Promoting Empowerment Among Lgbtq Youth: A Social Justice Youth Development Approach
Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identified (LGBTQ) youth face discrimination and marginalization from the social systems with which they come in contact. Traditional responses to serving youth who face discrimination and marginalization aim to equip them with skills to cope with or adapt to their environments. Positive Youth Development (PYD) theorists and others have challenged such approaches because they do not engage youth in using their power to change the systems that are often the causes of their negative outcomes.
Building on PYD principles, Ginwright and James (2002) have proposed a social justice youth development framework that supports the ability to analyze use and misuse of power in one’s life (critical consciousness) and engagement in activities that promote social justice for young people. Such a model has a number of positive implications for services aimed at LGBTQ youth by supporting their development as agents of change.
This exploratory study examined relationships between factors identified in the social justice youth development framework among a group of LGBTQ and allied youth.
Research Hypotheses
It was hypothesized that critical consciousness and engagement in change-oriented behaviors would be significant predictors of empowerment among LGBTQ youth.
Methods
Youth ages 14 to 23 who participated in a 4-day residential camp offered by a community-based LGBTQ youth organization in the southwestern United States were invited to participate in the study. The sample of 72 youth was diverse racially and in terms of gender identity.
The survey was completed prior to attending the camp and included: an empowerment scale (7 items; ∞=.78) with items such as how often in the last three months the youth had questioned authority about an unfair policy or practice on a 4-point scale (never to often); a political engagement scale (7 items; ∞=.82) that included a broad range of change-oriented behaviors through items such as how often in the past three months the youth had volunteered in the community or engaged in collective action with other youth on a 4-point scale; and the social empathy index (18-items) that measures aspects of critical consciousness including contextual understanding of systemic barriers and macro perspective-taking and self-other awareness.
Results
A multiple regression model analyzed empowerment as the dependent variable, and political engagement and social empathy as independent variables. Controls were included for environmental factors such as perceived visibility of the LGBTQ population in the youth’s community, and level of affirmation and support received from family. In the model, 46% of the variance in empowerment was explained (R2 = .52, adjusted R2 = .46, F = 8.7 (6, 53), p < .01). Both political engagement (b = .65, t (53) = 5.2, p < .01) and social empathy (b = .27, t (53) = 2.62, p< .05) significantly contributed to the model individually. None of the controls were significant.
Implications
Findings suggest that the application of a social justice framework in program development for LGBTQ youth may support empowerment through engagement of youth in critical consciousness and change-oriented activities.