The mediated effect of youth council participation on the professional identity development of youth workers

Despite the extensive literature on the benefits of youth councils, the career-specific impact of such participation remains under-researched. Thus, the present study examined whether differences occur in the perceived professional identity of youth workers who participated in a youth council during adolescence compared to those who did not. The study was conducted on a sample of 332 students enrolled in youth work programs in South Korea. Stepwise regression modeling and mediation analysis were employed to identify both the direct and indirect effects of youth council participation on the development of professional identity in youth work. The results indicate that youth council participation has fully mediated effects on professional identity development in youth work, as evidenced by the increased awareness of youth work as a profession, average hours spent as a volunteer youth worker during college, and willingness to choose youth work as a future career. The findings suggest that young people’s professional identity in youth work can grow in youth councils despite the fact that the youth participation organization is neither intentionally designed nor formally structured for the purpose of professional identity development.