Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

What Does Social Agency Have To Do With It? Positive Pathways To Adulthood For Groups Of Opportunity Youth And College Students In Rhode Island, Perri S. Leviss

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Opportunity youth are emerging adults 16–24 years old, neither in a career nor attending college. In 2018, there were 13,600 opportunity youth in Rhode Island, many are low-income, young people of color historically excluded from educational and career pathways. The study introduces an alternate lens grounded in the capability approach to human development and provides new terminology for thinking about the positive trajectory to adulthood for marginalized young people. The research offers an asset-based construct to view social agency [and the dimensions of hope, empowerment, voice, choice, and comm(unity)] as a foundational capability. The mixed methods study measures strength of …