autonomy and self-evaluation in adolescence: A conceptual investigation and instrument development. North American Journal of Psychology, 9(3), 579–594. doi:10.1037/t54411-000
Creswell, J. W., Plano Clark, V. L., Gutmann, M. L., & Hanson, W. E. (2003). Advanced mixed methods research designs. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (pp. 209–240). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Ferrence Ray, V. (2016). Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership: Using a theoretical model as the intersection of youth leadership education and service-learning. New Directions for Student Leadership, 2016(150), 97–109. doi:10.1002/yd.20174
Flanagan, C., & Levine, P. (2010). Civic engagement and the transition to adulthood. The Future of Children, 20(1), 159–179.
Hamilton, S. F. & Fenzel, L. M. (1988) The impact of volunteer experience on adolescent social development: Evidence of program effects. Journal of Adolescent Research, 3(1). 65-80.
Hardy, S. A., Walker, L. J., Olsen, J. A., Woodbury, R. D., & Hickman, J. R. (2014). Moral identity as moral ideal self: Links to adolescent outcomes. Developmental Psychology, 50(1), 45–57. doi:10.1037/a0033598
Hsieh, H. F., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277–1288. doi:10.1177/1049732305276687
Janzen, R., Pancer, S. M., Nelson, G., Loomis, C., & Hasford, J. (2010). Evaluating community participation of prevention: Life narratives of youth. Journal of Community Psychology, 38(8), 992–1006. doi:10.1002/jcop.20410
Johnson, M. K., Beebe, T., Mortimer, J. T., & Snyder, M. (1998). Volunteerism in adolescence: A process perspective. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 8(3), 309-332. doi:10.1207/s15327795jra0803_2
Komives, S. R., & Wagner, W. (2009). Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of leadership development. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Lee, S. Y., Olszewski-Kubilius, P., Donahue, R., & Weimholt, K. (2008). The Civic Leadership Institute: A service-learning program for academically gifted youth. Journal of Advanced Academics, 19(2), 272-308.
Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Newmann, F. M. & Rutter, R. A. (1983). The effects of high school community service programs on students’ social development. Final Report. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED240043.pdf
Pancer, S. M., Pratt, M., Hunsberger, B., & Alisat, S. (2007). Community and political involvement in adolescence: What distinguishes the activists from the uninvolved? Journal of Community Psychology, 35(6), 741–759. doi:10.1002/jcop.20176
Penner, L. A. (2002). Dispositional and organizational influences on sustained volunteerism: An interactionist perspective. Journal of Social Issues, 58(3), 447–467. doi:10.1111/1540-4560.00270
Reinders, H. & Youniss, J. (2006). School-based required community service and civic development in adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 10(1), 2-12. doi:10.1207/s1532480xads1001_1
Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (3rd Ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Schwartz, S., & Suyemoto, K. (2013). Creating change from the inside: Youth development within a youth community organizing program. Journal of Community Psychology, 41(3), 341–358. doi:10.1002/jcop.21541
Wagner, W. (2007). The social change model of leadership: A brief overview. Concepts and Connections, 14(1), 8–10.
Youniss, J., McLellan, J. A., & Yates, M. (1997). What we know about engendering civic identity. American Behavioral Scientist, 40(5), 620–631.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2018.573
Copyright (c) 2018 Andy Harris, Troy E. Beckert

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.