Youth Motivations for Program Participation

Abstract

Through their participation in youth programs, young people have access to opportunities to learn and build important skills. A total of 214 youth between the ages of 10-19 (mean 15.5 years) completed an online survey about characteristics of youth programs they participated in, didn’t participate in, and had participated in but quit. We found that youth participated in activities that provided a benefit to meet personal goals or develop skills. However, our findings suggest that youth may leave activities, or never join them, based on different sets of motivations than the reasons they stay in activities. There was variability across demographic groups: Males reported more problems with past activities, sexual minority youth were more likely to endorse social problems with past and never joined activities, and ethnic minorities reported less support for personal goals and connection to adults in current activities and more logistic barriers for activities never joined.

Holding the space: Individual- and group-level factors predicting member retention in gender-sexuality alliances.

“…Because school climates can be heterosexist and cissexist, GSAs may be especially important for SGM youth, who experience greater victimization and lower school belonging than their heterosexual, cisgender peers (Baams et al, 2015; Davis et al, 2014). Moreover, at times SGM youth avoid other extracurricular groups due to perceived hostility (McGuire et al, 2016). GSAs may therefore be a key setting in which SGM youth can reap the same benefits that their heterosexual, cisgender peers may enjoy from other extracurricular activities.…”

“…Membership retention is a challenge that a number of GSAs can face (Poteat et al, 2015), and it differs from a struggle to recruit potential members due to their peers’ decisions not to join the GSA. Some youth who discontinue their membership may have made an active decision to stop coming to their GSA based on their personal experiences in the GSA, whereas youth who choose not to join their GSA have done so more on the basis of their perceptions or anticipations of the GSA (Heck et al, 2013; McCready, 2001; McGuire et al, 2016). Any given individual’s choice to discontinue their involvement in a group may result from negative (e.g., feeling unwelcomed), positive (e.g., feeling empowered to move into other actions outside the group), or mixed experiences.…”

“…Some attention has been given to questions related to youth’s membership in GSAs (Toomey et al, 2011). A few studies have considered why youth choose not to join GSAs, noting that SGM students indicate that fear, perceived group disorganization, and lack of consistent peer and adult relationships deter them from joining (Heck et al, 2013; McCready, 2001; McGuire et al, 2016). Others have looked to factors that characterize members who are more involved than others, including youth’s perceptions of support and the GSA’s respectful climate and meeting structure (Poteat et al, 2016).…”