TY - JOUR
T1 - Need Satisfaction in Structured and Unstructured Out-of-School-Time
T2 - A Positive Youth Development Approach
AU - Shirzad, Kimia
AU - Hanna, Steven R.
AU - Caraynoff, Alexander R.
AU - Agans, Jennifer P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - The Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework emphasizes adolescents’ strengths and the role of supportive environments in fostering positive development (Lerner et al., 2015). This study investigates the role of psychological need satisfaction (PNS) in PYD outcomes across structured and unstructured out-of-school time (OST) contexts. Data were collected from 832 U.S. adolescents (mean age = 15.78, SD = 1.16, 56.2% female, 53.4% non-Hispanic White) involved in afterschool programs (structured context) who also reported using local parks (unstructured context). Structural equation modeling assessed the relationship between demographic variables, participation frequency, PNS, and PYD. Results indicate that participation frequency had the strongest relationship with PNS in both types of OST. Furthermore, satisfaction of the need for relatedness in parks, and competence and relatedness in programs, were significantly related to adolescents’ PYD. These findings underscore the importance of fostering psychological need satisfaction in both structured and unstructured OST to support adolescents’ developmental needs.
AB - The Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework emphasizes adolescents’ strengths and the role of supportive environments in fostering positive development (Lerner et al., 2015). This study investigates the role of psychological need satisfaction (PNS) in PYD outcomes across structured and unstructured out-of-school time (OST) contexts. Data were collected from 832 U.S. adolescents (mean age = 15.78, SD = 1.16, 56.2% female, 53.4% non-Hispanic White) involved in afterschool programs (structured context) who also reported using local parks (unstructured context). Structural equation modeling assessed the relationship between demographic variables, participation frequency, PNS, and PYD. Results indicate that participation frequency had the strongest relationship with PNS in both types of OST. Furthermore, satisfaction of the need for relatedness in parks, and competence and relatedness in programs, were significantly related to adolescents’ PYD. These findings underscore the importance of fostering psychological need satisfaction in both structured and unstructured OST to support adolescents’ developmental needs.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105023522674
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105023522674#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1177/0044118X251372197
DO - 10.1177/0044118X251372197
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105023522674
SN - 0044-118X
JO - Youth and Society
JF - Youth and Society
ER -