Publication year
2018
Citation Title
“I used to be wild:” Adolescent perspectives on the influence of family, peers, school, and neighborhood on positive behavioral transition.
Journal Name
Youth & Society
Journal Volume
50
Issue Number
1
Page Numbers
49-74
DOI
10.1177/0044118X15586146
Summary
Youth who have behavior problems as adolescents often have positive behavior transitions as young adults. This study examined the experiences of Black young adults who reported such a transition in their behavior when they were youth. Findings underscore the importance of the contexts of support (e.g., families, peers, schools, and neighborhoods), both general and specific, to the behavior transition.
Key Findings
Families helped participants specifically develop career skills as well as generally were warm and had high expectations of participants. One participant who had a child cited the child as an influence to be better.
Peers were either positive influences or participants distanced themselves from them.
High schools provided preparedness for next steps, safety, and connectedness; participants also identified when schools did not contribute these benefits.
Neighborhoods were mostly influential in that they prompted participants to escape from them toward better, safer neighborhoods.
Implications for Military Professionals
Collaborate with professionals across a diversity of youth-serving agencies to facilitate positive behavior transitions with troubled youth
Work with families to support warm, skill-building environments to improve positive relationships with youth
Implications for Program Leaders
Engage parents of low-income youth in programs facilitating positive family, peer, school and neighborhood involvement
Provide information to parents regarding how to contribute to positive behavior transitions at home
Implications for Policy Makers
Increase support for school programming that increases connectedness and skill-building for careers and future education
Recommend partnerships between schools and youth-serving organizations to increase positive behavior supports in multiple settings
Methods
Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews that were 32-75 minutes long (M = 50 minutes) and took place at the participants' pediatric primary care clinic.
Interviewers used an interview guide and a life history calendar for participants who were asked to discuss past experiences.
Interviews were transcribed by an independent company and coding was iterative and began during the interview process which allowed the researchers to change the interview guide as they continued.
Two coders worked together, creating 74 codes and double-coding five random transcripts to ensure rigor.
Participants
Participants were 18 Black young adults ages 17-22 years (55.6% female) recruited from the control group of a larger intervention study; the 18 participants did not differ from the larger control group in demographics.
Participants reported their mothers' level of education (77.8% at least high school) and rated themselves slightly lower than average in socioeconomic status.
Most participants reported no involvement in measured risk behaviors (e.g., carrying a weapon, using alcohol) in the last 30 days.
Limitations
A sample size of 18 participants makes it difficult to generalize results.
Participants were those who sought and were able to obtain healthcare, which might make them different from those who do not, and results may not apply to that population.
The researchers did not ask about other potentially positive influences such as spiritual or faith organizations, which could be a significant gap.
Avenues for Future Research
Examine how to increase school connectedness and investing in youth's ability to launch successfully into careers or further education
Investigate how to increase ways families support positive behavioral transitions among children with histories of conduct problems
Explore how families, peers, schools, and neighborhoods interact in the process of positive behavioral transitions
Focus
Civilian
Target Population
Population Focus
Abstract
Public health practice involving adolescents is largely focused on preventing or delaying the initiation of risk behavior. However, given the experimental and exploratory nature of this developmental period, this is often impractical. This article focuses on behavioral transitions and the ways in which youth involved in risk behaviors shift to more promotive behaviors. Based on a positive youth development perspective, in-depth interviews with urban youth were conducted and analyzed to gain an understanding of the influences on behavior change. Specific family support, ability to detach from harmful peer relationships, and school connectedness and vocational support emerged as important to those youths who made a positive behavioral transition. These findings suggest the importance of understanding ways to support the cessation of involvement in risk behaviors and reinforce the significance of contextual influences on youth development.
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