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Youth Empowerment and High School Gay-Straight Alliances
Open accessAbstract
In the field of positive youth development programs, "empowerment" is used interchangeably with youth activism, leadership, civic participation and self-efficacy. However, few studies have captured what empowerment means to young people in diverse contexts. This article explores how youth define and experience empowerment in youth-led organizations characterized by social justice goals: high school Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs). Through focus group interviews, fifteen youth leaders of GSAs from different regions of California explain what they think empowerment means and how they became empowered through their involvement with the GSA. Youth describe three inter-related dimensions of empowerment: personal empowerment, relational empowerment, and strategic empowerment through having and using knowledge. When these three dimensions are experienced in combination, GSA leaders have the potential for individual and collective empowerment as agents of social change at school. By understanding these youth's perspectives on the meanings of empowerment, this article clarifies the conceptual arena for future studies of socially marginalized youth and of positive youth development.
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“other work has shown how a sense of belonging can serve as a powerful protective factor for youth activists' health and wellbeing, even in the face of the deleterious effects of the costs of activism [5,14,66].”
From Burnout and Belonging: How the Costs and Benefits of Youth Activism Affect Youth Health and Wellbeing (2023) · cites this paper as [14]
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“Building on other research that shows how a sense of connectedness to a collective and social capital can serve as a protective mental health pathway for youth activists [5,9,14,66]”
From Burnout and Belonging: How the Costs and Benefits of Youth Activism Affect Youth Health and Wellbeing (2023) · cites this paper as [14]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Russell, S. T., Muraco, A., Subramaniam, A., & Laub, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Arizona (US)
- Loyola Marymount University (US)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Gay-Straight Alliance Network (US)
- Corresponding author
- Russell, Stephen T.
- Venue
- Journal of Youth and Adolescence
- Published
- 2009-01-10
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 891-903
- ISSN
- 0047-2891 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-6601
- PMC
- PMC2863040
- OpenAlex
- W2169539224
- Cited by
- 363
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 56.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of Youth and Adolescence (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- William T. Grant Foundation
- National Institute on Aging (AG000117, T32AG000117)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Youth Development and Social Support
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Children's Rights and Participation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
- Keywords
- youth empowerment, gay-straight alliances, high school students, positive youth development, youth activism, youth leadership, social justice, LGBTQ youth, marginalized youth, social change, self-efficacy, citizen participation
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Attitude, Communication, Cooperative Behavior, Ethnicity, Female, Homosexuality, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Power, Psychological, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Behavior, Social Justice, Social Perception, Students, Heterosexuality
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