trust-growth for project participants towards the youth workers

The analyses showed that youth’s projects provided favorable conditions for trust-growth. A majority of youth (N 59) described trust formation stemming from leaders helping with their project work. The study authors identified five distinct trust-growth sequences associated with different kinds of leader help. One set of trust-growth sequences stemmed from interactions in which leaders demonstrated care for youth as individuals—as whole persons with personal interests and needs beyond the program. Youth reported that their trust increased through conversations (typically one-on-one) in which leaders were attentive to them, provided personal assistance, and demonstrated they were aware that youth had lives beyond work in the program. Another set of trust-growth sequences differed from the prior ones in that youth made judgments a step removed from the action; they were observing and evaluating leaders’ actions from a bird’s-eye position. An important finding was that youth’s trust-growth did not depend solely on their own interactions with leaders. Trust could grow through observing others’ interactions with leaders. This bird’s-eye observation was described as a contributor to trust-growth by 39 youth.