Using Secondary Data to Explore Long-Term Outcomes of 4-H Alumni

Abstract Information: Engagement in high-quality youth development programs should lead to stronger positive outcomes as young adults. While long-term outcomes are often listed in youth development frameworks (e.g., Arnold, 2018) or advanced in the literature (e.g., Gambone et al., 2002; Scales et al., 2016), there is much less empirical evidence published that attempts to report on multiple outcomes and their metrics (admittedly, there are many challenges in conducting this type of research). The youth development experiences provided to 4-H youth participants is hypothesized to influence long-term early adult outcomes (Arnold, 2018). Our goal was to test this hypothesis and the efficacy of the California 4-H Youth Development Program Framework (Dogan et al., 2012) using a quasi-experimental design. The first objective was to report on the state of young California 4-H alumni (who were 19 to 34 at the time of data collection) that participated in the 4-H program from 2008 to 2020. The second objective was to compare the California 4-H alumni sample to their peers using secondary data sources. We conducted a cross-sectional online survey in 2021 to report on three long-term outcomes each with 3 metrics (economic stability [education, employment, income], health and well-being [physical health, social health, economic health], and community involvement [attitude, voting, volunteering]]; Gambone et al., 2002) of 693 young adult (aged 19 to 34) alumni of the University of California 4-H Youth Development Program. We compared 4-H alumni outcomes to matched peers using secondary data sources: (1) For economic stability, we used the U.S. Census Bureau’s (2021) Current Population Survey: Volunteering and Civic Life Supplement; (2) For health and well-being, we used the Edge Research Inc. 2019 survey of U.S. adult population; and (3) For community involvement, we used both the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 Volunteering and Civic Life Supplement and Pew Research Center’s Trends in American Values 2012. We also employed propensity score matching. The 4-H alumni sample demonstrated more positive results than the comparison samples on almost all indicators (except family income). Overall, we argue that our findings show that these California 4-H alumni were “healthy, happy, thriving people who make a positive difference in their communities” (4-H program framework). While we recognize many types of limitations in this work (conceptual, methodological, and contextual), we argue, nonetheless, that the activities and relationships within the 4-H program (and likely in other youth development programs) create a microsystem, which in turn influences other aspects of participants lives and development. Thus, alumni’s participation in 4-H likely helped them access and leverage other developmental experiences. We sought ways to overcome the significant biases inherent in this type of research and encourage future empirical research to grow the literature reporting long-term young adult outcomes experienced by previous participants in youth development programs.