Adolescent Leadership Development: A Review

Abstract

Leadership development has been an important theme in the field of leadership research. Based on the positive youth development theory, Adolescence is the best and critical time for leadership development when leadership skills are introduced, tested and cultivated over time. Replying on examining recent youth leadership training and development literature, this presentation systematically discusses the background and necessity, the development models and the different contents and approaches in different programs. The result reveals that the consensus on training leadership adolescence has been reached. However, there did not appear to be much writing or research about youth leadership education and development. Moreover, most studies were theoretical, while experimental and longitudinal studies were relatively few. The author also puts forward some recommendations for further research as follows. Firstly, the conceptual or theoretical model that integrates the individual developmental processes with contextual support and practice must be explored and the effectiveness should be tested by vast empirical research. Secondly, research should be more on guiding leadership development in sport, the practices embedded leadership within physical education and extracurricular activities should be explored and designed. At last, the applicability of the model across cultures must be considered and the validity should be tested.