Abstract

The current study explored how parents and their adolescent children describe parents’ involvement in the adolescent’s organized youth program. As part of a larger study of youth programs, 36 adolescent-parent dyads participated in semi-structured interviews. Youth (63.9% female) were 13–18 years old (M = 15.9, SD = 1.2) and ethnically diverse (38.9% Latino/a, 36.1% European American, and 25% African American or Black). Qualitative analyses centered on two domains of parental involvement (type and level). Parents and adolescents focused on different types of involvement, with parents most commonly describing on-site involvement in their children’s programs (e.g., attending activities, volunteering) and adolescents emphasizing parents’ off-site involvement (e.g., emotional or informational support). Despite these differences, most respondents described the level of parental involvement as “good.” Factors that inhibited parents’ involvement in their child’s program activities were also identified (primarily competing obligations or work conflicts). Implications for research and practice are discussed.

摘要

目前的研究探讨了父母及其青少年子女如何描述父母参与青少年有组织的青年计划的情况。作为一项更大规模的青少年项目研究的一部分，36 名青少年父母二人组参加了半结构化访谈。青年（63.9% 女性）年龄在 13-18 岁（M  = 15.9，SD  = 1.2），种族多样化（38.9% 拉丁裔/a，36.1% 欧裔美国人，25% 非裔美国人或黑人）。定性分析集中在父母参与的两个领域（类型和水平）。父母和青少年关注不同类型的参与，父母最常描述在孩子项目中的现场参与（例如，参加活动、志愿服务），而青少年则强调父母的场外参与（例如，情感或信息支持）。尽管存在这些差异，但大多数受访者将父母的参与程度描述为“良好”。还确定了阻碍父母参与孩子计划活动的因素（主要是竞争义务或工作冲突）。讨论了对研究和实践的影响。