Centre of Expertise Urban Vitality

Methodical principles and prevention-focused outcomes in professional youth work: A longitudinal analysis

Article

Previous research has suggested that professional youth work settings empower socially vulnerable youngsters, strengthening their personal development and social participation. It is expected that youth work can prevent personal and social problems of youngsters, which may have longer term positive social returns.

How the underlying methodical way of acting of youth workers contributes to prevention-focused outcomes remains unclear. This article presents a four-wave longitudinal cohort study (16 months) that investigated longitudinal associations between 12 individual methodical principles that youth workers apply in interactions with youngsters and four prevention-focused outcomes: prosocial skills, self-mastery, social network and civic participation.

Reference Sonneveld, J., Metz, J., Manders, W., Schalk, R., & van Regenmortel, T. (2022). Methodical principles and prevention-focused outcomes in professional youth work: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of social work, 22(4), 1056-1084. https://doi.org/10.1177/14680173211054713
1 January 2022

Publication date

Jan 2022

Author(s)

Judith Metz
René Schalk
Tine van Regenmortel

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