2-013 - In search of authentic experience: Methodologies for studying and building youth’s relationships with adults

Session Type: Roundtable

Integrative Statement

Youth’s relationships with adults have become a staple of national initiatives to support adolescents. This attention is well-placed. Adults serve as role models, sources of social support, and brokers of social capital for youth (see Chu, 2010). Researchers in the mentoring field have identified characteristics of supportive relationships (e.g., longevity, closeness, mutuality, trust; DuBois, et al, 2012; Rhodes, 2005). Yet studying how relationships develop over time and what processes contribute to the development of youth-adult relationships is more complex. To truly capitalize on the promise of youth-adult relationships, researchers and practitioners alike must engage this complexity and strive for a deeper and more authentic understanding of relationships from youth’s perspectives. Furthermore, the field must integrate knowledge about different types of youth-adult relationships, moving towards understanding these relationships as webs of support that youth engage in different ways and for different purposes across context and time. In this roundtable we discuss ways of engaging with youth to understand their relationships with adults. The panelists will provide examples of novel methods, including research design, data collection, and analytic techniques, used in their own work to both study and foster youth-adult relationships. The audience will be invited to discuss challenges faced in their own work and to share potential approaches to help move the field forward in promoting techniques for relational development in both research and practice.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Methodology

Moderator

• Jonathan F. Zaff, America's Promise

Panelists

• Elizabeth Pufall Jones, Boston University/Center for Promise

• Nancy Deutsch, University of Virginia

• Valerie A Futch Ehrlich, Center for Creative Leadership

• Amy Syvertsen, Search Institute