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Character Development and Youth Leadership Mentoring Mohd Mursyid Arshad¹*, Ismi Arif Ismail1 , Siti Feirusz Ahmad Fesol2 and Azman Ismail3 ¹Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Serdang, Malaysia 2 Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics, Universiti Teknologi Mara (Melaka), Jasin Campus, 77300 Merlimau, Melaka, Malaysia 3 Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Malaysia

 

ABSTRACT 

One approach that promotes Positive Youth Development (PYD) among youth is being involved in leadership activities. Focusing on the mentoring process in a leadership development program serves as the foundation for cultivating these positive aspects for the young generation. The purpose of this study is to explore the character development process in promoting developmental assets through youth leadership mentoring. The study was conducted using qualitative research informed by the case study paradigm that involved 13 informants through in-depth interview, participant observation and document analysis as data collections. Empirical findings from the study show that mentoring process such as the display of prudent characteristics, integrity development and preferred leadership style among youth leaders lead to character development. In conclusion, the data indicated that mentoring clearly had the potential to constitute the process of character building among youth. This youth leadership mentoring process contributes to the development of their capabilities in leadership and enhances the implementation of effective youth leadership mentoring processes.

Article history: Received: 13 November 2020 Accepted: 11 March 2021 Published: 14 April 2021

ARTICLE INFO

E-mail addresses: m_mursyid@upm.edu.my (Mohd Mursyid Arshad)

ismi@upm.edu.my (Ismi Arif Ismail)

feyrs88@gmail.com (Siti Feirusz Ahmad Fesol)

azisma12@ukm.edu.my (Azman Ismail)

*Corresponding author

ISSN: 0128-7702

e-ISSN: 2231-8534 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47836/pjssh.29.S1.03

Character Development and Youth Leadership Mentoring Mohd Mursyid Arshad¹*, Ismi Arif Ismail1 , Siti Feirusz Ahmad Fesol2 and Azman Ismail3 ¹Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Serdang, Malaysia 2 Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics, Universiti Teknologi Mara (Melaka), Jasin Campus, 77300 Merlimau, Melaka, Malaysia 3 Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Malaysia ABSTRACT One approach that promotes Positive Youth Development (PYD) among youth is being involved in leadership activities. Focusing on the mentoring process in a leadership development program serves as the foundation for cultivating these positive aspects for the young generation. The purpose of this study is to explore the character development process in promoting developmental assets through youth leadership mentoring. The study was conducted using qualitative research informed by the case study paradigm that involved 13 informants through in-depth interview, participant observation and document analysis as data collections. Empirical findings from the study show that mentoring process such as the display of prudent characteristics, integrity development and preferred leadership style among youth leaders lead to character development. In conclusion, the data indicated that mentoring clearly had the potential to constitute the process of character building among youth. This youth leadership mentoring process contributes to the development of their capabilities in leadership and enhances the implementation of effective youth leadership mentoring processes. Keywords: Character development, ecological asset, leadership, mentoring, individual asset, youth INTRODUCTION The Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach, which provides the theoretical basis for developing youth potential (Lerner et al., 2015), essentially requires empirical investigations to understand the character development of youth leaders by mentoring. Researchers and practitioners concur that the involvement of young leaders in nationbuilding can be strengthened through wider exposure and professional training, as well as through mentoring. As a learning process, mentoring has been shown to enhance youth development outcomes such as raising the competence of youth leaders. Notwithstanding the challenges of mentoring, policy-makers of youth development programs should highlight its benefits (Woodman & Wyn, 2013). In Malaysia, youth leadership development is a primary focus in Malaysia’s development agenda as outlined in the Malaysian Youth Policy 2015 initiative. In line with Malaysia’s vision of becoming a developed nation, the policy aims to strengthen the leadership development process among youth so that the nation will rank among the top countries in the world in terms of economic development, citizen well-being and innovation (Malaysian Youth Policy, 2015). According to Hastings et al. (2011), youth leaders often do not see themselves as decision-makers because some adult leaders fail to adequately pass on the skills, experience, opportunities and motivation needed to lead. Moreover, the process of nurturing youth leadership, if not wellplanned, may inhibit young leaders from actively participating in the community development process, thus resulting in youth leaders lacking a sense of connection to their communities (Christens & Dolan, 2011; Tepus, 2018). The development of youth leadership is a priority area of Malaysia’s development agenda as outlined in Malaysia’s Youth Policy (2015) and Youth Societies and Youth Development Act 668 (2019). The situation is compounded by the fact that the government through policy and act has formally re-classified youth as those between 15 to 30 years, compared to the previous range of 15 to 40. With a younger cohort of youth leaders taking on formal leadership roles within the country in the near future, there is much concern regarding the leadership readiness of this group. Scholars contend that youth leadership development requires participative learning and role models that can be emulated (Franklin & Nahari, 2018; Lerner et al., 2007). According to Li and Wang (2009), youth involvement in leadership activities is one of the approaches in the PYD concept and youth involvement in leadership activities is central to the youth development process. The focus on PYD is the basis to developing positive youth elements (Ward & Ellis, 2008), which principally requires empirical understanding to uncover youth mentoring potentials in PYD development through leadership. For decades, leadership has always been seen as a vital factor in organisational effectiveness and also in the youth development process (Aziz, et al., 2020; Rami, et al., 2020a, 2020b). However, youth leadership development requires facilitated learning and exemplary role models. Findings from the most recent Malaysian Youth Index (2017) in self-potential domain indicate that this is currently the situation in Malaysia, i.e. youth’s readiness to lead is decreasing to 66.39 from 71.94 in 2017. In addition, there are concerns about the ability of Malaysian youth to lead. Therefore, mentoring-based leadership development programs is one of the intervention strategies to increase youth’s readiness to lead. Kay and Hinds (2012) suggested that mentoring had the potential to provide such a learning process. According to Cote (2019), the development of a proactive youth identity has to do with self-regulation, self-discipline and self-reflection. These three elements are important in the development of the cognitive capacities, tendencies, attitudes and social relationships of youth embodied in the development of youth identity. Therefore, this study was conducted to explore how mentoring-based leadership development programs could promote developmental assets in positive youth development. Through mentoring, youth are given the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and build relationships with their mentors. The advantage obtained by the youth through leadership mentoring is associated with the criteria of effective youth development (Meltzer et al., 2019). The mentoring process investigated in this study involved input from mentors and the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia as the program planner and mentoring provider. Adopting a qualitative approach, we used the case study paradigm to examine youth’s ability to conduct social activities,their exposure to community program planning, and their mastery of soft skills as a result of mentoring. We investigated whether mentoring had the potential to develop various competencies among youth, especially leadership qualities.

 

LITERATURE REVIEW

Positive Youth Development Positive Youth Development (PYD) rests on two main concepts. The first is that youths possess inherent strengths or assets that form the foundation of their cognitive, emotional, social and behavioural development (Gestsdottir et al., 2011; Phelps et al., 2009). Second, their well-being will be enhanced when their strengths are compatible with, and facilitate, appropriate behavioural reactions to their surroundings (Benson et al., 2006), resulting in positive development. The individual development process in the PYD context involves adaptation of developmental regulations between youth strengths and asset development within a particular ecology (Phelps et al., 2009). The PYD perspective stems initially from a positive psychological concept, the result of comparisons made by psychologists and biologists studying plasticity in the human development process. Specifically, the PYD perspective may be encapsulated in the term ‘plasticity’. The term ‘plasticity’ implies potential for more systematic changes in human development (Lerner et al., 2005; 2007). The process requires internal and external support. According to Theokas et al. (2005), the combination of internal and external situations for the development of PYD elements mentioned above are known as individual and ecological assets (Lerner et al., 2012). The internal asset is an element that guides youths to make choices related to their strengths, hopeful future expectations, internal self-regulation and positive school engagement. Meanwhile, the external assets are ecological assets mostly related to positive experiences obtained from others, and the institutions they are involved with (Lerner et al., 2012). Joint benefit can arise from the individual and ecological assets in the context of their relationship with PYD through five elements (‘5 Cs’) (Lerner et al., 2005), as illustrated in Figure 1 below. Theoretically, the ecological assets are associated with the developmental process of positive youths, consisting of the ‘5Cs’ (confidence, competence, character, caring, connection) that encourage positive behaviour among youths (Lerner et al., 2007). When plasticity in human development is acknowledged, this will directly lead to building positive development of the individual’s potential (Larson, 2006). Therefore, developmental system theory is also embedded in the youth development process, which is linked to positive youth development (Theokas et al., 2005). Internal assets guide youth to make choices related to their strengths, such as future expectations, internal selfregulation and positive school engagement. External or ecological assets in one’s environment include positive experiences with others, and the institutions with which youth are involved (Lerner et al., 2012). As earlier stated, when individual and external assets are maximized, the result is a positive, thriving individual with five core PYD outcomes referred to as the ‘5Cs’ (competence, confidence, character, connection and caring) (Lerner et al., 2005; 2015). An interesting study by Årdal et al. (2018) examined the mediating effect of the ‘5Cs’ towards the PYD on the relationship between students’ perceived school empowerment and school satisfaction. A cross-sectional survey conducted among 997 students highlighted that apart from the ‘5Cs’ elements of PYD, only three (3) elements, which are competence, confidence, and connection factors are fully mediated through the effect of school empowerment and school satisfaction. The other two ‘Cs’ seem to require more emphasis among the youth for them to be well rounded with positive youth development. From a PYD perspective, the role of a mentor is to collaborate with, encourage, and support the capacity of their protege to success (Larson, 2006). When youth are actively involved in the mentoring process, they are more likely to sustain positive growth and development. Therefore, the beginning of mentoring is needed to apply PYD elements in mentoring by employing the approach as suggested by Delgado (2002). This approach is in line with Lerner et al. (2013) who recommended PYD as an approach to develop youth potential. 

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