Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs) help connect youth to opportunities for career exploration, skill development, and mentorship. Despite heightened investment in SYEPs, research regarding positive impacts is limited. Most of the common SYEP evaluation strategies are rooted in deficit thinking and focus on outcomes such as reducing violent…

Authoring Action (A2) is a youth-focused, arts-based, afterschool and summer program. A2's mission is "to transform the lives of youth and the world through the power of creative writing, spoken word, visual and media arts, film-making and leadership education that promotes positive systemic change." Using in-depth interviews, this study…

This study is part of a larger Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project engaging youth of color (YOC; aged 16-24 years) in a planning a multilevel health promotion campaign for a large safety net hospital. Analyses focus on youths' conceptualizations of antiracism, and their recommendations on how to facilitate an intentionally…

"Closeness" between mentor and mentee is previously defined as an important indicator of relationship quality in youth mentoring, but whether this is the case in instrumental mentoring for young adults remains unclear. This is an exploratory study examining how instrumental mentoring serves young adults in their instrumental needs and…

Identity is the key psychological task of adolescence, with lifelong implications on health and behavior. A holistic understanding of content and process of identity development among male adolescents and emerging adults of color may lead to more effective interventions to improve health outcomes. Men aged 18 to 24 years were recruited from a…

Sex communication interventions facilitate positive sexual health outcomes with heterosexual adolescents. The same has yet to be established for male youth with same-sex attractions, behaviors, and identities. Our study describes the experiences of gay, bisexual, and queer (GBQ)-identifying adolescent males with parent-child sex communication. We…

Academic resilience reflects individuals' high levels of achievement and motivation despite the presence of stressful conditions that place them at risk for reduced performance. To understand what informs resilience, this study used narrative data from 274 Mexican-origin late adolescents/young adults (aged 19-25 years) to understand how a…

There is currently a lack of theoretically based research regarding positive youth development (PYD) and youth in recreational sport settings, including residential summer sport camps. This qualitative research study explored the ways in which positive developmental experiences are facilitated at a residential summer sport camp. Using a case study…

In many industrialized countries, the transition into adulthood has become prolonged and complex. The consequence is that the process of identity formation within various life domains is often being delayed. This study applies a qualitative longitudinal research strategy to track the experiences of 28 young Australians as they undergo the process…

Identity and meaning are fundamental to human experience and are particularly pertinent during adolescence and times of adversity. While identity development and meaning making can be different for vulnerable young people, who experience multiple adverse life events, there is currently little evidence of how these young people construct identity…

For street children in Mumbai, gambling is mostly a social and recreational activity. This study is based on data gathered from a survey of 70 youths aged 12 to 24, two focus groups, and participant observation. It offers glimpses into various facets of their gambling, including age patterns, games played, venues, and how group and street…

For young men, the transition to adulthood may be a time of heightened adherence to traditional gender roles and norms of masculinity. However, recent research with young men in gender-specific contexts has indicated that some contexts support a construction of masculinity that is more inclusive. Through a theoretical thematic analysis of…

Leadership and developmental scholars have highlighted the need to enhance youth leadership skills. Yet, research that explains youths' perceptions of how and when role models influences their leadership growth processes is limited. To address these gaps and begin to develop an understanding of youths' perspectives, we employed a qualitative,…

Although truancy has been studied extensively, less attention has been given to the actual voices of the truants themselves. The current study helps fill that gap by examining recollections from a sample of 34 emerging adults (ages 18-25) who experienced various levels of high school truancy across different geographical settings. A qualitative…

While mentoring programs are prevalent, limited research focused on the mentors' experiences exist, particularly during critical periods of development. Using a qualitative, grounded theory approach, this study explores the elements of the mentoring experience for a cohort of late adolescent/emerging adult women in a long-term program. Outcomes…