338648
Psychological Empowerment Among Urban Youth: Measurement Model and Associations with Youth Outcomes
Andria Eisman, MPH, PhD,
Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI
Marc Zimmerman, PhD,
Prevention Research Center of Michigan, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI
Dan Kruger, PhD,
School of Public Health, Prevention Research Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Thomas Reischl, PhD,
Health Behavior and Health Eduction, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI
Susan Franzen, MS,
Youth Violence Prevention Center, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Flint, MI
Empowerment-based interventions have become a widely used approach to address health inequities and promote social change. Researchers, funders and practitioners support youth empowerment as a strategy for engaging in processes that help support healthy development and reduce risk of negative outcomes. Zimmerman (1995) proposes a measurement model of psychological empowerment (PE) that includes three components: intrapersonal, interactional and behavioral. In the current study, we investigate a second order measurement model of PE guided by the Zimmerman’s model (1995) among a sample of early adolescents and if PE is associated with youth outcomes, including aggressive behavior and prosocial engagement (N=366, 40% male, 60% grade 7). Our results indicated that each of the latent factors for the three PE components demonstrated a good fit with the data. Our results also indicated that these components loaded on to a higher order PE factor (X2=32.45, df: 22, p=0.07; RMSEA: 0.04, 95% CI: 0.00, 0.06; CFI: 0.99). We found that the second order PE factor was negatively associated with aggressive behavior and positively associated with prosocial engagement. Our results suggest that psychological empowerment among youth, through supporting intrapersonal, interactional and behavioral empowering processes, may be a promising strategy for reducing risk of aggressive behavior and promoting prosocial engagement among urban early adolescents. Implications for incorporating empowering process into youth violence prevention/positive development interventions are discussed.
Learning Areas:
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences
Learning Objectives:
Describe a confirmatory factor analysis model for psychological empowerment guided by the framework proposed by Zimmerman (1995, 2000)
Evaluate associations between a second order psychological empowerment factor and outcomes among a sample of urban early adolescents, including aggressive and prosocial behavior.
Keyword(s): Youth Violence, Adolescents
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: My research focuses on both reducing risk of negative outcomes and promoting the healthy development of youth. I have been involved in multiple projects addressing youth violence through the Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center and the University of Michigan Injury Center, including the project that is the focus of this study: Youth Empowerment Solutions(YES). I also co-authored a book chapter on empowerment-based interventions for the upcoming edition of the Handbook of Community Psychology.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
