Page No., 345-354.
Seema Mehrotra*, Ravikesh Tripathi** & Jereesh K. Elias***
NIMHANS, Bangalore*, GFSU, Gandhinagar** & Cadabam’s Hospital,
Banglore***
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Youth engagement, defined as a sustained involvement in meaningful activities with
an external focus forms, an important aspect of positive youth development. The
present study aims at development and field testing of a youth engagement program
for urban college youth in India. A program named “Engage to Change” was developed
to provide space to youth to reflect on their connection to society, importance of their
active engagement with the society, while helping them to discover ways of doing so,
by providing exposure to four youth relevant social causes. It comprised of a five-hour
structured workshop followed by a two-month extended support and implementation
phase for carrying out activities around one or more social causes. A pre-post follow-up
control group design with a sample of 116 college youth was utilized. Significant and
positive changes in the intervention group were observed on self esteem, sense of
mastery and competence and frequency of connections. High perceived impact went
hand in hand with higher scores on self-esteem and three psychological wellbeing
sub-scales at post assessment. Awareness of social issues, enhanced social skills,
confidence and sense of social-contribution efficacy were the three top gains reported
at follow up. Overall findings indicate that Engage to Change program holds potential
as a universal youth promotion program.
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