Although there are an increasing number of youth development programs that aim to empower young people, there is a dearth of psychometrically sound measures that can be used to assess flexible youth-led organizing and participatory research approaches that tackle a wide range of social and community problems. This study developed and tested…

Issues that impact on the ability of behaviorists to be effective in solving social and community problems are discussed, including use of legislative initiatives to bring about behavior change, sustaining interventions with local resources, and the possible rewards from employing collaborative methods in behavioral research. (JDD)

Asserts that, although research can be a powerful resource in guiding and fueling grass-roots social change, the community-based research enterprise often is contentious. Recommends collaborative research studies in which the researchers and practitioners work together from the project's inception. (CFR)