Measuring Youth Empowerment

D. MacQuarrie, published in 2021 as DHS Working Paper No. 179. The study aims to develop a scale to measure youth empowerment, which is a critical aspect of understanding the well-being and development of young people. The study's background highlights the importance of youth empowerment in achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study notes that existing measures of youth empowerment are limited, and there is a need for a comprehensive and standardized scale to assess this concept. The study's methodology involves compiling an inventory of youth empowerment items from various surveys and conducting exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to identify the underlying dimensions of youth empowerment. The study uses data from 10 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in various countries. The results of the exploratory factor analysis reveal three underlying dimensions of youth empowerment: autonomy, self-efficacy, and social connections. The confirmatory factor analysis confirms these dimensions and provides scale metrics and rotated factor loadings for the youth empowerment items. The study also examines the youth empowerment scale in different subpopulations, including youth by age, marital status, and school status. The results show that the scale is valid and reliable across these subpopulations, with some variations in the factor loadings. The discussion highlights the importance of measuring youth empowerment and the potential applications of the developed scale. The study notes that the scale can be used to monitor and evaluate programs aimed at promoting youth empowerment and to identify areas for improvement. The study's findings have implications for policymakers, program implementers, and researchers working on youth development and empowerment initiatives. The developed scale can be used to assess the effectiveness of programs and policies aimed at promoting youth empowerment and to identify areas for improvement. The study's results are presented in several tables and figures, which provide detailed information on the scale metrics, rotated factor loadings, and correlations between the youth empowerment scores. The study's conclusions highlight the importance of measuring youth empowerment and the potential applications of the developed scale. The study was conducted with support provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through The DHS Program. The views expressed in the study are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.