Through Someone Else’s Eyes: supporting quality youth-adult relationships through direct observation methods

Kelsey Deane, the University of Auckland

Research consistently identifies quality relationships with adults as a key driver of positive youth outcomes. However, few studies have explored how the communication strategies adult helpers such as youth workers and mentors use can either help or hinder connections with young people.

This presentation will provide an overview of the Youth-Adult Partnerships Observation Study and will illustrate how different methods of investigating relational processes in youth-adult relationships reveal different insights about how adults can effectively support young people.