An “I” in Teen? - Perceived Agency in a Youth Development Program

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley

Youth participants in an out-of-school time (OST) youth development program expressed strong ownership of accomplishments, reflecting perceived agency. This study examines whether participants’ sense of agency relates to engagement and to achievement of intended outcomes used in the program, including academic success, initiative, and personal responsibility. Using instruments designed by the author, results indicate moderate to high perceived agency corresponds with improved academic, personal, and social skills, compared with participants reporting lower agency. The paper also describes the Student Historian and Teen Leaders program structures and implications for OST practitioners.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

An “I” in Teen?

Perceived Agency and Intended Outcomes

Program Context and Research Approach

Student Historian and Teen Leaders Programs

Findings and Implications for OST Practitioners

An “I” in Teen? Perceived Agency in a Youth Development Program Chelsea Frosini As I reviewed participant feedback from the outof-school time (OST) youth development program I managed at the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library (N-YHS), I was excited to recognize a pattern. Many of the teen participants wrote responses like“I am proud of what my team was able to accomplish”and “I enjoyed being able to plan an event on our own and actually see it happen.” These participants were reﬂecting a high level of ownership of their accomplishments in the program. They seemed to have experienced the youth development outcome known as agency; that is, they were “acting or exerting inﬂuenceand power” (Mitra, 2004, p. 662) . More speciﬁcally, Mitra (2004) says that agency “connotes a sense of conﬁdence, a sense of self-worth, and the belief that one can do something, whether contributing to society writ large or to a speciﬁc situation”(p. 662) . The N-YHS OST program already had assessments to collect the kinds of outcomes research has shown to result from participation in youth development programs: academic success, initiative, personal responsibility, and the like (Jones, Bench, Warnaar, & Stroup, 2013) . What we didn’t have was a system for measuring whether the program improved participants’ sense of agency. I had no evidence either to show that participants developed agency or to uncover any effects of an increase in their perception of themselves as active agents. As a fellow in the National Afterschool Matters Practitioner Research Fellowship, I was in a position to investigate program participants’ expressed sense of agency in relation to research in developmental psychology and youth development. My inquiry was signiﬁcantly shaped by Dawes and Larson’s (2011) study of engagement, which suggests that, in order to CHELSEA FROSINI is a senior program coordinator at the Opportunity Network. When she conducted this research, she was the manager of teen programs at the New-York Historical Society. She participated in the National Afterschool Matters Practitioner Research Fellowship, sponsored by the National Institute on Outof-School Time, in 2014–2015. fully beneﬁt from program participation and achieve understanding of American art and history. In both tiers, intended outcomes, youth need to be psychologically participants work on an assigned project during their 75 engaged. They need to be motivated enough that their hours in the program. Though the youth get basic attention is absorbed in the tasks and challenges of prompts from program facilitators, it is up to them to program activities (Dawes & Larson, 2011) . In addition develop the vision and content for the project. By design, to measuring program participants’ perceived agency, I the projects, which involve both individual and group wanted to investigate whether that perception of agency tasks, provide opportunities for youth to act as agents. was correlated with engagement and with achievement Participants in the ﬁrst-tier group are known as of intended outcomes. Student Historians. Their project is to use the collection Using instruments I designed myself, I found that of N-YHS to develop resources local students and participants in the N-YHS program teachers can use to prepare for the who reported a moderate to high state-mandated Regents Exam in degree of perceived agency also Using instruments I U.S. History and Government. The reported improved academic, designed myself, I found Student Historians develop and percousronsealo, fand sotheircialprsokgillrasmo—ver themore that participants in the hNost a Uight at.Sth. Heistory RemuseumgenintlsaRteeviMeawy, than their peers who perceived N-YHS program who leading gallery tours and activities; lower levels of agency. Participants reported a moderate to they also publish their materials on who experienced agency also high degree of perceived the N-YHS website. The project isexptheressedprogr

FAQs

What is the study investigating about teen participants?

The study investigates whether participants’ perceived agency is linked to engagement and to intended program outcomes such as academic success and personal responsibility.

Why is perceived agency considered important in youth development?

Perceived agency reflects confidence, self-worth, and the belief that one can influence events, which the author connects to meaningful outcomes in youth programs.

What did the author find about participants with moderate to high perceived agency?

Participants reporting moderate to high perceived agency showed improved academic and social/personal skills and better alignment with intended outcomes than peers reporting lower agency.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley