Is It Worth the Costs?

County, regional, state, and national 4-H events and activities play a major role in 4-H teen programming and are designed to address youth development needs.Unfortunately, these shows, contests, camps, and retreats are expensive and staff intensive.In these times of reduced resources, it's not surprising 4-H events and activities are easy and early targets for cutbacks.Before making any sweeping policy decisions about reducing these programs, youth development professionals need to take a close look at specific 4-H experiences and determine their value in terms of teens' life skill development.A recent impact evaluation study of teen programming in Pennsylvania examined the relationship of life skill development to various 4-H experiences.The results indicate that 4-H experiences beyond the local club contribute significantly to the development of teens' life skills. Pennsylvania's Impact StudyFollowing four years of teen programming emphasis, 1,500 4-H teens, randomly sampled, were asked to evaluate their program experiences.Over 760 youth between the ages of 13 and 19 responded to questions about their 4-H participation and their perceptions of their life skill development.Fifty-five specific skills were initially identified as life skills.Using factor analysis, these skills were grouped into 10 clusters.The clusters were labeled as leadership skills, social development, personal development, value development, interpersonal skills, citizenship development, communication skills, career development, agriculture skills, and home economics skills.Participating 4-Hers rated their perceived competency in the skills within each cluster using a fourpoint scale.This resulted in indices reflecting the overall mastery of each life skill area.