Youth development travel programs: Facilitating engagement, deep experience, and “sparks” through self-relevance and stories

Abstract

We conducted two studies as part of Texas 4-H educational travel programs. Both were directed at evaluating strategies adult 4-H professionals might use to increase youth engagement, facilitate deep experience, and potentially influence development of enduring interests, referred to as “sparks” in the youth development literature. Deep experience was defined as a subjective state with characteristics much like flow but occurring in the context of attentional focus on a story. In Study 1, thirty youth participated in tours at Hawaiian sites. Five adult 4-H professionals evaluated tour guides’ use of stories while the youth participants measured engagement, deep experience, and the anticipated impact of each tour on their sparks. Study 2, conducted in Costa Rica, was similar to Study 1, but we also implemented self-relevance-eliciting techniques. Story use and self-relevance elicitation increased engagement, engagement increased deep experience, and deep experience increased youth anticipation that an interest (spark) would increase.

Keywords:

• Youth
• engagement
• flow
• sparks
• self-relevance
• story

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics statement

Study 1

The University Division of Research approved IRB2022-0684D Reference number 143305 on 6/13/2022 using expedited review procedures. Written consent in accordance with 45 CFR 46.117/21 CFR 50.27 45 CFR 46.404/21 CFR 50.51: not greater than minimal risk.

Study 2

The University Division of Research approved IRB2022-0183D Reference number 137866 on 2/28/2022 using expedited review procedures. Written consent in accordance with 45 CFR 46.117c 1 or 2/21 CFR 56109c 1 45 CFR 46.404/21 CFR 50.51: not greater than minimal risk.