THE ROLE OF NEIGHBORHOOD ECOLOGICAL
ASSETS AND ACTIVITY INVOLVEMENT IN
YOUTH DEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOMES:
DIFFERENTIAL IMPACTS OF ASSET POOR AND
ASSET RICH NEIGHBORHOODS
Dilara Altan
15500296
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There many factors effect the adolescence
development;
Individual characteristics
Family
School
Neighborhood
Community
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Developmental system theories help to
understand youth development fully and
accurately and help to positive youth
development.
Bioecological system theory (BronfenBrenner,1979)
Developmental Contextualism (Lerner,2002)
Dynamic System Theory (Thelen&Smith, 1998)
Holistic Person-Context Interaction Theory
(Magnusson,1995)
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Developmental system theories include the
Positive youth development perspective.
Positive youth development perspective appeared
in 1990s
Developmental system theories examine the
relationship between youth development and
their changing environment.
 Positive
youth development occurs if
there is a good association between
individual and ecological asset and
most important ecological asset is
extracurricular activities which
support the youth positive
development.
Extracurricular activities as a context for
development
Extracurriculum defined as extra activities.
These activities are not part of the regular and
usual schedule and it does not exist in specific
location (sportive activities)
 Extracurriculum activities support the positive
youth development.
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Provide physical and psychological benefit
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Support interrelationships
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Help to improve positive social norms
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Provide an opportunity for skill building
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Help to integration of family,school and adolescence.
 Participation
in positive activities
has positive effect on college
attendance, volunteering,
voting,higher school success and it
decreases the risk taking behaviors.
Neighborhood as an ecological asset
 Neighborhood effects occurs at the
individual,family and community level.
 Opportunity to acces extracurricular activities or
neighborhood resources can provided by family or
by youth’s own ability however, supporting to
access extracurrilar acitivities or neighborhood
can be vary accordance with social location or
individual.
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Through to parks, sports programs, community centers or social
services extra curriculum activities can be increased.
Defining and explaining neighborhood
ecological assets
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2.
Ecological assets divided into four categories which are provide
opportunity to access to extracurricular activities
Human resources refers the skills, abilities of people
and in the neighborhood context is operationalized
by the percent of college educated residents, the
percent of employed adult males, and the presence
of at least one non-parental adult mentor
Physical and institutional resources refer to
opportunities for recreation, learning, and engaging
with the physical and social world. In the
neighborhood context, this asset is documented by
the presence of a local library, youth facilities
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Collective activity refers to the relationships
and connections among institutions, youth, and
community members and is operationalized in
the neighborhood context by the presence of
community organizations
Accessibility refers to opportunities for people to
utilize human resources and is operationalized
in the neighborhood context by neighborhood
stability
Previous research examined the positive and negative outcomes
between four ecological assets and early adolescence
development. Results showed that, ecological assets have a
positive impact on youth development.
Bioecological theory of development
 Bioecological theory help to explain complex
interaction between individual, context, and
time. Moreover it can help to understand
relationship between youth and neighborhood
assets.
 Proximal processes are the basic elements of
bioecological theory and Proximal process defined
as interaction between environment and
organism. This process can occur through chance,
design or participation such as extra curriculum
activities. Disorganized environment can cause
dysfunction.
Current Study aims to assess whether
participation in extracurricular activities has a
more positive and powerful effect for youth living
in asset poor neighborhoods as compared to youth
living in asset rich neighborhoods and whether
this varies for outcomes of competence versus
dysfunction.
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Data analyzed for boys and girls differently.
# of boys: 304
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# of girls: 322
Questionnaire used for measure the 5 C`s of positive youth development
Competence
Confidence
Connection
Character
Caring
Human resource
Physical resource
Measured with Questionnaire which is about family
Collective activity
Accessibility
Self-regulation
Measured using nine item version of SOC scale
Activity involvement
Measured with Student questionnaire
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Results showed that;
There is a significant differences between boys and girls for
activity involvement and neighbor assets.
Extracurrıcular activities have an positive effect on PYD
for girls. Increased extracurricular activities can help to
decrease depression.
For boys, Increased activity participation was linked with
increased levels of PYD and decreased levels of risky
behaviors.
Thanks
for listening