Showing papers by "Reed W. Larson published in 2021"
TL;DR: This paper found that overwhelming challenges in youth program projects (e.g., arts, leadership, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM]) can create intense anxiety for adolescents that disrupts engagem...
Abstract: Overwhelming challenges in youth program projects (e.g., arts, leadership, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM]) can create intense anxiety for adolescents that disrupts engagem...
6 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight key elements of youth programs that make them important contexts for youth's active engagement in emotional learning, and present examples from research on how program staff facilitate youth development of skills to manage and use emotions.
Abstract: Emotional skills are now widely recognized to be essential skills for young people to survive and thrive across all aspects of their lives. Teens become able to develop powerful new skills for understanding and managing their emotions. They also are able to learn skills for using the valuable functions of emotions. But this learning isn’t automatic; it depends on experience. In this commentary, we highlight key elements of youth programs that make them important contexts for youth’s active engagement in emotional learning. We present examples from research on how program staff facilitate youth development of skills to manage and use emotions. We conclude with suggestions on practices and policies that support emotional learning.
TL;DR: The authors conducted semistructured qualitative interviews with 50 experienced adult leaders of 27 high-quality arts, technology, and leadership youth programs (serving ethnically-diverse teens) to examine risks and potential benefits that youth professionals experience in bargaining with adolescents.
Abstract: This study examines risks and potential benefits that youth professionals experience in bargaining with adolescents. We conducted semistructured qualitative interviews with 50 experienced adult leaders of 27 high-quality arts, technology, and leadership youth programs (serving ethnically-diverse teens). Half worked with younger teens (ages 11-14), half with older (ages 14-18). Leaders reported bargaining in ways responsive to youth's wants and needs, reaching win-win agreements. Leaders of younger youth experienced more risks in bargaining, so took greater control over what was bargained. They used bargains most often to motivate when youth's enthusiasm dropped, and these bargains sometimes helped youth develop self-motivation. Leaders of older youth reported fewer risks and more benefits. They bargained as equals, asking youth to share decision-making responsibility. They used bargaining as a pedagogical tool to model, support, and challenge youth, which helped build their capacities for deliberative decision-making. The findings illuminate strategies for practitioners to use bargaining effectively.