3-025 - Youth Contributions to Reducing Societal Inequality: Diverse Predictors of Contribution Ideology and Behaviors

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Adults play a critical role in reducing inequality in society given their positions of relative power. However, young people can also work towards goals of reducing inequality by contributing to society in various ways. This idea is consistent with the relational developmental systems (RDS) meta-theory, (e.g., Overton, 2015), which maintains that individuals are producers of their own development and the world in which they live. The three papers in this symposium provide perspectives on how individual and contextual assets in the lives of youth are associated with diverse types of adolescents’ contribution-focused ideologies and behaviors.

The first paper examines how adolescents’ reflections about societal inequalities (critical consciousness), and their reports of how often these issues are discussed at school, are related to their participation in contribution activities that are explicitly targeted toward social justice. The second paper examines the contextual asset of character role models (CRM). The authors investigated whether the morally-focused socialization practices of CRMs, along with the same practices of parents, were associated with adolescents’ contribution-focused purpose and positive youth development. The third paper focuses on the relations among adolescents’ contribution-focused purpose (as reported by youth, their parents, and their teachers) and contribution activities, and whether these associations are stronger among adolescents with higher intentional self regulation skills.

Together, these papers provide evidence for the ability of youth to reduce inequality and to be contributing members of their local communities and schools, and well as information about the context and individual assets associated with these forms of contribution.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chairs

• Sara K Johnson, Tufts University

• Michelle Beth Weiner, Boston College

Discussant

• Connie Flanagan, University of Wisconsin

Individual Presentations

• Predicting and Promoting Critical Consciousness as a Form of Youth Contribution - Presenting Author: Rachel M. Hershberg, University of Washington Tacoma; Ettya R Fremont, Tufts University; Anthony Webb, University of Washington, Tacoma; Olivia Andringa, University of Washington, Tacoma; Sara K Johnson, Tufts University; Sara Suzuki, Boston College; Michelle Beth Weiner, Boston College

• Character Role Models, Positive Youth Development, and Purpose: Complementary or Compensatory Resources for Parental Socialization - Presenting Author: Edmond Patrick Bowers, Clemson University; Lauren Stephens, Clemson University

• Predictors of Adolescents’ Involvement in Contribution Activities: Youth, Parent, and Teacher Perspectives - Presenting Author: Michelle Beth Weiner, Boston College; Sara K Johnson, Tufts University; Stacy L Morris, Boston College; Mary Helen Buckingham, Tufts University; Sara Suzuki, Boston College; Ettya R Fremont, Tufts University; Caitlin C Aymong, Boston College; Alison Bane, Boston College; Jacqueline Lerner, Boston College