Rates of intense anxiety among teenagers have risen dramatically, a major concern. Outward Bound (OB), a wilderness expedition program that promotes learning through challenge experiences, is found to help youth decrease anxiety. To understand how program staff support this learning, we asked 30 OB instructors to describe their successful work…

Developmental theory historically viewed demanding roles (at home, job) as important developmental contexts. However, adolescents' participation in these roles has fallen. This qualitative research examined role experiences in United States youth development programs. A central question among others was, "How can youth experience internal…

We investigated adolescent responsibility across 2 developmental contexts, home and an afterschool program. Longitudinal data were collected from 355 ethnically diverse 11-20-year-old adolescents (M = 15.49; 55.9% female) in 14 project-based programs. Youth rated their responsibility in the program and at home at 4 time points; parents and leaders…

This article calls for research on the expertise of youth development practitioners. We argue for studies focused on understanding youth practice from practitioners' points of view--as they experience and enact it--with the aim of contributing findings and frameworks that are helpful to their work and learning. To improve youth programs, first, it…

Adolescents need to develop competencies to navigate an adult world that is complex and disorderly: a world of heterogeneous macro- to microecological systems containing contradictions and catch-22s. This exploratory essay examines adolescents' conscious processes of developing pertinent competencies for pursuing goals (agency) in these kinds of…

To understand regulation and agency, it important to consider the nature of the regulatory challenges that adolescents must deal with. These include emotional, motivation, interpersonal, and other obstacles and problems. In this chapter, the author discusses the challenges reported by youth working on arts, technology, and social justice projects…

This study evaluated four sets of factors hypothesized to amplify adolescents' developmental and negative experience in organized youth activities. A representative sample of 1,822 eleventh grade students from 19 high schools completed the computer-administered Youth Experience Survey. Findings indicated that amount of time, motivation, holding a…

This volume brings together leading scholars to describe important new directions in research on child and adolescent development. This introductory chapter places their articles in the context of three larger trends in the field.

Current research and theory suggest that the healthy path of autonomy development involves gradual negotiation of adolescents' independence "within" a context of continued family connection. This theory-generating study examined the role that adolescents' participation in youth programs plays in these adolescent-parent negotiations. Qualitative…

To make the transition to adulthood, youth must learn to function in the complex and unpredictable "real world" of adult life. This is an intensive case study of an urban arts program that sought to provide youth with experiences that prepared them for the real world of arts careers. We conducted 75 interviews with 12 youth and their adult leader…

The path adolescents take from childhood to adulthood is a product of social, economic, political, and technological forces. These forces may facilitate youths preparation to become healthy adults, or they may leave youth unprepared for adulthood. Knowledgeable projections are vital in shaping the agenda for research; for alerting educators,…

Reviews methods used by futurists and how these methods are applicable to adolescence. Provides an overview of some of the macro-changes shaping the societies in which future adolescents will live, including demographic trends, globalization, governmental trends, and technological changes. (Author/KB)

Compared 75 adolescents' experience in daily interactions with family and friends, using self-reports. When with their friends, these adolescents reported a situation more conducive to enjoyment. However, those adolescents who spent more time with friends than with family showed poorer school performance and wider mood variability. (JAC)

Assesses whether current changes in adolescents' interpersonal experience are likely to give them the social resources and competencies they will need in the future. Analysis suggests that family and non-family changes will provide many youth with greater opportunities to develop the more versatile interpersonal resources, but that many will have…

This longitudinal study examined change in 220 adolescents' daily range of emotional states between early and late adolescence. Findings showed that emotional states became less positive across early adolescence; this downward change in average emotions ceased in grade 10. The greatest relative instability was during early adolescence; stability…