Emma Armstrong-Carter

Youth development programs can equip young people with the skills and competencies they need to thrive, and thus, are ecological assets supporting youth, particularly those living in Majority World countries, such as El Salvador, where young people are exposed to high rates of poverty and violence. The programs of Compassion International (CI), an international faith‐based youth organization, serve more than 2.4 million youth across Majority World countries. Although past research established the positive impact of CI programming on Salvadoran youth, the role of specific program doses involved in CI programs and youth perceptions of program quality are unknown. Using a sample of 564 Salvadoran youth (ages 10 to 16) involved in CI programs in El Salvador, we investigated: (1) Do program duration (i.e., years of enrollment) and youth perceptions of program quality (i.e., positive and sustained youth‐adult relationships, life‐skill‐building activities, and opportunities for leadership/contribution) directly account for variation in positive youth development (PYD)? and (2) Are youth perceptions of program quality associated with program duration? Results from structural equation modeling indicated that there was no significant association between youth perceptions of program quality and program duration. Both variables significantly accounted for variation in PYD, with distinct effects: program duration negatively predicted PYD, whereas perceived program quality positively predicted PYD. These findings highlight the critical role of youth perceptions of program quality in promoting PYD.

We documented how many adolescents contribute to their families through chores, emotional support, earning wages, and caregiving for children and family members with chronic illness. Further, we examined whether adolescents who contribute to their families in more ways differ in mental health from peers, controlling for social and economic resources, and with attention to potential demographic moderators. We drew from a diverse survey of 1854 adolescents ages 14–17 in Massachusetts (60% girls, 52% White non‐Hispanic, 19% Hispanic, 9% Black, 6% Asian). Adolescents who contributed to their families in relatively more ways were disproportionately older, girls, and Hispanic, and from families with relatively lower levels of social and economic resources. Contributing to the family in more ways was associated with significantly higher levels of distress (i.e., anxiety and depression symptoms), controlling for background demographics. This association was consistent across age, gender, and racial/ethnic groups. It was also significant for youth from homes within all levels of social and economic resources, although it was stronger among youth from homes with relatively higher (compared to lower) levels of social and economic resources. These findings suggest that contributing to the family in many ways could be emotionally taxing over time, even though prior daily diary studies show it can also be rewarding day to day. Perhaps surprisingly, it may be especially taxing for adolescents from more advantaged homes who are less likely to help the family overall. More long‐term, within‐subject studies are needed to adjust for numerous co‐occurring family circumstances and resources that may confound our findings.

Purpose: The US is facing a well-documented caregiving crisis, with more aging adults requiring informal caregiving at home and fewer young people available to support them. This paper estimates the current economic value of care provided by unpaid adolescents (ages 10 to 17) to family members who are chronically ill, disabled, or facing aging-related decline.Methods: We leverage large-scale, national datasets to estimate the economic value of informal caregiving provided by adolescents nationally and at the state level. Results: We estimate that adolescents provide by $15.01 billion (range = $5.38 to $41.63 billion) worth of informal caregiving work nationally. These estimates correspond to up to 8.86% of the $470 billion value of informal unpaid caregiving by adults, and up to 1.09% of the US total health care expenditure. State-specific estimates show substantial variability. Discussion: Adolescents contribute substantially to the annual US economy by providing informal unpaid caregiving for their families. This information can inform the design of targeted polices and programs to support adolescents’ health and the health of the family members they care for. Implications and Contribution. This study highlights the substantial informal family caregiving adolescents provide to the US economy. We estimate adolescents contribute $15.01B in annual caregiving services, with implications for public health. Supporting caregiving adolescents and their families is crucial given the scope and impact of their work, and the shortage of family caregivers in the US.

This longitudinal study documents individual differences in the intensity and duration of adolescents' childcare and eldercare responsibilities from ages 14 to 18. Further, it investigates how adolescents' caregiving responsibilities are associated with socioeconomic background, and educational achievement in high school and at midlife. Participants (N = 1,130, 52% female, 12% Asian, 9% Black, 4% Hispanic) were followed longitudinally from ages 14 to 46. They reported the number of hours they provided care for children and elderly persons at four yearly time points during adolescence, their high school grade point averages, whether they graduated from high school on time, and their educational attainment at age 46. Parents reported their household income and level of education. Adolescents who provided extensive childcare (high intensity, long duration) and sporadic eldercare (high intensity, short duration) across 4 years came disproportionately from families with socioeconomic disadvantages. They also exhibited lower educational attainment in adulthood, even after controlling for socioeconomic status and other demographic factors. Further, extensive childcare responsibilities were associated with declines in grades across high school. Whereas eldercare was not associated with academic grades between subjects, within-subjects analyses revealed that adolescents had lower grades during years when they provided more eldercare. In the context of prior evidence that youth with high levels of family obligations are highly motivated to excel in school, our findings suggest that institutional barriers may be hindering their short- and long-term educational goals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This study investigated adolescents' experiences caregiving for family members with chronic illness, disability, or aging‐related needs. We examined differences in caregiving by maternal education level and associations with mental health and academic performance. A large, diverse sample of middle and high school students in Colorado (N = 49,540, 46% girls; ages 11–18, 31% Latine) reported how frequently they were caregiving for family each week, their mental health (e.g., anxiety, stress, depression, suicidality), and their perceptions of their academic grades compared with their peers. Statewide, 14% of adolescents were caregiving at least 1 to 2 days per week. Adolescents who provided the highest levels of caregiving came from families with significantly lower levels of maternal education, from historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups, and were more likely to identify as gender nonbinary/other. Caregiving adolescents reported significantly lower levels of mental health and lower grades compared with their noncaregiving peers, controlling for maternal education, race/ethnicity, age, and gender. These associations were consistent broadly across individual differences in demographic characteristics. The findings replicate evidence that high levels of caregiving responsibilities in adolescence are associated with emotional and academic challenges and extend prior evidence by examining the role of socioeconomic status, which has been difficult to collect in prior large‐scale studies.

Many young people are inclined toward risk taking and also toward helping other people. Prosocial risk taking is a term that can describe different ways that youth provide significant instrumental and emotional support to family members, friends, and strangers, even when it involves a personal risk. In this article, we review research about different types of prosocial risk taking and highlight examples, emphasizing a developmental perspective by examining change across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Research to date suggests that young people are more likely to engage in prosocial risk taking when they are more tolerant of uncertainty, have greater sensation-seeking, perspective-taking, and empathy, and when they are motivated by reputational concerns. Individual differences in prosocial risk-taking behavior depend on youth's access to opportunities to explore, practice, and experience positive social feedback. Providing opportunities for youth to direct their risk-taking tendencies toward prosocial outlets may help minimize risks to their psychosocial health and promote individual and community well-being.