The Art of Restraint: How Experienced Program Leaders Use Their Authority to Support Youth Agency

Abstract

The staff of youth development programs perform a delicate balancing act between supporting youth agency and exercising necessary authority. To understand this balancing in daily practice, we interviewed 25 experienced (M = 14 years) leaders of arts, leadership, and technology programs for high-school-aged youth. We obtained accounts of when, how, and why they gave advice, set limits, and "supported youth when disagreeing." Qualitative analysis found surprising similarities across leaders. They used authority to give advice and set limits, but did so with reasoned restraint. Maximizing youth's opportunities to learn from experience was central in their decision making. They described employing authority in intentional ways aimed at helping youth's work succeed, strengthening youth's agency, and building skills for agency (e.g., critical thinking, "clarifying intent").

Trajectories of trust within the youth program context.

“…This study was conducted within the Pathways Project (see Griffith & Larson, 2015;Larson, Izenstark, Rodriguez, & Perry, 2015; youthdev.illinois.edu), a longitudinal mixedmethods study on developmental processes within youth programs serving high-school-age youth, within the family context, and where the two contexts intersect. One of the main questions in the Pathways Project was "How do program leaders' interactions with youth facilitate youth's work and learning?"…”

Experiences, activities, and personal characteristics as predictors of engagement in STEM‐focused summer programs

“…This provides youth with feedback about what they can accomplish and their ability to solve problems and overcome challenges, enhancing an underlying sense of self-efficacy and confidence that may support their engagement. Larson, Izenstark, Rodriquez, and Perry (2016) highlight how staff working to design and deliver high-quality OST activities take steps to try maximize the opportunities participating youth have to experience a sense of agency.…”

How to bargain successfully with adolescents: What can be learned from youth development professionals

“…Youth's participation in decision‐making is valued as a “right” of youth (Hart, 1997). Program leaders also view it as an important vehicle for youth's development of agency, agency skills, and other social‐emotional competencies (Kirshner, 2015; Larson et al, 2016). Indeed, evaluation research finds that participation in program decision‐making increases youth's motivation and social‐emotional learning (Durlak et al, 2010; Yeager, 2017).…”