Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2022

4-H

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

4-H Summer Of Stem: A Practical Approach To Increasing Workforce Readiness, Vernelle Mitchell-Hawkins, Jessica Mellon Dec 2022

4-H Summer Of Stem: A Practical Approach To Increasing Workforce Readiness, Vernelle Mitchell-Hawkins, Jessica Mellon

The Journal of Extension

4-H Summer of STEM is a workforce readiness program for high school youth. The goals of the program are to increase students’ interest in STEM careers, improve college and workforce readiness, and connect youth to businesses and industries in the local community. Selected youth receive hands-on development of workforce readiness skills, are paired with a STEM mentor for job shadowing, and participate in college campus visits. Preliminary findings show that participants reported having a positive relationship between participation in 4-H youth development programs and career skills. This article introduces the 4-H Summer of STEM and offers suggestions for implementation.

Go to article

Exploring Public Speaking Self-Efficacy In The 4-H Presentation Program, Nicole Marshall-Wheeler, Yu Meng, Steven Worker Dec 2022

Exploring Public Speaking Self-Efficacy In The 4-H Presentation Program, Nicole Marshall-Wheeler, Yu Meng, Steven Worker

The Journal of Extension

Strong communication skills are important in an individual’s personal and professional life; however, research regarding what influences youth’s public speaking self-efficacy is limited. To address this gap, we surveyed youth who participated in a statewide presentation event about their self-efficacy and sources of that self-efficacy. Results show mastery experiences have the greatest relationship to youth’s public speaking confidence. Extension can strengthen youth’s public speaking self-efficacy by increasing the number of presentation opportunities and by removing barriers from participating in existing presentation opportunities.

Go to article

The Effects Of Active Shootings On 4-H Youth And Families, Melinda Garcia, Elizabeth Gangwer Dec 2022

The Effects Of Active Shootings On 4-H Youth And Families, Melinda Garcia, Elizabeth Gangwer

The Journal of Extension

The effects of active shootings should be a priority to provide needed assistance to 4-H youth and families in coping with their social-emotional well-being. Exposure to such violence can lead to lasting impacts on youth that can affect behavior. Addressing this sensitive topic is crucial in ensuring that Extension professionals are prepared to meet the needs of youth and families. Higher rates of depression, aggression, to name a few, are a result of having witnessed such events as a shooting. Providing training for Extension personnel can aid in reducing the amount of PTSD and other social-emotional trauma.

Go to article

Camp Is For Everyone: Intentional Inclusion Of Gender-Expansive Teens At Camp, Ashley M. Hernandez-Hall, Kimberly H. Zemel Dec 2022

Camp Is For Everyone: Intentional Inclusion Of Gender-Expansive Teens At Camp, Ashley M. Hernandez-Hall, Kimberly H. Zemel

Journal of Youth Development

Camp remains a powerful experience for youth of any age, but special care must be taken to ensure camps are supportive of diverse audiences. This article describes the process by which 4-H camp organizers created a welcoming and affirming camp for teen dependents of active duty, retired, or veteran military personnel, especially those campers who identified as non-binary or LGBTQ+. This included careful consideration of language used in recruitment documents, evaluation documents, volunteer and staff training, as well as communication with campers and families. Through careful planning and implementation, the 4-H adventure camps engaged over 90 teens, and survey results …

Go to article

Why Youth Leave 4-H After The First Year: A Multistate Study, Kendra M. Lewis, Sarah Hensley, Marianne Bird, Jeannette Rea-Keywood, Jolynn Miller, Car Mun Kok, Nancy Shelstad Oct 2022

Why Youth Leave 4-H After The First Year: A Multistate Study, Kendra M. Lewis, Sarah Hensley, Marianne Bird, Jeannette Rea-Keywood, Jolynn Miller, Car Mun Kok, Nancy Shelstad

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Enrollment in US youth development programs is decreasing annually. Research has shown that youth in the 4-H youth development program experience a broad range of positive youth development outcomes, including greater community contributions, healthier choices, higher academic competence, critical life and leadership skills such as problem-solving, goal setting, communication, responsibility, and a sense of belonging and purpose. Finding ways to retain youth in the program for more than a year or two can profoundly impact society due to the skills developed and opportunities provided to youth in 4-H. The purpose of this study was to understand why youth might leave …

Go to article

Importance Of The Access, Equity, And Opportunity Competencies Among 4-H Professionals, Matt Benge, Jeff Wayne Howard Oct 2022

Importance Of The Access, Equity, And Opportunity Competencies Among 4-H Professionals, Matt Benge, Jeff Wayne Howard

Journal of Youth Development

The 4-H Professional Research, Knowledge and Competencies (PRKC) is a professional development framework that can be used to identify competency gaps and training needs of 4-H professionals. The PRKC consists of 6 competency domains, 1 being access, equity, and opportunity (AEO). A tailored design method was used to gather data and sort the respondents between rural and urban community type. 4-H Extension agents serving urban communities perceived 12 out of the 14 AEO domain components as more important than agents serving rural communities did. The 2 AEO domain components that were not significantly different in perceived importance were values, norms, …

Go to article

A Self-Assessment Approach To Understanding 4-H Professional Development Needs In The Northeast, Marycarmen Kunicki, Marissa Staffen, Jennifer Cushman, Rachel E. Lyons, Lisa Phelps, Kevin Sullivan Oct 2022

A Self-Assessment Approach To Understanding 4-H Professional Development Needs In The Northeast, Marycarmen Kunicki, Marissa Staffen, Jennifer Cushman, Rachel E. Lyons, Lisa Phelps, Kevin Sullivan

Journal of Youth Development

In 2017, the National 4-H professional research, knowledge, and competencies (PRKC) taxonomy was updated reflecting the current needs of 4-H youth development professionals. Knowledge and skill gaps of 4-H professionals need to be identified to optimize resource allocation for professional development on the state and regional level. We developed a web-based self-assessment of the PRKC tool using Qualtrics, that evaluated the core competencies across the 6 PRKC domains: (a) youth development; (b) youth program development; (c) volunteerism; (d) equity, access, and opportunity; (e) partnerships; and (f) organizational systems. The responses from 188 Extension 4-H professionals (approximately a quarter of the …

Go to article

The Global Climate Change Knowledge And Practices Of 4-H And Extension Youth Educators, Roberta H. Hunter, Hui-Hui Wang, Bryanna J. Nelson, Devarati Bhattacharya Sep 2022

The Global Climate Change Knowledge And Practices Of 4-H And Extension Youth Educators, Roberta H. Hunter, Hui-Hui Wang, Bryanna J. Nelson, Devarati Bhattacharya

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education

4-H and Extension educators who work with youth are uniquely positioned to help them meaningfully learn about global climate change (GCC) in a way that connects to their everyday lives and interests. Yet we don’t have a baseline understanding of these educators’ knowledge of GCC or how they teach about it. This paper presents brief findings of a study intended to fill that gap in knowledge. Educators from six states responded to an online survey in 2020. GCC knowledge varied by topic and by educator instructional focus, with STEM and Civic Engagement educators scoring highest. Questions about greenhouse gasses and …

Go to article

A Youth Perspective: The 4-H Teen’S Leadership Identity Development Journey, Sarah Bush, Jeremy Elliott-Engel, Shannon Wiley, Tonya Price Apr 2022

A Youth Perspective: The 4-H Teen’S Leadership Identity Development Journey, Sarah Bush, Jeremy Elliott-Engel, Shannon Wiley, Tonya Price

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

A current focus of youth-serving organizations is youth leadership development with an objective of helping youth become productive contributors to society. 4-H is a leading organization in the effort to expose youth to leadership opportunities. This study examined the leadership identity development of 4-H youth serving in statewide leadership positions. The Leadership Identity Development (LID) model and mentoring mosaic served as the conceptual framework in this study. The purpose of this qualitative study is to shed light on the question, how do 4-H teens describe their journey to leadership? Youth reflected on the experiences, examples, and influences that impacted their …

Go to article

Tools For Healthy Living: Lessons Learned About Program Efficacy, Youth Knowledge, And Youth Engagement, Sharon Gray, Jennifer Cushman, Miriah Kelly, Mary Margaret Gaudio, E. Jean Gubbins Mar 2022

Tools For Healthy Living: Lessons Learned About Program Efficacy, Youth Knowledge, And Youth Engagement, Sharon Gray, Jennifer Cushman, Miriah Kelly, Mary Margaret Gaudio, E. Jean Gubbins

The Journal of Extension

Youth in grades 4 to 6 were presented with healthy living topics through a two cycle, 11-week 4-H after school curriculum designed for low income, urban populations. Pre- and post-surveys were used to measure knowledge of healthy homes topics such as mold and moisture, lead poisoning, pests, asthma triggers, smoking, and food safety. Daily journaling activities designed to measure youth engagement also added to the mixed data set. Lessons learned about program efficacy, youth knowledge, and youth engagement are presented.

Go to article