This study investigated the goals adolescents and parents have for the adolescent’s participation in an organized youth program. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 52 adolescents from 13 project-based youth programs and one of their caregivers. Adolescents (aged 13–18; 56% female) were ethnically diverse (46% Latinx, 29% European American, 19% African American, and 6% other). Caregivers (M age 43.15 years) were predominantly female (80%) and biological or adoptive parents (94%); about half had been born in the United States. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted to examine goal content and congruence between adolescents and parents. Interview data were inductively coded following a consensus team approach. Thirteen goal categories were identified: nine were described by both adolescents and parents (e.g., skill-building and socialization) and two were unique to adolescents and two to parents. More than half (56%) of adolescent-parent dyads reported at least one matching goal. In general, adolescents tended to emphasize short-term objectives and parents long-term outcomes. Collectively, findings indicate that adolescents and their parents view organized programs as salient contexts to pursue youth’s personal goals. Findings have implications for theory, research, and practice.

本研究调查了青少年和父母对青少年参与有组织的青年计划的目标。对来自 13 个基于项目的青年项目的 52 名青少年及其一名照顾者进行了开放式访谈。青少年（13-18 岁；56% 女性）的种族多样化（46% 拉丁裔、29% 欧洲裔美国人、19% 非裔美国人和 6% 其他人）。照顾者 ( M43.15 岁）主要是女性 (80%) 和亲生父母或养父母 (94%)；大约一半出生在美国。进行了定性和定量分析，以检查青少年与父母之间的目标内容和一致性。访谈数据按照共识团队的方法进行归纳编码。确定了 13 个目标类别：9 个由青少年和父母共同描述（例如，技能培养和社交），两个是青少年独有的，两个是父母所独有的。超过一半 (56%) 的青少年父母双胞胎报告至少有一个匹配的目标。一般来说，青少年倾向于强调短期目标和父母的长期结果。总的来说，调查结果表明，青少年及其父母将有组织的项目视为追求青年个人目标的重要背景。