Youth Philanthropy: Studying Potential for Inequalities in Outcomes

Abstract

This report shares results from a study of youth philanthropy. Findings from a prior analysis in this series indicated that the program fosters positive youth outcomes. Data are from a youth philanthropy program that is currently hosted within 12 community organizations located in 10 US states. Youth participate for two years as juniors and seniors in high school, and the outcome data are collected annually upon youth graduating from the program at the end of the second year. This report is based on youth surveys collected to date (n=180). The goal of the current study is to assess answers to this research question: Are there inequalities in youth philanthropy outcomes? This report presents two types of answers to this question. First, the analysis focuses on whether and how youth outcomes vary across social and demographic characteristics, such as gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, parental marital status, religiosity, technology usage, and activity engagement. Second, the analysis focuses on whether and how youth outcomes vary across programs and cohorts. This includes the program’s state and region (program analysis) and the years in which youth completed the program (cohort analysis). Results indicate that there are not yet detectable differences by program or cohort. There are outcome differences by social and decision comfort, religious service attendance frequency, and parental closeness.