How social and educational professionals define their contribution to youth empowerment

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to describe the vision of social and educational professionals regarding their contribution to each of the dimensions of youth empowerment, and to determine how personal factors influence this vision. Using a self-administered questionnaire completed by a validated sample of 696 social and educational professionals (social workers, youth workers, social educators, teachers likely to apply a social pedagogical perspective), an analysis was carried out which showed that certain personal and professional variables were significant (gender, size of municipality, professional field and specific training in youth), while others were not (professional experience, age or level of study). The results show that specialised and varied training and empowered professionals become key factors contributing to youth empowerment. Finally, some suggestions and recommendations emerge that can have an impact both on the training of these social and educational professionals and on the intervention practices and dynamics themselves