Sociopolitical development (SPD) is the process by which youth develop knowledge, skills, and capacity for critical social and political action. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) has been theoretically linked to critical consciousness and SPD models. However, the specific mechanisms linking the YPAR process and youth SPD are not well documented. With the aim of clarifying this relationship, ten adolescent researchers/community organizers were interviewed. They reflected on specific ways the YPAR process affected their SPD, including critical awareness, analysis, ideological development, burnout, critical dialogue, community organizing, and more. This paper reports these insights using in vivo coding and a process analysis approach. The findings give insight into YPAR implementation and generate ideas for youth programming/intervention.