Does it pay to participate? Neighborhood-based organizations and the social development of urban adolescents

Research on the developmental gains associated with participation in youth-service organizations has not kept pace with the proliferation in funding for these kinds of programs. Advocates describe them as important venues for youth to connect to mainstream institutions and to promote social and cognitive development, especially among underserved minority youth. Using data collected from 546 urban African-American mothers and their children in Chicago, we compare the availability of youth-serving organizations in poor and non-poor neighborhoods and consider whether participation has some positive implications for youth on a number of developmental assets. A theoretical model is proposed to consider the mechanisms by which youth may be affected. The findings suggest that when available, youth participation in locally based organizations is greater in more disadvantaged neighborhoods and that participation has important and positive implications for youth's self-concept as well as their academic commitment and educational expectations. While participation may also help to connect youth to prosocial neighborhood peers, school-based peers appear to be the most important friendship networks for encouraging a normative orientation toward academic attainment. The policy implications of these findings are discussed in terms of ways to help youth develop prosocial competencies in organized social settings during after-school hours.