The Opportunities Youth Programs Provide for Moral Character Development

• In Event: 1-023 - Designing Effective Organized Activities to Foster Youth Character: Perspectives from USA, Rwanda, Ghana, and Scotland

Integrative Statement

The objective of this paper is to better understand the (often underappreciated) affordances that youth development programs (e.g., arts, technogy, leadership progams) provide for adolescents’ development of moral character. Longitudinal studies find that program participation is related to gains in prosocial behavior (Catalano, Toumbourou, & Hawkins, 2014; Vandell, Larson, Mahoney, & Watts, 2015). However, research and theory rarely examine programs as contexts of moral development (e.g., Eccles & Gootman, 2002; Larson, 2011). This review paper is aimed at examining processes in high-quality programs that make them powerful settings for teens’ ethical development and learning. We used research on moral development as a starting point to better understand how programs support – and can perhaps better support – moral character development.

We began by identifying five key active ingredients of settings that research finds support moral development (Berkowitz & Bier, 2014; Snarey & Samuelson, 2014; Watson, 2014; see Table 1, column 1). We then examined staff practices of high-quality programs and discovered that – although sometimes using different language – staff actively cultivate all five ingredients (column 2). We also examined research on youth’s experiences in these programs; and youth report experiencing these ingredients (column 3); and describe processes of moral developmental associated with each ingredient (column 4). Citations for each cell of Table 1 are provided in the full paper.

Summary of Findings for Each Ingredient
Democratic community. Empowering and giving members voice is a central value of programs and staff. Youth describe experiencing freedom to make choices, taking responsibility for actions; and respecting others. They report internalizing these ways of thinking and acting.

Shared ethical norms: Staff cultivate explicit moral principles for interpersonal relationships (e.g., inclusiveness, mutual empathy). Youth report taking ownership and internalizing these principles.

Supportive adults: Youth experience staff both as equals and as respected authoritative figures. Staff have credibility to support youth’s deliberations on moral issues.

Activities that matter: Youth become highly invested in meaningful projects. These provide opportunities for development of character through dealing with moral challenges; experiencing pride in doing ethical work.

Discussions: Staff support discussions about real situations in projects and real-world issues that affect youth. Youth examine emotions; practice taking positions and using abstract concepts.


Conclusions
Development of moral character in adolescence requires learning more than fixed rules; it requires developing capacities to apply ethical principles to complex real-world situations (Turiel, 2014). Findings for the five active ingredients suggest how programs can provide rich opportunities and supports for this development. In concluding, we highlight distinct opportunities across the five:

*Youth in programs learn from taking ownership. They have experiences of moral agency over their actions – with support from adults who value their moral autonomy.

*Moral development in programs is enhanced by participation in a constructive peer community rooted in core values. This allows youth to learn through deliberations around collaborative work and empathizing with peers having different lived experiences.

*Moral development includes emotional learning (Malti, Peplak, & Acland, in press). Programs provide supportive contexts for youth learning about emotions as a component of ethical development.

Authors

• Reed Larson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author

• Kathrin Walker, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gina McGovern, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author