Youth’s Commitment to Responsibilities in Youth Programs

Youth programs can provide a space for skill development and \npractice through task-oriented activities (Denner, Meyer, & Beon, \n2005). This qualitative, grounded theory study was aimed at \nlearning why youth remain committed to their responsibilities in \nyouth programs and also, what role program leaders play in this \nprocess of youth commitment. The coded responsibility data was \nanalyzed from the Pathways Project, which is a longitudinal \nstudy on youth, parents, and program leaders from voluntary project- \nbased programs. Results show that in youth developing \ncommitment, there were four themes: (1) youth viewed their responsibilities as a team effort; (2) youth had self-pride when responsibilities were completed; (3) youth believed that responsibilities \nwere achievable; and (4) youth were able to stay committed \nto their responsibilities when planning was done in advance. For \nthe leaders’ roles, there were three themes found that highlighted \nthe importance of: (1) facilitating within a group of youth, (2) supporting \nthe youth through flexibility, and (3) being present to serve as examples for the youth. In all, these factors were shown to play an important role in the youth staying committed. This study should be continued and used to improve curriculum development in and outside of classroom settings.