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Between being unique and being like everyone else: The development of sense of agency in young women at risk
Children and Youth Services Review 107 (2019) 104524
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Children and Youth Services Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth
Between being unique and being like everyone else: The development of sense of agency in young women at risk
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Rivka Tuval-Mashiacha, , Drorit Levyb, Tehila Refaelic, Noa Polak-Verdigera, Anat Zeirad, Rami Benbenishtye a
Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Israel School of Social Work, Bar Ilan University, Israel c School of Social Work, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel d School of Social Work, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel e Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (Emeritus), and Visiting Professor in Education and Social Sciences, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile b
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Keywords: At-risk adolescents Sense of agency National civic service Women
A positive sense of agency is crucial for a successful transition to adulthood. Young women at risk may struggle with a compromised sense of agency due to their backgrounds and daily challenges, potentially delaying them at the stage of emerging adulthood when they are required to become independent. The current paper looks at the development of agency through the experiences of young women at risk who successfully graduated from a National Civic Service (NCS) volunteering program. Thirty alumni of the program were interviewed about their experiences in the program. Participants described the NCS as providing them with a transformative experience, during which they gained a new sense of agency. Three themes emerged, which represent two complementary needs to become normative, and to stand out as unique: Gaining a sense of normalcy and belonging, feeling worthy through others' eyes, and gaining an internalized sense of competency. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.
1. Introduction The transition to adulthood has become a more prolonged, individualized, and challenging process than in past decades; many young people in their early twenties are not ready to commit to gainful stable employment, continuing education, moving out of parents’ home/ finding appropriate housing, forming meaningful intimate relationships, or raising children (Arnett, 2000, 2007). From a sociological perspective, it has been claimed that although the array of life domain alternatives available to emerging adults has expanded, the collective support for identity formation has decreased, and the individual is now required to take personal responsibility for the process of committing to long-lasting goals (Côté & Levine, 2002). The transition to adulthood may involve unique challenges for women, one reason being that this transition is considered more dramatic for them. On the one hand, women can now choose from many alternatives to traditional female roles which had been the norm for many decades, such as not having children, or having children without being married (Fussell & Gauthier, 2014). On the other hand, although young women’s lives have come to appear more like men’s lives in
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terms of the “statuses” they count (at least in Western societies, and for middle class women), the meaning of these changes in status combinations, and their implications for the content of their daily lives is quite distinct, and more complicated for women than for men (Fussell and Furstenberg, 2014). Secondly, women cope with unique emotional challenges during their adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Around early adolescence (ages 13–15), gender differences in depression emerge, with more depression among females than among males, and these differences continue to increase during later adolescence (Angst et al., 2002; Galambos, Leadbeater, & Barker, 2004). In addition, women have a substantially higher prevalence of suicide attempts, including self-inflicted injuries, compared to men (Chaudron & Caine, 2004; Hahm, Lee, Ozonoff, & van Wert, 2010), although men have a higher prevalence of completed suicides. Therefore, it seems that there are different challenges for each gender during this period. 1.1. Theoretical statement Two theories guided the current research: Marcia (1966) theory on identity statuses, and McAdams’s theory (1988) on agency. Marcia,
Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (R. Tuval-Mashiach).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104524 Received 20 March 2019; Received in revised form 28 September 2019; Accepted 29 September 2019 Available online 09 October 2019 0190-7409/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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In Israel, the transition to adulthood of this population may be even more challenging due to the military service, which is a critical phase in the lives of Israeli adolescents and a turning point in their transition to adulthood (Mayseless, 2004). Military service in Israel is not only compulsory but also marks a seminal period in the life of the individual as he/she matures; many disadvantaged youth, however, are ill-prepared for military service and are thus exempted, drop out, or end up serving in less prestigious capacities. Because the military serves as an entry point to later professional development, this set of circumstances increases this vulnerable population’s marginalization. In order to help at-risk youth in their transition to healthy adulthood, several programs have been developed in Israel; one of them, which serves as a substitute to military service, is the national civic service.
developing Erikson’s work (1968) on the psychological processes through which adolescents form a stable, independent identity, suggested that two processes – identity exploration and commitment – are perceived as crucial dimensions of personal identity formation (Luyckx, Duriez, Klimstra, & de Witte, 2010). Based on the interplay between these two dimensions, Marcia (1980) suggested four identity statuses. These identity statuses are: diffusion (low exploration, low commitment), which represents a lack of interest in identity issues; foreclosure (low exploration, high commitment), which represents rigidity and conformity in identity formation; moratorium (high exploration, low commitment), which represents the active search for a sense of self; and achievement (high exploration, high commitment), which represents the consolidation of various self-elements into a coherent and integrated identity (Schwartz, Côté, & Arnett, 2005). According to this theory, the more active and agentive adolescents are in their identity formation process, the likelier they are to form a coherent sense of identity, whereas emerging adults who adopt more passive approaches may have trouble forming coherent identities (Schwartz et al., 2005). Another contribution to the literature on successful identity formation came from McAdams (2001), who suggested that agency (together with a sense of communion) organizes people’s personal narratives and identities. Agency refers to emerging adults' beliefs that they are in control of their choices and decisions, responsible for the outcome of these choices/decisions, and that they can direct their lives towards preferred destinations, despite obstacles and challenges along the way (Adler, Chin, Kolisetty, & Oltmanns, 2012; Bryant & Ellard, 2015; David, Newen, & Vogeley, 2008; Emirbayer & Mische, 1998; McAdams, Hoffman, Mansfield, & Day, 1996). Research has shown that sense of agency is indeed positively related to identity achievement and negatively related to identity diffusion, as well as unrelated to family socioeconomic background (Côté & Schwartz, 2002). However, most studies on agency have been conducted among affluent samples, primarily U.S. college students, who do not represent the general population; they therefore may not accurately represent the nature of agentic development and identity processes in less affluent populations, such as at-risk youth (Côté, 2013; Côté & Bynner, 2008; Schwartz et al., 2005). Young people from disadvantaged groups have a greater chance of presenting “bounded agency,” meaning that they have experienced barriers that restrain and sometimes suppress expression of agency (Evans, 2002).
1.3. National civic service National civic service (NCS) performed by youth is becoming more prevalent in many countries (Delany & Perold, 2017; Hodgkinson, 2004; McBride & Sherraden, 2016). Programs of this nature usually involve the participation of young adults (between the ages 18–20) who volunteer to do various kinds of community work, in a wide array of social institutions and organizations that generally cater to marginalized or at-risk populations, such as the elderly, the ill, or immigrants (Frumkin & Miller, 2008; Sherer, 2004). Etzioni (2007) noted the service's dual contribution to both the individual and to the community. On the individual level, it promotes the acquisition of skills for an independent adult life, as well as social awareness and democratic values. On the community level, civil service is a mechanism to promote important social goals and reduce gaps between social groups from different backgrounds. The NCS in Israel aims to advance those populations who for a variety of reasons do not serve in the military and includes a unique enrichment program for engaging at-risk youth who are not eligible to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. A series of studies, conducted in the last decade on at-risk populations and their transition to adulthood, found that NCS contributed to their ability to achieve a positive status in their early 20s, with regard to attaining a job, housing, and meaningful relationships (Levy, Benbenishty, & Refaeli, 2012; Zeira et al., 2018), improving psychological attributes such as self-esteem (Horesh-Cipinyuk & Bar On, 2010), emotional well-being (Yamaguchi et al., 2008) and adjustment to an independent adult life (Sherraden & Eberly, 1986; Yamaguchi et al., 2008; Zeira et al., 2018).
1.2. Emerging adulthood of disadvantaged youth The psychological task of identity achievement is, perhaps unsurprisingly, even more challenging for at-risk youth, who lack family support and guidance, and often deal with barriers such as marginalization, exclusion, estrangement, and difficulties in entering the workforce (Kahn-Strawczynski, 2005; Kelly, 2001). Katan (2008) identifies several at-risk youth populations, including immigrants, young people who grew up in families that suffered economic and social distress, and alumni of residential care facilities who may be especially vulnerable when they transition out of care at the age of 18 (Benbenishty & Zeira, 2008; Zeira & Benbenishty, 2008). KahnStrawczynski (2005) indicated that some young people who are considered to be at-risk face more difficulties after the age of 18. This situation results in part from the lack of designated social services available to the at-risk 18+ age group (Katan, 2008), but also from the fact that many of these individuals lack a basic education, as they have dropped out of school or have not performed well academically. This group of individuals lack basic life skills (e.g., job search skills, the ability to develop personal relationships) and social support (Jones, 2014) and have a higher rate of engaging in criminal acts compared to the general population (Dregan & Gulliford, 2012; Frumkin & Miller, 2008; Kahn-Strawczynski, 2005; Zeira, Arzev, Benbenishty, & Portnoy, 2014). These factors, in turn, negatively impact their transition to adulthood.
1.4. The current study Despite the rich body of research demonstrating the positive impact of NCS on those who serve – in terms of different psychological attributes and functioning – there is very little knowledge to date about how this improved level of psychological adjustment is related to identity formation and what processes are involved. In our study, we focused on the construct of sense of agency (and its development) as an organizing concept which lies at the core of these psychological changes and leads to greater maturation and identity consolidation. Our choice was to study young at-risk women (a population characterized by double marginalization) who successfully graduated from the program in order to explore the development of their sense of agency, from their subjective perspectives. Specifically, we wished to explore what these young women perceived as meaningful in their experience in the program, in helping them to develop a sense of competency and agency, and what lessons they took with them from the service for later stages in life. A qualitative methodology was used, given its potential for generating new knowledge on issues regarding what constitutes agency for this population (Fave, Brdar, Wissing, & Vella-Brodrick, 2013).
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receive their transcripts, or the final report results, and none of them took these options. Therefore, no member checking was conducted. Interview. The methodological and theoretical approach we used was the narrative approach, according to which one's identity is constructed through the stories one tells (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998). Because narratives consist both of the telling and what is told (Tedder & Biesta, 2007), the researchers in this study highlighted the importance of studying both the contents (e.g., what is told) and the form (e.g., the telling process) of the narratives. In order to capture both the construction of stories and their contents, we chose to use a twostage interview format. The first stage consisted of participants' uninterrupted narratives about their experience in response to the following invitation: “We would like to hear about your experience of the national service. Please tell us a bit about yourself and your life prior to the service, including how you decided to join the program, and your experience during the service.” In the second stage, participants were asked about different aspects of their experience, including their motivations to join the program; their relationships with authority, peers, and the population they served; the challenges they faced; and the resources that were available to them. Because we were specifically interested in learning what was perceived as significant for participants as they transitioned to adulthood, we then asked about meaningful events they remembered from the service, if and how they changed as a result of the service, and in what ways (if at all) the service impacted their life afterwards. One of the interviewers (N.P.V.) pilot tested the interview with five women who were part of the program, but not part of the study sample. Their interviews helped to refine the interview questions, leading to the final format described below. The pilot interviews were not included in the current analysis, because they did not include all the questions; however, they were analyzed separately for validation purposes and resulted in similar themes.
2. Method 2.1. The NCS youth at risk program Since 2005, as described above, the NCS has been aiming to decrease social gaps that may result from not serving in the Israeli military, and efforts are continually made to engage additional social groups that do not enlist in military service (Zeira et al., 2018). In this program, at-risk volunteers are placed in various community activities, and at the same time receive mentoring and close supervision, counseling on personal and professional matters, and enrichment courses and seminars. In addition, they participate in group meetings to enhance both their life skills and their sense of belonging to the community and country. All of these activities are geared toward making adaptation to national civic service easier for this at-risk group and equipping them with the relevant tools and support. The vast majority of participants in the Israeli NCS programs are women (about 80% of participants), because men are less often exempted from military service. 2.2. Design and sample Design. This qualitative study was part of a larger mixed-methods research study on the impact of NCS participation on at-risk populations. In the first, quantitative stage, using a cross-sectional survey, 305 alumni (250 women and 55 men) were randomly recruited from the lists of agencies that provide NCS placements in Israel, one-to-five years after completing the service. Participants completed phone-based quantitative surveys and were asked if they were willing to be interviewed subsequently, face-to-face. Because women comprise the majority of the program, and based on Robinson (2014) considerations regarding sample universe and homogeneity, we decided to focus in this study on women only, with the only other inclusion criterion being successful graduation from the program. Sample. The sample was a purposive one (Patton, 2002), where from the list of 180 participants who agreed to be interviewed, we randomly selected six participants representing each of the five years, in order to gain a broad perspective of the phenomenon. The sample included 30 young women who graduated from their NCS between one and five years prior to the interviews (therefore, all were between the ages of 19–24). In terms of their at-risk backgrounds, all had experienced past exposure to at least one risk factor such as violence, neglect, drug abuse, school disengagement, or sexual assault. All of the participants had some level of schooling, ranging between 8 and 12 years, but none of them had finished high school with a diploma, and a third of them were taken out of their homes between the ages of 6–14 and placed in boarding schools by the welfare system. About half of them had a past of living in poverty, and seven had been thrown out of the house by their families rejected by their families.
2.4. Analysis The analysis was conducted by the six authors who comprised the research team. Four of them are faculty, and one was an MA student (N.P.V.), and one a PhD student (T.R.) at the time of the research. The team met regularly to read the transcribed interviews, identify themes and categories, and discuss disagreements in the interpretation of the written material. The analysis led to a decision about the themes which emerged, after which two raters (T.R. & N.V.P.) coded each transcript individually, cross-checked their codes, and resolved the few disagreements that came up (fewer than 10). Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed for categorical content analysis, based on the model of narrative analysis proposed by Lieblich et al. (1998). According to this model, textual analysis focuses on the dimensions of content and/or structure, and on the unit of analysis, with the choice being to use the unit of the text as a whole (holistic analysis), or to use parts of the text (categorical analysis). As is common in qualitative research, we employed confirmatory and exploratory analyses. In confirmatory analysis, the researcher tries to confirm or validate prior theoretical notions, while exploratory analysis aims at opening up new hypotheses and theoretical concepts (Patton, 2002). In the current study, the existing literature on definitions of the successful transition to adulthood, and on the different attributes of sense of agency, guided our initial analysis of the texts. As such, we looked for themes brought up by the interviewees regarding what they considered as significant in preparing them for their transition to adulthood and living independent lives. The exploratory analysis then revealed that most participants described the service as a transformative experience, and that this transformation was related to developments in their sense of mastery and agency. Our analytic strategy was to include themes which emerged in at least 80% of the interviews. Quotes were selected in order to illustrate the emerging themes, and they were chosen based on considerations of their adequacy for representing the illustrated theme in a clear, straightforward way, and/or when participants gave
2.3. Procedure and interviews Procedure. The study was approved by the Bar-Ilan University ethics committee and was carried out in collaboration with the governmental authority for the NCS, which served as a mediator between the researchers and the operating agencies of the NCS; the latter provided contact lists of NCS volunteers. Most of the participants were interviewed in their homes, and the rest were interviewed in the offices of the researchers, or at a quiet place near participants' homes as per their requests. Interviews were conducted by two trained interviewers – one a social worker (PhD student) and the other a research psychologist (MA student) – and lasted between 30 and 90 min. Participants were informed that participation was voluntary, and no identifying information was recorded; they signed consent and were given a small gift as compensation for their time and participation. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Participants were asked if they wished to 3
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Graph 1. The development of sense of agency.
and feel pride, like, you know, I am contributing to this country. One day, I lost my bus pass and had to pay, and it really bothered me, not because of the money, but because I felt that through this card people could see me and knew that I was part of the NCS.
examples or shared specific events which added to the richness of the themes. Participants' real names were concealed. Three themes emerged as central to the development of sense of agency, and they are presented below, and summarized in Graph. 1.
The ride on the bus can be interpreted as a sign of Rachel's becoming a part of the collective, of being a productive citizen in this context, where the bus pass serves as her entry point into Israeli society. Losing it jeopardizes that inclusion and creates the threat of her being excluded once again. Later in her interview, she added: “I felt worthy. It's like you walk in the street and people see you, and you are normal, like anybody else, and you tell them, yes, I'm in the middle of doing my civic service…” In Rachel's narrative, seeing herself as she imagines others now see her adds to her feeling normative, and to her feeling that she's like other people her age, despite the kind of upbringing she had and her troubled history. The road to normalcy involved the need to learn skills and gain knowledge, experiences participants lacked due to their backgrounds. Some described that via their service experience they met with a variety of role models, from whom they could learn how to act and behave. Furthermore, they were introduced to ideas and thoughts that were new to them, regarding values, social conventions, and various age-related issues. Being exposed to this kind of role model was an experience that they had not had the opportunity to have before. Such an example can be found in Rivka's story:
3. Results The analysis revealed an overarching concept: a positive change in sense of agency. Gaining a sense of agency was related to three themes which emerged in the narratives: Gaining a sense of normalcy and belonging, feeling worthy through others' eyes, and gaining an internalized sense of competency (see Graph 1 for a summary of the three themes and their characteristics). In what follows, we describe and illustrate each theme. 3.1. Sense of normalcy and belonging One of the common insights to emerge from the participants’ accounts of their service experience was a positive feeling that it had helped them to bridge a gap and to become more like other young people their age, who were perceived as being more mainstream. Most participants raised the issue of their personal backgrounds as having led them to social deviance and estrangement from their communities, social affiliations, and conventions. Descriptions such as, “I was useless,” “I knew I was lousy,” ”There was no way I could do something right,“ and ”I am a person who can't get things done,“ were common. Against this backdrop, the experience of their service, something which most Israeli young adults perform in one way or another, was perceived as enabling them to feel normative and “like other people” their age. The emotional need that was at the base of the need to be like others was the wish to belong. Orian said: “It was important for me to serve, to do, to put myself in a framework that says: Ok, it's true that I'm outside the norm, but still, I can be part of a convention, a reference, which is normative.” Rachel, another participant, described how proud she felt when everybody could see her getting a free ride on the bus (a privilege that only soldiers and NCS volunteers receive), and therefore know that she was like other people her age:
There was something that was really new to me, and I took it with me as a lesson for life. In the enrichment classes that we had every other week, we had a woman who talked to us about romantic relationships and dating, and it was really nice, she spoke about how to date (laughing). Even now (after several years), I still call her from time to time to get her advice. And Dana said: “I learned how to live in the real world. I learned by viewing how other people behave, what they do, how adult people choose and manage their lives.” Lastly, the sense of normalcy also expressed itself in the tasks and activities that the interviewees were currently doing (i.e., at the time of the interview). All of the participants were either working or studying
It was fun to get free rides. I really loved it. I would go on the bus, 4
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authorities), it was very rewarding and transformative for them to finally earn respect, and be viewed positively, sometimes even admiringly, by both children and adults. As a result, they experienced a sense of self-affirmation, and a growing sense of uniqueness.
and – in contrast to the apologetic tone that accompanied their narratives when they described their pasts, or the beginning of their service – when they referred to what they were doing now, the tone became “matter of fact” and confident. Several mentioned that they were doing “whatever every young adult is doing now”: studying and/or working. Others described their plans and hopes for the coming years: finding a partner, getting married, building a family, and making professional progress.
3.3. Gaining an internalized sense of competency In the previous sections we described how the growing sense of “being like others” and of being “normal,” and the ability to view one's contributions as meaningful, fostered the process of developing a positive self-outlook. Yet, this positive perception was dependent on external feedback. The third theme, which may be viewed as representing a more advanced stage of self-actualization, was gaining an internalized sense of competency and learning to trust oneself as an adult. This theme was characterized by the motivation to be competent, and the underlying emotional tone was one of feeling unique and confident. Esti described how learning how to take responsibility for herself, for her money and for her time – in a way she hadn’t known how to do previously – was important for her sense of mastery. Echoing the cultural definitions of what it means to be an adult, she said the following:
3.2. The ability of the volunteer to feel worthy through others' eyes From the interviews it appeared that although initially participants wished to “simply be like others,” they gradually became more aware of their own distinctive positive qualities. They felt that they wanted to contribute and do something meaningful, and in this way described the emergence of a feeling that they were worthy. However, for most of them, this awareness was contingent on the way others viewed them, and was mediated by others’ appreciation for them. Almost all of the participants (27 of the 30) felt that their service was meaningful because it was validated by others. It emerged from the interviews that participants did not credit themselves for their strengths, qualities, or contributions, and furthermore, they were often not even aware of such, until someone (usually the supervisor, or the professional staff in charge) applauded them. This point was illustrated in Dalia's narrative:
When I was at home, I never had my own money. When I started my national service, it was the first time they taught me how to open my own account, I had to manage it, I was in charge. It’s not a lot of money, but it was mine, I knew where the money was going, and why, and for me it was a step towards being an adult. The service was like a real job, you have to wake up every morning, and get ready, and be there on time. It was a year in which I learned to manage my own life.
The kindergarten teacher would tell me – wow, I’m so happy you’re here, I wouldn’t have managed without you, and you help me so much, and I would say to her: Really? Do you really think so? (sounds astonished). Because I’m so far from feeling that I really help. But these are things that even if you don’t feel, others feel, that you are important. (Do you yourself feel that your work contributed to the population you worked with?) Well, I don’t know, I always… I somehow always feel that no, I don’t know why, but I don’t feel I mattered, but (loud) the things I kept hearing from the team I worked with – “how wonderful you are, and how helpful you are”– they always said it, and it always shocked me. Me? I feel I don’t do anything important.
Yael added: My service as a counselor in another boarding school taught me so much about how to run a house, and how to raise kids, and what’s the right way to talk to them, how to talk to other adults, and how to learn to ask for help. It taught me many, many things. Esti and Yael described aspects of competency and agency, which refer to mastering practical skills. Many other participants also referred to mastering certain psychological skills. For example, Dana said: “I learned whom I can trust and whom not. There are many manipulative people out there, so I learned to stand up for my rights and not keep silent.“ And Tehila said:
Miriam, referring to the school team with whom she worked in her placement, said: “They helped me to develop in terms of my self-confidence, taking responsibility, understanding who I am and what am I worth, literally speaking.” Another external source for validation was the population served. Ruth, who in her service role helped at-risk high school students in their studies, added another dimension:
I had a chance to meet with professionals who in no other way I could have met. It improved my confidence, I learned how to speak with people, how to present ideas, and it helped me develop as an adult.
At the end-of-the-year ceremony, several students came up to me, I didn’t even think I was so meaningful to them, and they told me that had it not been for me, and the time I sat with them, they would not have passed the final exams. That was incredible to know.
Interestingly, when reflecting on their gains from the service, many participants emphasized their unique qualities. Some participants weaved their unfortunate past experiences and biographies into their ongoing narratives, revealing how, from their perspectives, a person’s difficult past experiences could sometimes be used towards a good end. Miriam, who had functioned as a mother to her younger brothers, described how she has learned to use something that had been negative in the past for something positive in the future.
In this passage, Ruth pointed to an additional source of meaning. She made it very clear that the students were seeking her out, specifically, to acknowledge and thank for what she uniquely provided. What’s important to note here was her surprise upon learning that she was so important to them. This point emerged in many interviews: Participants were newly learning of their unique significance in the lives of others. Tehila reflected on the feedback she received from others, and how it contributed to the development of her self-confidence: “I felt that people respected my work, but more than that, they respected me as a person.” Such anecdotes were found in many of the participants’ stories. The fresh discovery that they had been able to be meaningful to others led to a sense of growing confidence in their abilities and resourcefulness. Presumably, the fact that the feedback was so clear and direct promoted this feeling. It seemed that for many of these young people (who had often been deprived of parental warmth and guidance during their childhoods, and/or had histories of troubled relationships with
I took responsibility for many years, I have been taking care of my five young brothers since I was little, I served as a buffer between them and my father, so he wouldn’t blow up at them, but learning to come out of this role, or more than that, learning to use it wisely, not with my claws out and understanding what the children really needed from me now – not defending too much, not judging who is right – yes, that’s a huge change I underwent. Yana summed up the feelings that were shared by many of the interviewees: that the need to be responsible for others had better prepared her for taking responsibility for her own life. Like Miriam, she 5
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about her own inner experience, as a child whose needs had never been adequately met.
saw how her own experience helped her to emotionally identify with the girls she was responsible for: My service strengthened me a lot. It revealed many capabilities which I didn't imagine I possessed. The mentoring program for girls, in which I worked as a guide, enabled me to live my life again, sort of. Think about it – I was a new graduate of such a program myself as a student, and now, two months later, I became a guide in such a program myself. So it means you are not only responsible for your own life, you bear responsibility for their lives as well. And it means that there is no such a thing as running away, like I used to run away when it became too difficult for me in the school. No, here it's not an option. You take responsibility for the lives of others, and you teach them how to cope with their difficulties, and how to not run away, and you teach them that you have faith in them. So all this was challenging, and difficult, but gave me so many strengths, and taught me things about powers that I didn't know I had in me.
4. Discussion The current study looked at how at-risk youth who successfully graduated from the special NCS volunteering program constructed a sense of agency. Despite previous research showing that participating in such programs may be beneficial for at-risk youth, helping them to achieve personal goals and gain a sense of mastery and control over their lives (Yamaguchi et al., 2008; Zeira et al., 2018), to date little had been known about how program participants viewed this positive change. Therefore, we sought to look closely at this process and explore both its development and the factors which were perceived as important in it. The three themes which emerged from the narratives were: Gaining a sense of normalcy and belonging, feeling worthy through others' eyes, and gaining an internalized sense of competency. We view these three themes as representing crucial stages in the process of constructing a sense of agency, where the first stage was based on the motive to learn what was considered normative, in order to belong; the second was the stage at which participants started to feel worthy because of the feedback and external validation they received; and the last stage was a growing internal sense of competence, which was described as being grounded in the unique qualities that the women identified in themselves. Agency, for the participants in our study, could be viewed as including two axes: One between giving and receiving, and the other between belonging and standing out. The participants described their efforts to find the right balance between these two needs. That is, they emphasized their need to be unique and stand out, while also describing their need to be like others and not be marked as “outsiders.” They also spoke about their need to be meaningful in their roles and to feel that they were valuable; at the same time, they acknowledged that their service, and the significant people associated with it, were crucial for their development and had given them valuable tools for life. People's ability to be involved in relationships where they both give and receive, and furthermore, where they receive because they feel that they can be valuable via their giving, is a marker for a positive transition to adulthood (Sanders, Munford, Thimasarn-Anwar, Liebenberg, & Ungar, 2015). Our findings emphasize the importance of programs and services like the NCS. Youth at risk have few opportunities to positively engage in learning about themselves and the world around them. In this manner, the NCS program allowed the participants a new and intensive experience which, in a way, introduced them to their own capabilities, which they were able to practice and then internalize (Webb et al., 2017). It seems that the period of service acts as both a basic “training stage” for these women, and also as a moratorium, affording them a chance to put off future commitments and/or obligations. Youth at risk do not generally receive the opportunity for such a moratorium, as they are usually required to accept whatever job is available, simply in order to survive and/or assure their family's survival. As such, this period may serve as a turning point in their life path and equip them with the tools to shape their life stories in the ways they desire. Our findings offer a deeper understanding of the process through which the aforementioned changes occur and are internalized. They are in line with recent studies which document the value of positive youth development programs for youth at risk, and especially those which emphasize participants' autonomy and active involvement in fostering resilience, agency, and mastery (Heinze, 2013; Sanders et al., 2015; Zeira, 2014). Recommendations for the development of agency among at-risk youth may include a focus on specific feedback from service mentors regarding the participants' strengths and unique capabilities, as this external recognition seems to pave the way for a more reflective and internalized self-perception. In addition, our findings indicate that
Natali, a young woman who had had a very stormy adolescence as a rebellious teenager, was sent to boarding school at the age of 12. However, she ran away, and proceeded over the years to go from one temporary placement to another, until she turned 18. A social worker from the welfare department who treated her suggested that she inquire about national service. She did so, and decided to work with girls who, like her, were considered high-risk. The below is what she had to say about her experience with them: I always had a passion to help young girls at risk. So I felt it was an opportunity for me. And indeed, this was a wonderful period for me, the kids loved me, shared with me, I really felt I was very helpful there. I felt I could contribute. I had several cases in which I, I really helped. One girl was about to cut herself, and I stopped it. Another one wanted to sleep on a bench on the street, because she had been beaten at home, so I helped her. And although they told me secrets, I knew I had to pass them on to the supervisor, so they could get the help they needed, I told them that I had to do it, and they trusted me. I really felt my opinion was important. It seems that, for Natali, most of the meaningfulness of her experience lay in her sense of having found a mission that was uniquely suited to her. She knew that she, specifically, would be good at understanding and identifying with younger girls at risk, because of her own past, and could perhaps even spare them from having to go through some of the difficulties that she’d had to go through at their age. Similarly, Debbie, who had described herself as having been bored and impatient with the children she worked with in the past, told a moving story of how she managed, gently and persistently, to reach out to one little girl in the kindergarten where she worked: There was one girl who went through a kind of trauma, and she was very timid, very sad, very suspicious of people, unable to open up. She was afraid of touch, she was afraid to talk, afraid to communicate. I said: I have a mission here. And every time I tried to talk to her, she would cry and want to go home. The staff told me to ignore her, but I felt I couldn't. She needed attention. I felt: This is my job, this is what I came for, I have to find a way. So I would come close to her, and she would make faces, like, “Who are you? What do you want from me?” She didn’t respond to my efforts, time and again. But I said: I’m not going to give up, and gradually, she started to smile at me. And still, she was afraid of others. She started to come closer, hug me, she became attached to me. So, yeah, I feel good, because everybody else said to leave her be, but I know how important the early years are for later life. I think this child just needed someone who would care, who would smile at her, who would draw with her, who would see her as special. She needed it but she didn’t know how to say it. By the end of the year, she was my best friend. Although Debbie didn’t specifically articulate this point, it may be that by being so attentive to the child's needs, she corrected something 6
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creating a balance between giving and receiving (i.e., in contrast to the heavy focus that is put solely on the receiving aspect, as manifested by the opportunities for at-risk youth provided by most social service agencies) may be more efficient in fostering a sense of meaning and satisfaction as well as of mastery and learning. The present study was a qualitative exploration and, therefore, findings should be carefully examined when applied to other contexts. The study was limited by being cross-sectional; participants were not followed prospectively. Although it seems that agency was a stable gain for many of the participants, it is important to note that agency is always a temporal matter. As Emirbayer and Mische (1998) pointed out, changes in the environment require an ongoing reconstruction of one’s view of the past. Therefore, longitudinal research could shed light on the dynamic reconstruction of agency over the years; for instance, one question might be whether agency’s stability is associated with successfully taking up adult tasks. In addition, the current study was based on Israeli women only; conclusions about the findings should therefore be drawn cautiously regarding male at-risk youth, and in regard to other cultural contexts. Finally, we didn't look at those participants who had dropped out of the program. Future research should focus on the factors which play a role in differentiating between those who successfully complete the program and those who drop out; it should also focus on the relationship between program participation and other variables associated with the successful transition to adulthood.
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Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. Funding This study was funded by Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant 3-8785). Declaration of Competing Interest None. Appendix A. Supplementary material Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104524. References Adler, J. M., Chin, E. D., Kolisetty, A. P., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2012). The distinguishing characteristics of narrative identity in adults with features of borderline personality disorder: An empirical investigation. Journal of Personality Disorders, 26, 498–512. Angst, J., Gamma, A., Gastpar, M., Lépine, J. P., Mendlewicz, J., & Tylee, A. (2002). Gender differences in depression. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 252, 201–209. Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480. Arnett, J. J. (2007). Aging out of care: Toward realizing the possibilities of emerging adulthood. New Directions for Youth Development, 113, 151–161. Benbenishty, R., & Zeira, A. (2008). Evaluation of mastery of life skills and needs of adolescents in out-of-home care upon leaving. Mifgash Le'avoda Chinoochit Ve-Sozialit, 28, 17–44 (in Hebrew). Bryant, J., & Ellard, J. (2015). Hope as a form of agency in the future thinking of disenfranchised young people. Journal of Youth Studies, 18, 485–499. Chaudron, L. H., & Caine, E. D. (2004). Suicide among women: A critical review. Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, 59, 125–134. Côté, J. E. (2013). Adolescent storm and stress: An evaluation of the Mead-Freeman controversy. Routledge. Côté, J. E., & Levine, C. G. (2002). Identity, formation, agency, and culture: A social psychological synthesis. New York: Psychology Press. Côté, J., & Bynner, J. M. (2008). Changes in the transition to adulthood in the UK and Canada: The role of structure and agency in emerging adulthood. Journal of Youth Studies, 11(3), 251–268. Côté, J. E., & Schwartz, S. J. (2002). Comparing psychological and sociological
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alumni. Washington: Corporation for National and Community Service, Office of Research and Policy. Zeira, A. (2014). Listening to young alumni of care in Israel: A brief note from research about successful transitions to adulthood. In In J. K. Whittaker, J. Del Valle, & L. Holmes (Eds.). Therapeutic residential care with children and youth: Developing evidencebased international practice (pp. 203–215). London: Jessica Kingsley. Zeira, A., & Benbenishty, R. (2008). The status of alumni of youth villages in Israel. Children and Youth Service Review, 28, 95–134. Zeira, A., Arzev, S., Benbenishty, R., & Portnoy, H. (2014). Children in educational residential care: A cohort study of Israeli Youth. Australian Social Work, 67, 55–70. Zeira, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., Meir, G., Levy, D., Refaeli, T., & Benbenishty, R. (2018). Alumni of national civic service: Comparing the experience of at-risk and mainstream volunteers. International Social Work, 61, 1027–1041.
Society, 37, 201–229. Sherer, M. (2004). National service in Israel: Motivations, volunteer characteristics, and levels of content. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 33, 94–108. Sherraden, M. W., & Eberly, D. J. (1986). Reflections on Katimavik: An innovative Canadian Youth Program. Children and Youth Services Review, 8, 283–303. Tedder, M. & Biesta, G. (2007). Learning from life and learning for life: Exploring the opportunities for biographical learning in the lives of adults. In ESREA conference on life history and biography, Roskilde University, Denmark (pp. 1–4). Webb, L., Cox, N., Cumbers, H., Martikke, S., Gedzielewski, E., & Duale, M. (2017). Personal resilience and identity capital among young people leaving care: enhancing identity formation and life chances through involvement in volunteering and social action. Journal of Youth Studies, 20, 889–903. Yamaguchi, R., Gordon, P., Mulvey, C., Unlu, F., Simpson, L., Jastrzab, J., ..., BrownLyons, M. (2008). Still serving: Measuring the eight-year impact of americorps on
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Between being unique and being like everyone else: The development of sense of agency in young women at risk
T
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Rivka Tuval-Mashiacha, , Drorit Levyb, Tehila Refaelic, Noa Polak-Verdigera, Anat Zeirad, Rami Benbenishtye a
Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Israel School of Social Work, Bar Ilan University, Israel c School of Social Work, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel d School of Social Work, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel e Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (Emeritus), and Visiting Professor in Education and Social Sciences, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile b
A R T I C LE I N FO
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: At-risk adolescents Sense of agency National civic service Women
A positive sense of agency is crucial for a successful transition to adulthood. Young women at risk may struggle with a compromised sense of agency due to their backgrounds and daily challenges, potentially delaying them at the stage of emerging adulthood when they are required to become independent. The current paper looks at the development of agency through the experiences of young women at risk who successfully graduated from a National Civic Service (NCS) volunteering program. Thirty alumni of the program were interviewed about their experiences in the program. Participants described the NCS as providing them with a transformative experience, during which they gained a new sense of agency. Three themes emerged, which represent two complementary needs to become normative, and to stand out as unique: Gaining a sense of normalcy and belonging, feeling worthy through others' eyes, and gaining an internalized sense of competency. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.
1. Introduction The transition to adulthood has become a more prolonged, individualized, and challenging process than in past decades; many young people in their early twenties are not ready to commit to gainful stable employment, continuing education, moving out of parents’ home/ finding appropriate housing, forming meaningful intimate relationships, or raising children (Arnett, 2000, 2007). From a sociological perspective, it has been claimed that although the array of life domain alternatives available to emerging adults has expanded, the collective support for identity formation has decreased, and the individual is now required to take personal responsibility for the process of committing to long-lasting goals (Côté & Levine, 2002). The transition to adulthood may involve unique challenges for women, one reason being that this transition is considered more dramatic for them. On the one hand, women can now choose from many alternatives to traditional female roles which had been the norm for many decades, such as not having children, or having children without being married (Fussell & Gauthier, 2014). On the other hand, although young women’s lives have come to appear more like men’s lives in
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terms of the “statuses” they count (at least in Western societies, and for middle class women), the meaning of these changes in status combinations, and their implications for the content of their daily lives is quite distinct, and more complicated for women than for men (Fussell and Furstenberg, 2014). Secondly, women cope with unique emotional challenges during their adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Around early adolescence (ages 13–15), gender differences in depression emerge, with more depression among females than among males, and these differences continue to increase during later adolescence (Angst et al., 2002; Galambos, Leadbeater, & Barker, 2004). In addition, women have a substantially higher prevalence of suicide attempts, including self-inflicted injuries, compared to men (Chaudron & Caine, 2004; Hahm, Lee, Ozonoff, & van Wert, 2010), although men have a higher prevalence of completed suicides. Therefore, it seems that there are different challenges for each gender during this period. 1.1. Theoretical statement Two theories guided the current research: Marcia (1966) theory on identity statuses, and McAdams’s theory (1988) on agency. Marcia,
Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (R. Tuval-Mashiach).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104524 Received 20 March 2019; Received in revised form 28 September 2019; Accepted 29 September 2019 Available online 09 October 2019 0190-7409/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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In Israel, the transition to adulthood of this population may be even more challenging due to the military service, which is a critical phase in the lives of Israeli adolescents and a turning point in their transition to adulthood (Mayseless, 2004). Military service in Israel is not only compulsory but also marks a seminal period in the life of the individual as he/she matures; many disadvantaged youth, however, are ill-prepared for military service and are thus exempted, drop out, or end up serving in less prestigious capacities. Because the military serves as an entry point to later professional development, this set of circumstances increases this vulnerable population’s marginalization. In order to help at-risk youth in their transition to healthy adulthood, several programs have been developed in Israel; one of them, which serves as a substitute to military service, is the national civic service.
developing Erikson’s work (1968) on the psychological processes through which adolescents form a stable, independent identity, suggested that two processes – identity exploration and commitment – are perceived as crucial dimensions of personal identity formation (Luyckx, Duriez, Klimstra, & de Witte, 2010). Based on the interplay between these two dimensions, Marcia (1980) suggested four identity statuses. These identity statuses are: diffusion (low exploration, low commitment), which represents a lack of interest in identity issues; foreclosure (low exploration, high commitment), which represents rigidity and conformity in identity formation; moratorium (high exploration, low commitment), which represents the active search for a sense of self; and achievement (high exploration, high commitment), which represents the consolidation of various self-elements into a coherent and integrated identity (Schwartz, Côté, & Arnett, 2005). According to this theory, the more active and agentive adolescents are in their identity formation process, the likelier they are to form a coherent sense of identity, whereas emerging adults who adopt more passive approaches may have trouble forming coherent identities (Schwartz et al., 2005). Another contribution to the literature on successful identity formation came from McAdams (2001), who suggested that agency (together with a sense of communion) organizes people’s personal narratives and identities. Agency refers to emerging adults' beliefs that they are in control of their choices and decisions, responsible for the outcome of these choices/decisions, and that they can direct their lives towards preferred destinations, despite obstacles and challenges along the way (Adler, Chin, Kolisetty, & Oltmanns, 2012; Bryant & Ellard, 2015; David, Newen, & Vogeley, 2008; Emirbayer & Mische, 1998; McAdams, Hoffman, Mansfield, & Day, 1996). Research has shown that sense of agency is indeed positively related to identity achievement and negatively related to identity diffusion, as well as unrelated to family socioeconomic background (Côté & Schwartz, 2002). However, most studies on agency have been conducted among affluent samples, primarily U.S. college students, who do not represent the general population; they therefore may not accurately represent the nature of agentic development and identity processes in less affluent populations, such as at-risk youth (Côté, 2013; Côté & Bynner, 2008; Schwartz et al., 2005). Young people from disadvantaged groups have a greater chance of presenting “bounded agency,” meaning that they have experienced barriers that restrain and sometimes suppress expression of agency (Evans, 2002).
1.3. National civic service National civic service (NCS) performed by youth is becoming more prevalent in many countries (Delany & Perold, 2017; Hodgkinson, 2004; McBride & Sherraden, 2016). Programs of this nature usually involve the participation of young adults (between the ages 18–20) who volunteer to do various kinds of community work, in a wide array of social institutions and organizations that generally cater to marginalized or at-risk populations, such as the elderly, the ill, or immigrants (Frumkin & Miller, 2008; Sherer, 2004). Etzioni (2007) noted the service's dual contribution to both the individual and to the community. On the individual level, it promotes the acquisition of skills for an independent adult life, as well as social awareness and democratic values. On the community level, civil service is a mechanism to promote important social goals and reduce gaps between social groups from different backgrounds. The NCS in Israel aims to advance those populations who for a variety of reasons do not serve in the military and includes a unique enrichment program for engaging at-risk youth who are not eligible to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. A series of studies, conducted in the last decade on at-risk populations and their transition to adulthood, found that NCS contributed to their ability to achieve a positive status in their early 20s, with regard to attaining a job, housing, and meaningful relationships (Levy, Benbenishty, & Refaeli, 2012; Zeira et al., 2018), improving psychological attributes such as self-esteem (Horesh-Cipinyuk & Bar On, 2010), emotional well-being (Yamaguchi et al., 2008) and adjustment to an independent adult life (Sherraden & Eberly, 1986; Yamaguchi et al., 2008; Zeira et al., 2018).
1.2. Emerging adulthood of disadvantaged youth The psychological task of identity achievement is, perhaps unsurprisingly, even more challenging for at-risk youth, who lack family support and guidance, and often deal with barriers such as marginalization, exclusion, estrangement, and difficulties in entering the workforce (Kahn-Strawczynski, 2005; Kelly, 2001). Katan (2008) identifies several at-risk youth populations, including immigrants, young people who grew up in families that suffered economic and social distress, and alumni of residential care facilities who may be especially vulnerable when they transition out of care at the age of 18 (Benbenishty & Zeira, 2008; Zeira & Benbenishty, 2008). KahnStrawczynski (2005) indicated that some young people who are considered to be at-risk face more difficulties after the age of 18. This situation results in part from the lack of designated social services available to the at-risk 18+ age group (Katan, 2008), but also from the fact that many of these individuals lack a basic education, as they have dropped out of school or have not performed well academically. This group of individuals lack basic life skills (e.g., job search skills, the ability to develop personal relationships) and social support (Jones, 2014) and have a higher rate of engaging in criminal acts compared to the general population (Dregan & Gulliford, 2012; Frumkin & Miller, 2008; Kahn-Strawczynski, 2005; Zeira, Arzev, Benbenishty, & Portnoy, 2014). These factors, in turn, negatively impact their transition to adulthood.
1.4. The current study Despite the rich body of research demonstrating the positive impact of NCS on those who serve – in terms of different psychological attributes and functioning – there is very little knowledge to date about how this improved level of psychological adjustment is related to identity formation and what processes are involved. In our study, we focused on the construct of sense of agency (and its development) as an organizing concept which lies at the core of these psychological changes and leads to greater maturation and identity consolidation. Our choice was to study young at-risk women (a population characterized by double marginalization) who successfully graduated from the program in order to explore the development of their sense of agency, from their subjective perspectives. Specifically, we wished to explore what these young women perceived as meaningful in their experience in the program, in helping them to develop a sense of competency and agency, and what lessons they took with them from the service for later stages in life. A qualitative methodology was used, given its potential for generating new knowledge on issues regarding what constitutes agency for this population (Fave, Brdar, Wissing, & Vella-Brodrick, 2013).
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receive their transcripts, or the final report results, and none of them took these options. Therefore, no member checking was conducted. Interview. The methodological and theoretical approach we used was the narrative approach, according to which one's identity is constructed through the stories one tells (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998). Because narratives consist both of the telling and what is told (Tedder & Biesta, 2007), the researchers in this study highlighted the importance of studying both the contents (e.g., what is told) and the form (e.g., the telling process) of the narratives. In order to capture both the construction of stories and their contents, we chose to use a twostage interview format. The first stage consisted of participants' uninterrupted narratives about their experience in response to the following invitation: “We would like to hear about your experience of the national service. Please tell us a bit about yourself and your life prior to the service, including how you decided to join the program, and your experience during the service.” In the second stage, participants were asked about different aspects of their experience, including their motivations to join the program; their relationships with authority, peers, and the population they served; the challenges they faced; and the resources that were available to them. Because we were specifically interested in learning what was perceived as significant for participants as they transitioned to adulthood, we then asked about meaningful events they remembered from the service, if and how they changed as a result of the service, and in what ways (if at all) the service impacted their life afterwards. One of the interviewers (N.P.V.) pilot tested the interview with five women who were part of the program, but not part of the study sample. Their interviews helped to refine the interview questions, leading to the final format described below. The pilot interviews were not included in the current analysis, because they did not include all the questions; however, they were analyzed separately for validation purposes and resulted in similar themes.
2. Method 2.1. The NCS youth at risk program Since 2005, as described above, the NCS has been aiming to decrease social gaps that may result from not serving in the Israeli military, and efforts are continually made to engage additional social groups that do not enlist in military service (Zeira et al., 2018). In this program, at-risk volunteers are placed in various community activities, and at the same time receive mentoring and close supervision, counseling on personal and professional matters, and enrichment courses and seminars. In addition, they participate in group meetings to enhance both their life skills and their sense of belonging to the community and country. All of these activities are geared toward making adaptation to national civic service easier for this at-risk group and equipping them with the relevant tools and support. The vast majority of participants in the Israeli NCS programs are women (about 80% of participants), because men are less often exempted from military service. 2.2. Design and sample Design. This qualitative study was part of a larger mixed-methods research study on the impact of NCS participation on at-risk populations. In the first, quantitative stage, using a cross-sectional survey, 305 alumni (250 women and 55 men) were randomly recruited from the lists of agencies that provide NCS placements in Israel, one-to-five years after completing the service. Participants completed phone-based quantitative surveys and were asked if they were willing to be interviewed subsequently, face-to-face. Because women comprise the majority of the program, and based on Robinson (2014) considerations regarding sample universe and homogeneity, we decided to focus in this study on women only, with the only other inclusion criterion being successful graduation from the program. Sample. The sample was a purposive one (Patton, 2002), where from the list of 180 participants who agreed to be interviewed, we randomly selected six participants representing each of the five years, in order to gain a broad perspective of the phenomenon. The sample included 30 young women who graduated from their NCS between one and five years prior to the interviews (therefore, all were between the ages of 19–24). In terms of their at-risk backgrounds, all had experienced past exposure to at least one risk factor such as violence, neglect, drug abuse, school disengagement, or sexual assault. All of the participants had some level of schooling, ranging between 8 and 12 years, but none of them had finished high school with a diploma, and a third of them were taken out of their homes between the ages of 6–14 and placed in boarding schools by the welfare system. About half of them had a past of living in poverty, and seven had been thrown out of the house by their families rejected by their families.
2.4. Analysis The analysis was conducted by the six authors who comprised the research team. Four of them are faculty, and one was an MA student (N.P.V.), and one a PhD student (T.R.) at the time of the research. The team met regularly to read the transcribed interviews, identify themes and categories, and discuss disagreements in the interpretation of the written material. The analysis led to a decision about the themes which emerged, after which two raters (T.R. & N.V.P.) coded each transcript individually, cross-checked their codes, and resolved the few disagreements that came up (fewer than 10). Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed for categorical content analysis, based on the model of narrative analysis proposed by Lieblich et al. (1998). According to this model, textual analysis focuses on the dimensions of content and/or structure, and on the unit of analysis, with the choice being to use the unit of the text as a whole (holistic analysis), or to use parts of the text (categorical analysis). As is common in qualitative research, we employed confirmatory and exploratory analyses. In confirmatory analysis, the researcher tries to confirm or validate prior theoretical notions, while exploratory analysis aims at opening up new hypotheses and theoretical concepts (Patton, 2002). In the current study, the existing literature on definitions of the successful transition to adulthood, and on the different attributes of sense of agency, guided our initial analysis of the texts. As such, we looked for themes brought up by the interviewees regarding what they considered as significant in preparing them for their transition to adulthood and living independent lives. The exploratory analysis then revealed that most participants described the service as a transformative experience, and that this transformation was related to developments in their sense of mastery and agency. Our analytic strategy was to include themes which emerged in at least 80% of the interviews. Quotes were selected in order to illustrate the emerging themes, and they were chosen based on considerations of their adequacy for representing the illustrated theme in a clear, straightforward way, and/or when participants gave
2.3. Procedure and interviews Procedure. The study was approved by the Bar-Ilan University ethics committee and was carried out in collaboration with the governmental authority for the NCS, which served as a mediator between the researchers and the operating agencies of the NCS; the latter provided contact lists of NCS volunteers. Most of the participants were interviewed in their homes, and the rest were interviewed in the offices of the researchers, or at a quiet place near participants' homes as per their requests. Interviews were conducted by two trained interviewers – one a social worker (PhD student) and the other a research psychologist (MA student) – and lasted between 30 and 90 min. Participants were informed that participation was voluntary, and no identifying information was recorded; they signed consent and were given a small gift as compensation for their time and participation. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Participants were asked if they wished to 3
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Graph 1. The development of sense of agency.
and feel pride, like, you know, I am contributing to this country. One day, I lost my bus pass and had to pay, and it really bothered me, not because of the money, but because I felt that through this card people could see me and knew that I was part of the NCS.
examples or shared specific events which added to the richness of the themes. Participants' real names were concealed. Three themes emerged as central to the development of sense of agency, and they are presented below, and summarized in Graph. 1.
The ride on the bus can be interpreted as a sign of Rachel's becoming a part of the collective, of being a productive citizen in this context, where the bus pass serves as her entry point into Israeli society. Losing it jeopardizes that inclusion and creates the threat of her being excluded once again. Later in her interview, she added: “I felt worthy. It's like you walk in the street and people see you, and you are normal, like anybody else, and you tell them, yes, I'm in the middle of doing my civic service…” In Rachel's narrative, seeing herself as she imagines others now see her adds to her feeling normative, and to her feeling that she's like other people her age, despite the kind of upbringing she had and her troubled history. The road to normalcy involved the need to learn skills and gain knowledge, experiences participants lacked due to their backgrounds. Some described that via their service experience they met with a variety of role models, from whom they could learn how to act and behave. Furthermore, they were introduced to ideas and thoughts that were new to them, regarding values, social conventions, and various age-related issues. Being exposed to this kind of role model was an experience that they had not had the opportunity to have before. Such an example can be found in Rivka's story:
3. Results The analysis revealed an overarching concept: a positive change in sense of agency. Gaining a sense of agency was related to three themes which emerged in the narratives: Gaining a sense of normalcy and belonging, feeling worthy through others' eyes, and gaining an internalized sense of competency (see Graph 1 for a summary of the three themes and their characteristics). In what follows, we describe and illustrate each theme. 3.1. Sense of normalcy and belonging One of the common insights to emerge from the participants’ accounts of their service experience was a positive feeling that it had helped them to bridge a gap and to become more like other young people their age, who were perceived as being more mainstream. Most participants raised the issue of their personal backgrounds as having led them to social deviance and estrangement from their communities, social affiliations, and conventions. Descriptions such as, “I was useless,” “I knew I was lousy,” ”There was no way I could do something right,“ and ”I am a person who can't get things done,“ were common. Against this backdrop, the experience of their service, something which most Israeli young adults perform in one way or another, was perceived as enabling them to feel normative and “like other people” their age. The emotional need that was at the base of the need to be like others was the wish to belong. Orian said: “It was important for me to serve, to do, to put myself in a framework that says: Ok, it's true that I'm outside the norm, but still, I can be part of a convention, a reference, which is normative.” Rachel, another participant, described how proud she felt when everybody could see her getting a free ride on the bus (a privilege that only soldiers and NCS volunteers receive), and therefore know that she was like other people her age:
There was something that was really new to me, and I took it with me as a lesson for life. In the enrichment classes that we had every other week, we had a woman who talked to us about romantic relationships and dating, and it was really nice, she spoke about how to date (laughing). Even now (after several years), I still call her from time to time to get her advice. And Dana said: “I learned how to live in the real world. I learned by viewing how other people behave, what they do, how adult people choose and manage their lives.” Lastly, the sense of normalcy also expressed itself in the tasks and activities that the interviewees were currently doing (i.e., at the time of the interview). All of the participants were either working or studying
It was fun to get free rides. I really loved it. I would go on the bus, 4
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authorities), it was very rewarding and transformative for them to finally earn respect, and be viewed positively, sometimes even admiringly, by both children and adults. As a result, they experienced a sense of self-affirmation, and a growing sense of uniqueness.
and – in contrast to the apologetic tone that accompanied their narratives when they described their pasts, or the beginning of their service – when they referred to what they were doing now, the tone became “matter of fact” and confident. Several mentioned that they were doing “whatever every young adult is doing now”: studying and/or working. Others described their plans and hopes for the coming years: finding a partner, getting married, building a family, and making professional progress.
3.3. Gaining an internalized sense of competency In the previous sections we described how the growing sense of “being like others” and of being “normal,” and the ability to view one's contributions as meaningful, fostered the process of developing a positive self-outlook. Yet, this positive perception was dependent on external feedback. The third theme, which may be viewed as representing a more advanced stage of self-actualization, was gaining an internalized sense of competency and learning to trust oneself as an adult. This theme was characterized by the motivation to be competent, and the underlying emotional tone was one of feeling unique and confident. Esti described how learning how to take responsibility for herself, for her money and for her time – in a way she hadn’t known how to do previously – was important for her sense of mastery. Echoing the cultural definitions of what it means to be an adult, she said the following:
3.2. The ability of the volunteer to feel worthy through others' eyes From the interviews it appeared that although initially participants wished to “simply be like others,” they gradually became more aware of their own distinctive positive qualities. They felt that they wanted to contribute and do something meaningful, and in this way described the emergence of a feeling that they were worthy. However, for most of them, this awareness was contingent on the way others viewed them, and was mediated by others’ appreciation for them. Almost all of the participants (27 of the 30) felt that their service was meaningful because it was validated by others. It emerged from the interviews that participants did not credit themselves for their strengths, qualities, or contributions, and furthermore, they were often not even aware of such, until someone (usually the supervisor, or the professional staff in charge) applauded them. This point was illustrated in Dalia's narrative:
When I was at home, I never had my own money. When I started my national service, it was the first time they taught me how to open my own account, I had to manage it, I was in charge. It’s not a lot of money, but it was mine, I knew where the money was going, and why, and for me it was a step towards being an adult. The service was like a real job, you have to wake up every morning, and get ready, and be there on time. It was a year in which I learned to manage my own life.
The kindergarten teacher would tell me – wow, I’m so happy you’re here, I wouldn’t have managed without you, and you help me so much, and I would say to her: Really? Do you really think so? (sounds astonished). Because I’m so far from feeling that I really help. But these are things that even if you don’t feel, others feel, that you are important. (Do you yourself feel that your work contributed to the population you worked with?) Well, I don’t know, I always… I somehow always feel that no, I don’t know why, but I don’t feel I mattered, but (loud) the things I kept hearing from the team I worked with – “how wonderful you are, and how helpful you are”– they always said it, and it always shocked me. Me? I feel I don’t do anything important.
Yael added: My service as a counselor in another boarding school taught me so much about how to run a house, and how to raise kids, and what’s the right way to talk to them, how to talk to other adults, and how to learn to ask for help. It taught me many, many things. Esti and Yael described aspects of competency and agency, which refer to mastering practical skills. Many other participants also referred to mastering certain psychological skills. For example, Dana said: “I learned whom I can trust and whom not. There are many manipulative people out there, so I learned to stand up for my rights and not keep silent.“ And Tehila said:
Miriam, referring to the school team with whom she worked in her placement, said: “They helped me to develop in terms of my self-confidence, taking responsibility, understanding who I am and what am I worth, literally speaking.” Another external source for validation was the population served. Ruth, who in her service role helped at-risk high school students in their studies, added another dimension:
I had a chance to meet with professionals who in no other way I could have met. It improved my confidence, I learned how to speak with people, how to present ideas, and it helped me develop as an adult.
At the end-of-the-year ceremony, several students came up to me, I didn’t even think I was so meaningful to them, and they told me that had it not been for me, and the time I sat with them, they would not have passed the final exams. That was incredible to know.
Interestingly, when reflecting on their gains from the service, many participants emphasized their unique qualities. Some participants weaved their unfortunate past experiences and biographies into their ongoing narratives, revealing how, from their perspectives, a person’s difficult past experiences could sometimes be used towards a good end. Miriam, who had functioned as a mother to her younger brothers, described how she has learned to use something that had been negative in the past for something positive in the future.
In this passage, Ruth pointed to an additional source of meaning. She made it very clear that the students were seeking her out, specifically, to acknowledge and thank for what she uniquely provided. What’s important to note here was her surprise upon learning that she was so important to them. This point emerged in many interviews: Participants were newly learning of their unique significance in the lives of others. Tehila reflected on the feedback she received from others, and how it contributed to the development of her self-confidence: “I felt that people respected my work, but more than that, they respected me as a person.” Such anecdotes were found in many of the participants’ stories. The fresh discovery that they had been able to be meaningful to others led to a sense of growing confidence in their abilities and resourcefulness. Presumably, the fact that the feedback was so clear and direct promoted this feeling. It seemed that for many of these young people (who had often been deprived of parental warmth and guidance during their childhoods, and/or had histories of troubled relationships with
I took responsibility for many years, I have been taking care of my five young brothers since I was little, I served as a buffer between them and my father, so he wouldn’t blow up at them, but learning to come out of this role, or more than that, learning to use it wisely, not with my claws out and understanding what the children really needed from me now – not defending too much, not judging who is right – yes, that’s a huge change I underwent. Yana summed up the feelings that were shared by many of the interviewees: that the need to be responsible for others had better prepared her for taking responsibility for her own life. Like Miriam, she 5
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about her own inner experience, as a child whose needs had never been adequately met.
saw how her own experience helped her to emotionally identify with the girls she was responsible for: My service strengthened me a lot. It revealed many capabilities which I didn't imagine I possessed. The mentoring program for girls, in which I worked as a guide, enabled me to live my life again, sort of. Think about it – I was a new graduate of such a program myself as a student, and now, two months later, I became a guide in such a program myself. So it means you are not only responsible for your own life, you bear responsibility for their lives as well. And it means that there is no such a thing as running away, like I used to run away when it became too difficult for me in the school. No, here it's not an option. You take responsibility for the lives of others, and you teach them how to cope with their difficulties, and how to not run away, and you teach them that you have faith in them. So all this was challenging, and difficult, but gave me so many strengths, and taught me things about powers that I didn't know I had in me.
4. Discussion The current study looked at how at-risk youth who successfully graduated from the special NCS volunteering program constructed a sense of agency. Despite previous research showing that participating in such programs may be beneficial for at-risk youth, helping them to achieve personal goals and gain a sense of mastery and control over their lives (Yamaguchi et al., 2008; Zeira et al., 2018), to date little had been known about how program participants viewed this positive change. Therefore, we sought to look closely at this process and explore both its development and the factors which were perceived as important in it. The three themes which emerged from the narratives were: Gaining a sense of normalcy and belonging, feeling worthy through others' eyes, and gaining an internalized sense of competency. We view these three themes as representing crucial stages in the process of constructing a sense of agency, where the first stage was based on the motive to learn what was considered normative, in order to belong; the second was the stage at which participants started to feel worthy because of the feedback and external validation they received; and the last stage was a growing internal sense of competence, which was described as being grounded in the unique qualities that the women identified in themselves. Agency, for the participants in our study, could be viewed as including two axes: One between giving and receiving, and the other between belonging and standing out. The participants described their efforts to find the right balance between these two needs. That is, they emphasized their need to be unique and stand out, while also describing their need to be like others and not be marked as “outsiders.” They also spoke about their need to be meaningful in their roles and to feel that they were valuable; at the same time, they acknowledged that their service, and the significant people associated with it, were crucial for their development and had given them valuable tools for life. People's ability to be involved in relationships where they both give and receive, and furthermore, where they receive because they feel that they can be valuable via their giving, is a marker for a positive transition to adulthood (Sanders, Munford, Thimasarn-Anwar, Liebenberg, & Ungar, 2015). Our findings emphasize the importance of programs and services like the NCS. Youth at risk have few opportunities to positively engage in learning about themselves and the world around them. In this manner, the NCS program allowed the participants a new and intensive experience which, in a way, introduced them to their own capabilities, which they were able to practice and then internalize (Webb et al., 2017). It seems that the period of service acts as both a basic “training stage” for these women, and also as a moratorium, affording them a chance to put off future commitments and/or obligations. Youth at risk do not generally receive the opportunity for such a moratorium, as they are usually required to accept whatever job is available, simply in order to survive and/or assure their family's survival. As such, this period may serve as a turning point in their life path and equip them with the tools to shape their life stories in the ways they desire. Our findings offer a deeper understanding of the process through which the aforementioned changes occur and are internalized. They are in line with recent studies which document the value of positive youth development programs for youth at risk, and especially those which emphasize participants' autonomy and active involvement in fostering resilience, agency, and mastery (Heinze, 2013; Sanders et al., 2015; Zeira, 2014). Recommendations for the development of agency among at-risk youth may include a focus on specific feedback from service mentors regarding the participants' strengths and unique capabilities, as this external recognition seems to pave the way for a more reflective and internalized self-perception. In addition, our findings indicate that
Natali, a young woman who had had a very stormy adolescence as a rebellious teenager, was sent to boarding school at the age of 12. However, she ran away, and proceeded over the years to go from one temporary placement to another, until she turned 18. A social worker from the welfare department who treated her suggested that she inquire about national service. She did so, and decided to work with girls who, like her, were considered high-risk. The below is what she had to say about her experience with them: I always had a passion to help young girls at risk. So I felt it was an opportunity for me. And indeed, this was a wonderful period for me, the kids loved me, shared with me, I really felt I was very helpful there. I felt I could contribute. I had several cases in which I, I really helped. One girl was about to cut herself, and I stopped it. Another one wanted to sleep on a bench on the street, because she had been beaten at home, so I helped her. And although they told me secrets, I knew I had to pass them on to the supervisor, so they could get the help they needed, I told them that I had to do it, and they trusted me. I really felt my opinion was important. It seems that, for Natali, most of the meaningfulness of her experience lay in her sense of having found a mission that was uniquely suited to her. She knew that she, specifically, would be good at understanding and identifying with younger girls at risk, because of her own past, and could perhaps even spare them from having to go through some of the difficulties that she’d had to go through at their age. Similarly, Debbie, who had described herself as having been bored and impatient with the children she worked with in the past, told a moving story of how she managed, gently and persistently, to reach out to one little girl in the kindergarten where she worked: There was one girl who went through a kind of trauma, and she was very timid, very sad, very suspicious of people, unable to open up. She was afraid of touch, she was afraid to talk, afraid to communicate. I said: I have a mission here. And every time I tried to talk to her, she would cry and want to go home. The staff told me to ignore her, but I felt I couldn't. She needed attention. I felt: This is my job, this is what I came for, I have to find a way. So I would come close to her, and she would make faces, like, “Who are you? What do you want from me?” She didn’t respond to my efforts, time and again. But I said: I’m not going to give up, and gradually, she started to smile at me. And still, she was afraid of others. She started to come closer, hug me, she became attached to me. So, yeah, I feel good, because everybody else said to leave her be, but I know how important the early years are for later life. I think this child just needed someone who would care, who would smile at her, who would draw with her, who would see her as special. She needed it but she didn’t know how to say it. By the end of the year, she was my best friend. Although Debbie didn’t specifically articulate this point, it may be that by being so attentive to the child's needs, she corrected something 6
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creating a balance between giving and receiving (i.e., in contrast to the heavy focus that is put solely on the receiving aspect, as manifested by the opportunities for at-risk youth provided by most social service agencies) may be more efficient in fostering a sense of meaning and satisfaction as well as of mastery and learning. The present study was a qualitative exploration and, therefore, findings should be carefully examined when applied to other contexts. The study was limited by being cross-sectional; participants were not followed prospectively. Although it seems that agency was a stable gain for many of the participants, it is important to note that agency is always a temporal matter. As Emirbayer and Mische (1998) pointed out, changes in the environment require an ongoing reconstruction of one’s view of the past. Therefore, longitudinal research could shed light on the dynamic reconstruction of agency over the years; for instance, one question might be whether agency’s stability is associated with successfully taking up adult tasks. In addition, the current study was based on Israeli women only; conclusions about the findings should therefore be drawn cautiously regarding male at-risk youth, and in regard to other cultural contexts. Finally, we didn't look at those participants who had dropped out of the program. Future research should focus on the factors which play a role in differentiating between those who successfully complete the program and those who drop out; it should also focus on the relationship between program participation and other variables associated with the successful transition to adulthood.
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