The longitudinal effect of the quality of participation experiences in a voluntary organization on youth psychological empowerment

Research shows its limitations by not capturing the specificities of individual experiences, which result either from the participation of or interaction among different people in a given context across time. This study explores the effect that the quality of youth participation experiences in a Portuguese voluntary organization can have on the development of their psychological empowerment (PE). This study adopted a longitudinal, quantitative design where the same cohort of 481 participants (62.4% female; M-age = 17.26 years) was followed across three time points. Latent growth curve modeling was performed to examine the effect of the quality of participation experiences (QPE) on the developmental trajectories of PE components. Findings show that the QPE had the most powerful effect on developmental trajectories in PE. The study shows how youth perceptions of opportunities for reflection and action in interaction in a climate of openness to dialogue and the emergence of different ways of thinking and doing affect their PE.