Trajectories of Youth's Helping From Adolescence into Adulthood: The Importance of Social Relations and Values.

Helping behaviors (e.g., helping a sick friend, volunteering) are important forms of community involvement and likely change with age and life context. Yet, trajectories of community helping from adolescence through early adulthood have rarely been examined. It is also unclear how the roles of family, friends, and social attitudes might foster the development of helping behaviors across these years. We report on a study of community helping in a Canadian youth sample, across five intervals over a 15-year span, beginning at age 17 (N = 416). Helping displayed a quadratic trend, decreasing into the mid-20s, and then rebounding somewhat by 32. Social responsibility and salience of friends' prosocial moral values positively predicted age 17 community helping, whereas parents' moral values predicted less decrease in helping over this timeline. These findings add to an understanding of moral influences and social responsibility, in the potential shaping of youths' community helping behaviors.

Curriculum requirements and subsequent civic engagement: is there a difference between 'forced' and 'free' community service?

Despite figures showing the growth of mandatory community service programmes, there is mixed empirical evidence of their effectiveness. This paper addresses the relationship of mandated community service to one of its purported aims: subsequent volunteerism. It compares current volunteerism among four university student cohorts: those doing no service in secondary school, those volunteering with no requirement, those volunteering both before and after the introduction of a requirement, and those introduced to service through a requirement. The analysis indicates that (1) students who were introduced to service through a mandated programme exhibit current levels of engagement no greater than non-volunteers; (2) this relationship stems largely from the different service experiences of our four cohorts and relates to the fact that service satisfaction and duration, as well as background variables account for current levels of civic engagement. The findings suggest that mandatory service programmes might well be failing the very population they seek to target, particularly in weaker, less structured programmes.

Cost-Savings Analysis of the Better Beginnings, Better Futures Community-Based Project for Young Children and Their Families: A 10-Year Follow-up.

This study examined the long-term cost-savings of the Better Beginnings, Better Futures (BBBF) initiative, a community-based early intervention project for young children living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods during their transition to primary school. A quasi-experimental, longitudinal two-group design was used to compare costs and outcomes for children and families in three BBBF project neighborhoods (n = 401) and two comparison neighborhoods (n = 225). A cost-savings analysis was conducted using all project costs for providing up to 4 years of BBBF programs when children were in junior kindergarten (JK) (4 years old) to grade 2 (8 years old). Data on 19 government service cost measures were collected from the longitudinal research sample from the time the youth were in JK through to grade 12 (18 years old), 10 years after ending project participation. The average family incremental net savings to government of providing the BBBF project was $6331 in 2014 Canadian dollars. When the BBBF monetary return to government as a ratio of savings to costs was calculated, for every dollar invested by the government, a return of $2.50 per family was saved. Findings from this study have important implications for government investments in early interventions focused on a successful transition to primary school as well as parenting programs and community development initiatives in support of children's development.

Exploring outcomes through narrative: the long-term impacts of Better Beginnings, Better Futures on the turning point stories of youth at ages 18-19.

This study examined the long-term effects of the Better Beginnings, Better Futures project, a community-based early childhood development program, on 18-19 year-old youths' narratives about turning points in their lives. The sample consisted of youth who participated in Better Beginnings from ages 4-8 (n = 62) and youth from a comparison community who did not participate in Better Beginnings (n = 34). Controlling for covariates, significant differences favoring youth from the Better Beginnings sites were found on several dimensions of the turning point stories: ending resolution, personal growth, meaning-making, coherence, and affect transformation. Effect sizes ranged from .45 to .76 for these outcome dimensions, indicating moderate to large effects. Also, turning point story dimensions were found to be significantly correlated with two standardized measures of well-being: youths' self-esteem and community involvement. Youths' self-esteem was directly related to story ending resolution, personal growth, and meaning making, and youths' community involvement was directly related to story specificity, meaning making, and coherence. Family functioning was also examined in relation to these narrative dimensions but was not found to be significantly related to them. The findings suggest the utility of a narrative approach for the evaluation of the long-term outcomes of early childhood development programs.

The Better Beginnings, Better Futures project: findings from grade 3 to grade 9.

Although comprehensive and ecological approaches to early childhood prevention are commonly advocated, there are few examples of long-term follow-up of such programs. In this monograph, we investigate the medium- and long-term effects of an ecological, community-based prevention project for primary school children and families living in three economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Ontario, Canada. The Better Beginnings, Better Futures (BBBF) project is one of the most ambitious Canadian research projects on the long-term impacts of early childhood prevention programming to date. Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development informed program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Using a quasi-experimental design, the BBBF longitudinal research study involved 601 children and their families who participated in BBBF programs when children were between 4 and 8 years old and 358 children and their families from sociodemographically matched comparison communities. We collected extensive child, parent, family, and community outcome data when children were in Grade 3 (age 8­9), Grade 6 (age 11­12), and Grade 9 (age 14­15). The BBBF mandate was to develop programs that would positively impact all areas of child's development; our findings reflect this ecological approach. We found marked positive effects in social and school functioning domains in Grades 6 and 9 and evidence of fewer emotional and behavioral problems in school across the three grades. Parents from BBBF sites reported greater feelings of social support and more positive ratings of marital satisfaction and general family functioning, especially at the Grade 9 follow-up. Positive neighborhood-level effects were also evident. Economic analyses at Grade 9 showed BBBF participation was associated with government savings of $912 per child. These findings provide evidence that an affordable, ecological, community-based prevention program can promote long-term development of children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods and produce monetary benefits to government as soon as 7 years after program completion.

Who gains or who loses weight? Psychosocial factors among first-year university students.

Self-reported weight changes over 7 months and their relation to psychosocial characteristics (self-esteem, depression, social support, perceived stress and transition perception) and eating attitudes and behaviors (restrained eating and Eating Disorder Inventory subscales [EDI]) were assessed in first-year male and female students at six Canadian universities (N=2753). Results showed small but significant weight increases over time in males and females (M=1.5 kg). Males who lost weight versus those who gained reported greater negative well-being and more negative feelings about university transition. Females who either lost or gained weight had higher initial restraint and EDI scores than did weight maintainers. At 3 months, total EDI and body dissatisfaction increased in female weight gainers compared to weight losers, plus greater drive for thinness compared to weight maintainers. Thus, males distressed at the transition from high school to university appear more likely to lose weight while well-adjusted males are more likely to gain weight. For females, however, weight gain is associated with more negative well-being and preoccupations with weight and eating.

Partnerships and participation of community residents in health promotion and prevention: experiences of the highfield community enrichment project (better beginnings, better futures).

We provide a description and analysis of the role of partnerships between community residents and service-providers in planning and implementing a health promotion/prevention programme for children and families. The context for this study is the Highfield Community Enrichment Project, a multi-component, community-based promotion/prevention project operating in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The nature and amount of resident participation in this project are described, as well as barriers to resident participation and strategies to reduce those barriers. The findings are interpreted in terms of empowerment and partnership theory, and the implications of these findings for involving citizens from low-income communities in planning promotion/prevention programmes are discussed.

Youth conferences as a context for engagement.

Youth conferences can be effective means for engaging youth in the life of their schools, communities, and nation, bringing benefits not only to youth themselves but also to the community, which gains through the energy, ideas, and values that youth contribute.