How Cultural Match and Mismatch Unfolds in Youth-Adult Relationships in Youth Programs

• In Event: 3-086 - You + Me = Us: Developmental processes in supportive youth-adult relationships

Integrative Statement

Supportive youth-adult leader relationships maximize the benefits adolescents gain from participating in youth programs (Eccles & Gootman, 2002; Griffith & Larson, 2016). Despite the central role culture plays in adolescents’ identity, it has been understudied in programs (Larson & Ngo, 2017) and in youth-adult leader relationships. Thus, we ask: How does cultural match/mismatch influence how youth experience relationships with adult leaders?
To address this, we interviewed 50 youth (64% female) from 13 programs (arts, leadership, STEM). Interviewees included 21 Latinos, 14 African-Americans, 12 European-Americans, and 3 of other ethnicities (mean age = 15.7; range: 12 – 19). In the larger interview, youth discussed their family’s background and culture, cultural assets, and the ways culture influenced program experiences. Interviewers then asked youth to discuss culture in their relationships with leaders with questions like: “In what ways is the leader’s background or culture similar to yours?”; “How do you think these [similarities and/or differences] influence her/his ability to provide you with help and support?”
Grounded theory analyses suggest youth’s perceptions of leaders’ culture can influence how they perceive support within their relationships with leaders. Youth varied in the most salient characteristic for determining cultural similarities/differences with leaders. However, most considered many (i.e., race, ethnicity, immigration experiences, language, religion, the way leaders grew up, leaders’ residential neighborhoods), rather than one singular characteristic.
The more supportive youth-leader relationships appeared to be ones in which youth interviewed confidently discussed leaders’ culture. Interviewees lied on a continuum ranging from: (a) those explicitly stating they knew little about the leader to (b) those guessing cultural similarities/differences with leaders to (c) those providing evidence of cultural similarities/differences between themselves and the leader (Table 1). Youth in the last category provided evidence by recalling leaders’ one-way sharing about their lives or reciprocally sharing with youth. When leaders shared more about themselves, youth could articulately discuss leaders’ culture.
Youth in supportive relationships described mechanisms of support differently based on cultural match or mismatch (Table 2). When youth confidently described leaders being a similar culture, they discussed feeling supported by leaders because leaders were “getting me.” “Getting me” involved leaders understanding youth’s experiences on a deeper level without them having to explicitly describe their culture. Youth reported leaders had likely undergone similar experiences to them and therefore could intuitively support them. Youth reported “getting me” enabled leaders to be attuned to youth’s needs and capable of providing emotional or instrumental support. Youth who confidently discussed cultural differences with leaders still reported leaders were able to support them. The mechanisms that made this possible included leaders’ openness to learning from youth of different cultures and shared experiences between youth and leaders.
Although navigating the personal and professional can be challenging for leaders (Walker & Larson, 2006), sharing oneself can increase youth’s ability to confidently perceive leaders’ culture. This knowledge is key to supportive relationships. Although the mechanism leading to support may differ based on cultural match or mismatch, youth’s access to this knowledge is critical to feeling leaders can effectively support them.

Authors

• Aisha N Griffith, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author

• So Jung Lee, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ellen K Buttitta, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author