Positive Youth Development Program - Research Paper Example

Positive Youth Development Program April 29, Table of Contents I.Introduction 3 Positive Youth Development Program 3 A. Description of practice issue 3 B. Clear statement of the practice research question 5 C. Significance of problem and rationale for studying it. 6 II Literature Review 6 A. Design of Current Research 10 B. Description of the Sampling plan 11 C. Handling voluntary consent 11 D. Data Collection Plan 11 V. The Implication of the current research for policy and practice 12 References: 13 I. Introduction The positive youth development program focuses on enhancing the strengths of the youth participants (Cheon, 2008). The best practice does not literally teach the students. Instead, the students learn their lesson by themselves. The program is patterned after the job training principles. The training is grounded on the youth participants getting real life beneficial relationships from concerned parties. The concerned parties include the classmates, program mates, tutors, and other positive youth program mentors. Similarly, the youth participants learn to adjust and enhance their relationships with the institutions and other groups or communities. The best programs ensure the youth participants develop a sense of cooperation, coordination, camaraderie, and friendship that that leads to the youth participants’ contribution favorable inputs into the group outputs. The youth program includes developing the skills of the youth participants. The developed skills will enhance the youth participants’ positive contribution to the family, society, or the community. Positive Youth Development Program A. Description of practice issue The main aim of the positive youth program is not to correct, scold, reprimand, point out errors or humiliate the youth participants (Nakkula, 2010). To ensure success, the program creates an environment of fun, play, and adventure as the theme of the program. While the youth participants are placed in an environment where they have to cooperate with other members of the group, the youth are challenged and persuaded to help the other group members accomplish the prescribed group tasks. Consequently, the group’s completion of the assigned tasks creates lifelong lessons for the youth program participants. After the program, the youth members graduate with better interpersonal skills, more positive outlook in life, better mental ability, and maximization of their god-given skills. The program focuses on enhancing the strengths as well as abilities of the youth program attendees. The target or goal of the youth program is to create a positive or favorable youth outcome. The youth program differs from other programs (Nakkula, 2010). Some other programs focus on punishing the law-breaking youth of our society. The youth program focuses on improving the six areas of youth development. The areas fall under the vision-based youth training program. The youth program training area is competence. The second youth program training area is confidence. The third youth program training area is connection. The fourth youth program training area is character. The fifth youth program training area is caring. The sixth youth program training area is contribution. The positive youth development program focuses on enhancing the youth’s healthy behavior. There are positive effects of the youth program (Cheon, 2008). First, the youth develops a strong bond among the group members and the mentors. Next, the youth member develops a strong resilient attitude towards any predicament, situation, or adversity. Third, the youth program attendee develops stronger moral, behavioral, social, and cognitive competencies. Fourth, the youth program attendee develops one’s self determination skills. Sixth, the youth program attendee develops one’s self-efficacy skills. Seventh, the youth program attendee develops one’s positive identity. Next, the youth program attendee develops one’s belief in a favorable future. Ninth, the youth program attendee develops one’s positive behavior. Tenth, the youth program attendee develops one’s pro-social skills. B. Clear statement of the practice research question The study focuses on determining whether the youth development programs prevent the at risk youth from experiencing violent behavior. The independent variable is the participant in the youth development programs. The participants include the youth participants. The participants also include the teachers, facilitators or trainers of the youth development programs. The dependent variables are the program performance outputs of the respondents. The dependent variables include: (1) Development of a strong bond among the group members and the mentors. (2) Development of a strong resilient attitude towards any predicament, situation, or adversity. (3) Development of stronger moral competency (4) Development of stronger behavioral competency, (5) Development of stronger social competency, (6) Development of stronger cognitive competency. (7) Development of stronger self determination skills. (8) Development of stronger self-efficacy skills. (9) Development of stronger positive identity. (10) Development of stronger positive behavior. (11) Development of stronger pro-social skills. C. Significance of problem and rationale for studying it. The problem has importance significance. The problem seeks to determine if there is a significant difference among the positive youth program enrollees in terms of preventing the members of the at risk youth from experiencing violent behavior. The problem helps the positive youth program organizers improve their current youth training methodologies. The problem will help hone the youth training program itineraries to enhance the program’s youth competence training. The problem will help hone the youth training program itineraries to enhance the program’s youth confidence training. The problem will help hone the youth training program itineraries to enhance the program’s youth connection training. The problem will help hone the youth training program itineraries to enhance the program’s youth character training (Stewart, 2010). The problem will help hone the youth training program itineraries to enhance the program’s youth caring training. The problem will help hone the youth training program itineraries to enhance the program’s youth contribution training and enhanced behavior. II Literature Review The adolescent individuals undergo a critical phase in their life. They learn how to act and when to act in a given situation. This growing up adaptation to one’s environment is most strenuous with non-White adolescent United States residents. The youth undergo physical, social, and emotional stresses as they learn the proper way to react with people of different races, status, rank, and other factors. The positive youth program eases the non-White’s learning stage. The program helps the youth of color overcome the challenges of living within a society filled with diverse cultures and temperaments. The program hastens and smoothes out the youth’s transition from youth to adulthood (Pinkcney et al., 2011). Further, another research shows the coach plays an important role in the success of the positive youth development program (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011). The coach trains the youth to succeed in the youth’s chosen sports game. The game trainings include enhancing the youths’ competence in their non-sport activities. The game trainings incorporate enhancing the confidence levels of the youths. Similarly, the game trainings incorporate enhancing the life survival skills of the adolescents. Further, the game trainings incorporate enhancing the positive psychological capacities of the adolescents. The game trainings incorporate enhancing the adolescent persons’ character. Furthermore, the positive youth development program effectively enhance the well being and molding of fifth grade adolescents (Lerner et al., 2005). The program focused on enhancing five areas of the youths’ growing up learning process. One of the areas is competence. Competence deals with mental prowess of the adolescents. Mental prowess focuses on how results of the adolescents’ test scores. Another area is confidence. Confidence focuses on the adolescent’s overall positive outlook or self-worth. An adolescent who studied his or her class lessons well is confident enough to answer the exam questions. Another area is connection. The adolescents are trained to generate a favorable bond among his classmates, group mates, school mates, neighbors, acquaintances, and other individuals. Another area is character. The means the adolescents know how to act in a given set or situation. The last area includes a sense of sympathy for the plight or misfortune of other individuals. Denver Bridge project focuses on helping the at risk poor residents of Denver (Jenson, 2012). Moreover, another research focuses on the beneficial effects of the positive youth development program on the science area processing capability of the adolescents (Arnold, Bourdeau, & Nott, 2013). The study focuses on enhancing the youths’ science-learning skills. The research delves on the results of the Science Process Skills Inventory test. The research includes the implementation of the psychometric tests. The eleven test items of the research items evolved under the science inquiry area. The same research focused on the National 4 –H’s having over 1,000,000 adolescents participate in the research program. The program helps the adolescents adjust to the more complex science programming classroom lessons. Further, the same research indicates the positive youth development program focused on five areas of learning (Arnold, Bourdeau, & Nott, 2013). One area focuses on enhancing the youths’ knowledge. Knowledge includes the adolescents’ enhanced understanding of the intricacies or complexities of the new knowledge. Another area is interest. The youth are trained to maximize learning needed to master the adolescents’ current interest. If the youth wants to become a successful engineer, the adolescent must master math principles prior to enrolling in the engineering course. Another area is attitude. The youth must learn to attain the correct attitude (Nakkula, 2010). Moreover, the positive youth program should focus on enhancing the behavior of the adolescent (Arnold, Bourdeau, & Nott, 2013). The program will help the students generate the right behavior needed to generate high customer demand for the adolescents’ saleable products (Cheon, 2008). The adolescent must learn to show respect to the teacher. Respecting the teacher will go a long way to making the adolescent future beneficial members of our society. The adolescents must learn to comply with all customs, traditions, ethics, morality, and other societal standards (Shek, 2013). Lastly, the positive youth development program equips the adolescents with the required skills needed to accomplish the adolescents’ required tasks or responsibilities (Arnold, Bourdeau, & Nott, 2013). For example, the child is weak in mathematics. The program encourages the adolescent to devote more time to solving math problems. By devoting more time to solving the math problems, the adolescents gain mastery of the mathematics topics. Using another example, the problem helps students who are weak in reading to devote more time reading the required books. Constant reading will improve the adolescents’ reading skills. Students are persuaded to avoid risk behaviors by joining family members and close friends who avoid risk behaviors (Leon, 2011). Further, another research shows the beneficial effects of the positive youth development program (Balsano et al., 2009). The research focused on out of school activities. The research included the mean statistical approach. The research included 945 Grade 5 and Grade 5 students. The students are included in the 4-H research of the positive youth development program. The findings showed that 44 percent of the grade 5 students joined the positive youth development program. Likewise, 36 percent of the grade 6 students attended the positive youth development program. Further research on the same topic indicate the future researchers must take into consideration the effect of the positive youth development program with other related complementary programs. Further, another research shows the importance of the positive youth development program on the youth’s personality improvement (Law & Shek, 2012). The research shows the students are taught to avoid risk behaviors by avoiding risk environments (Hynes, 2012). Further, an Iowa research showed convincing findings (Lerner et al., 2008). The Iowa research shows the youth members of the Iowa positive youth development program generated favorable program outcomes. The research findings indicated that 9 out of 10 youth attendants of the program did not undergo any risk behavior or had undergone less than 11 percent risk behavior. The research was conducted among students enrolled in the grade 5 to grade 8 academic calendar years. Compared to students not enrolled in the positive youth development program, the students enrolled in the positive youth development programs generated lesser behavior risks. The program increased the enrolled students’ preference to enroll in college. Students enrolled in the program focused more time and energy to increasing the class exam scores and other academic requirements. More students enrolled in the positive youth development programs spent more time with parents, teachers, classmates, and other individuals. This proves the program significantly prevents at risk youth from experiencing any significant violent behavior. III. Proposed Methodology for your study A. Design of Current Research The research focuses on two areas. The first area is gathering primary data (Johnson, 2010). The primary data is done by conducting a survey. The respondents are asked to answer a questionnaire that contains five number choices, 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. The questionnaire consists of a set of positive youth development questions. The data is use to determine whether there is a significant difference in the data. The significant difference is the tool is used to generate the findings (Higgins, 2011). The mean tool is also used to generate the average findings (Balakrishan, 2010). Next, the research focuses on gathering secondary resources. The secondary resources include professional journals. The secondary resources include the reference books. The secondary resources are used to complement or explain the findings generated from the primary data. B. Description of the Sampling plan The sampling plan is to visit positive youth development organizations (Salkind, 2009). The respondents will be composed of two different respondent groups. The first group of respondents is composed of a selection of the adolescents. The adolescents are enrolled in the positive youth development programs. The student respondents are asked to answer the survey questions. The second group of respondents is requested to sign the voluntary consent form. Further, the second group of respondents is composed of the teachers, tutors, or administrators of the positive youth development program (Argyrous, 2011). The second group of respondents will answer the same questionnaire distributed to the student respondents (Burns, 2008). The second group of respondents is requested to sign the voluntary consent form. C. Handling voluntary consent The researchers will ask the respondents to sign a voluntary consent form. The voluntary consent shows that the respondents freely agree to answer the questionnaire. The form indicates that the researcher did not violate the rights of the respondents. The voluntary consent form includes a paragraph explaining that the confidentiality rights of the respondents are not violated. D. Data Collection Plan The data collection plan is tallied. The tally will be used to generate the mean or average. The mean shows that average answer of the respondents. The tally will indicate that the findings are based on actual data, not estimated (Ware, 2013). The data is used to generate the significant difference result. The analysis of variance tool is used to determine the significant difference output. The tool is used as basis for generating an unbiased statistical output. The tool uses the analysis of variance table as basis for determining if there is a significant difference in the data. To generate the significant difference data, two variables are gathered. The first variable is the independent variable. The independent variable is composed of the individuals answering the questionnaire. The second set of variables is classified as the dependent variables. The independent variable influences the dependent variables. Consequently, the findings will indicate whether there is a significant difference among the positive youth program enrollees in terms of preventing the members of the at risk youth from experiencing violent behavior. V. The Implication of the current research for policy and practice The study will greatly enhance my policy and practice as a professional worker. The findings of the current research will affirm the findings of the prior positive youth development programs. The findings of the current research may negate the findings of previous research findings (Argyrous, 2011). The findings will add new knowledge to the current literature. The research will focus on certain areas that seemed to lack convincing findings or conclusions. The current research will transform that the doubtful prior research findings to realistic findings. On the other hand, there are some probabilities that the same research may obliterate the erroneous findings of prior doubtful research findings (Argyrous, 2011). The findings will lead the researcher to generate a new set of concepts. The new concepts will be added to the current literature on positive youth development program. The current research will be the starting point for future researches. The future research can use the current research findings as a jump off point to create their own research niche. A research niche focuses on research issues that had not been previously researched (Argyrous, 2011). References: Argyrous, G. (2011). Statistics for Research. New York: Sage Press. Arnold, M., Bourdeau, V., Nott, B. (2013). Measuring Science Inquiry Skills in Youth Development Programs. Journal of Youth Development , 8 (1), 1-95. Balakrishan, N. (2010). Methods and Applications of Statistics. New York: J.Wiley & Sons. Balsano et al., (2009). Patterns of Early Adolescents Participation in Youth Development Program Having Positive Youth Development Goals. Journal of Research on Adolescents , 19 (2), 249-259. Burns, R. (2008). Business Research Methods. New York: Sage Press. Cheon, J. (2008). Positive Youth Development and Youth-Professional Relationships. New York: Proquest. Higgins, M. (2011). Advances in Forecasting. New York: Upjohn Press. Hynes, K. (2012). Career Programming: Linking Youth to the World of Work: New Directions for Youth Development. New York: J. Wiley & Sons. Jenson, J. (2012). Risk, Resilience, and Positive Youth Development. New York: University Press. Johnson, R. (2010). Statistics, Principles and Methods. New York: J. Wiley & Sons. Law, B., Shek, D. (2012). Process Evaluation of a Positive Youth Development Program in Hong Kong Based on Different Cohorts. The Science World Journal , 2012 (10), 1-9. Leon, F. (2011). Asian American and Pacific Islandder Children . New York: ABC CLIO Press. Lerner et al., (2005). Positive Youth Development, Participation in Community Youth Development Programs, and Community Contributions of Fifth-Grade Adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence , 25 (1), 17-71. Lerner et al., (2008).The Positive Development of Youth, Iowa: Tufts University Press. Nakkula, M. (2010). Building Healthy Communities for Positive Youth Development. New York: Springer Press. Pinkcney et al., (2011). Promoting Postive Youth Development of Black Youth. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration , 29 (1), 98-112. Salkind, N. (2009). Statistics for People Who Hate Statistics. New York: Sage Press. Shek, D. (2013). Development and Evaluation of Positive Adolescent Training. New York: Springer Press. Stewart, T. (2010). Problematizing Service Learning: Critical Reflections for Development and Action. New York: IAP Press. Vella, S., Oades, L., Crowe, T. (2011). The Role of the Coach in Facilitating Positive Youth Development. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology , 23 (1), 33-48. Ware, M. (2013). Handbook for Teaching Statistics and Research Methods. New York: Psychology Press. Read More