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Examining Relational Empowerment for Elementary School Students in a yPAR Program

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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

This paper joins relational empowerment, youth empowerment, and Bridging Multiple Worlds frameworks to examine forms of relational empowerment for children in two intermediary institutions—school and a youth participatory action research after-school program (yPAR ASP). Participants were twelve children, most of whom were Latina/o and from im/migrant families, enrolled in a yPAR ASP for 2 years. A mixed-method approach was utilized; we analyzed children’s interviews, self-defined goals, and their social networks to examine their experiences of relational empowerment. We conclude that children experienced each of the five relational empowerment factors—collaborative competence, bridging social divisions, facilitating others’ empowerment, mobilizing networks, and passing on a legacy—in the yPAR ASP setting, and some factors in school. These experiences, however, were more pronounced in the yPAR ASP setting. Additionally, social network analyses revealed that a small but meaningful percentage of actors bridged worlds, especially home and family, but by year 2, also school and the yPAR ASP. Finally, most helpers for school-based goals came from school, but a sizable number came from family, friends, and home worlds, and by year 2, also came from the yPAR ASP. Implications range from theoretical to methodological development, including the use of social network analysis as a tool to descriptively examine relational power in context.

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Notes

  1. All proper names have been changed.

  2. Closeness centrality, which ranges from 0 to 100, was measured with the equation formulated in Freeman (1979). Lower scores indicate worlds are “closer” or more central in the network. yPAR ASP scores were 2.49 (year 1) and 1.11 (year 2), indicating they were influential.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Catherine Cooper, Jeanette Lawrence, and Hugh Campbell for their assistance with this research. We also thank our student participants and the UCSC Community Psychology Research and Action Team, especially Danielle Kohfeldt, Sarah Grace, Jesica Fernández, and Angela Nguyen. This research was funded by a grant to the first author from University-Community Links and by a grant to Catherine Cooper from the Kellogg Foundation. The second author was funded through a King-Chavez-Parks Fellowship. The third author was funded through a Eugene Cota Robles Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Regina Day Langhout

  2. University of Washington at Bothell, Bothell, WA, USA

    Charles Collins

  3. University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Erin Rose Ellison

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  1. Regina Day Langhout
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  2. Charles Collins
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  3. Erin Rose Ellison
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Correspondence to Regina Day Langhout.

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Langhout, R.D., Collins, C. & Ellison, E.R. Examining Relational Empowerment for Elementary School Students in a yPAR Program. Am J Community Psychol 53, 369–381 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-013-9617-z

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