Instrumental relationships: A potential relational model for inner‐city youth programs

In this article, a distinct type of adult–youth relationship found in some youth programs and characterized as instrumental is discussed. Such relationships focus primarily on joint work on a task or project, or in a discipline, with the adult having expertise and a strong identity in the substantive domain involved, rather than in youth work per se. It is hypothesized that, by virtue of their matter‐of‐fact quality, their substantive focus, and their particular interactional patterns, instrumental relationships offer potential for some reworking of adolescents' sense of self.