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The leadership identity development (LID) grounded theory (Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella, & Osteen, 2005) and related LID model (Komives, Longerbeam, Owen, Mainella, & Osteen, 2006) present a framework for understanding how individual college students develop the social identity of being collaborative, relational leaders interdependently engaging in leadership as a group process (Komives, Lucas, & McMahon, 1998, 2007). Challenges to applying and measuring this stage based developmental theory are discussed and recommendations are included.

Few studies explore post-collegiate leadership applications of alumni who complete curricular leadership programs, like minors or certificates. How can we, as a field, say our leadership programs and courses integrate beyond the boundaries of campus or undergraduate life without an understanding of post-collegiate leadership applications? This study explored the leadership learning of alumni of an undergraduate academic leadership certificate in the southeast United States. The researchers employed a qualitative, single, embedded case study design and data collection for this study. The study primarily relied on in-depth interviews, utilizing an interview guide approach (Johnson & Christensen, 2014). The interview guide’s purpose was to focus interviews on topics related to students’ learning and current applications of program learning outcomes. This study’s findings highlighted the practice of reflection for alumni, appreciation for collaboration and building relationships, and how alumni could connect and apply their past leadership coursework to their current professional or personal leadership experiences. The researchers were interested in exploring how leadership learning in higher education contributed to students’ success in their careers, personal life, and community.

Leader self-efficacy (LSE) is associated with leader emergence and effectiveness, and is a strong predictor of both individual and group performance. While some research exists related to the connection between LSE and adult leadership, more studies are required to better understand the details surrounding LSE as it relates to adolescents. This mixed methods study examines the effects of a leadership development intervention on LSE in an eighth-grade student population. Results indicate strong support for the effectiveness of the intervention and its potential to increase youth LSE. This finding holds significant implications for educational practice, research, and the future of leadership development.

Critical and justice-oriented approaches to leadership are incomplete without attention to racism and racialization. This study employed basic qualitative inquiry to examine racialized legitimation within student affairs leadership education through lenses of whiteness as property and legitimacy. Findings detail how leadership educators sought to gain and/or maintain legitimacy and the ways racialization is embedded in these processes through professional experiences, leadership knowledge, and identity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Although youth leadership has been well described within the literature, the dearth of theoretically derived models that specifically reflect ethics and comprehensive nature of youth development still remains. The purpose of this article is to synthesize the existing youth leadership research and theories of personality development to propose a model of youth leadership. The resulting model includes 5 major interconnected components, such as cognitive, socio-emotional, motivational, behavioral, and ethical. As part of the model, ethics is suggested as a core of youth leadership and its development. The model can be used to inform planning of contextually reflective leadership education, specific curriculum and developmental interventions.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether undergraduates’ participation in 12 different leadership trainings, workshops, conferences, or programs was associated with students’ leadership efficacy. We used data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership survey, which eight of the Big 10 institutions administered to students in spring 2018. The results suggest that students’ participation in shorter-term or moderate-term experiences—a leadership conference, retreat, lecture/workshop series, course, or positional leadership training—was positively associated with students’ leadership efficacy. We therefore encourage leadership educators and practitioners in higher education to consider the duration of their programs to maximize students’ outcomes.

An exploratory, qualitative multiple case study approach was used to investigate perceptions of leadership through the voice of young (ages 18-24) citizens of St. Lucia, West Indies.Specifically, investigators were interested in better understanding the young peoples’ leadership beliefs, experiences, and people of influence. Participants perceived leadership to be about helping other people, communication, teamwork, and morality.The most valuable leader development experiences were experiences that the young people perceived were connected to leadership.Participants viewed familiar adults, rather than famous foreigners or youth peers asthemostimportantpeopletoaidinyouthleaderdevelopment.

This study examined the incoming leadership-oriented differences between students (N=166) enrolled in either an elective leadership studies course (n=50) or an elective team-based engineering projects course (n=116) to determine significant predictors of transformational leadership behavior. Participants completed measures of leadership-oriented behaviors, self-efficacy, and motivation. Students enrolled in the leadership studies course scored higher on measures of both transformational and transactional leadership behaviors, as well as motivation to lead based on affective identity and social-normative motivation. For students in the leadership course, the only significant predictor of transformational leadership was leadership-self-efficacy score. For students interested in team-based projects, the significant predictors included affective-identity and social-normative motivation to lead, as well as leadership self-efficacy. While women displayed higher motivation to lead across all motivation categories, neither race nor gender emerged as a significant predictor of leadership behaviors. These findings suggest the importance of self-efficacy in predicting behavior and the need to attend to students’ internal and external motivations in creating pathways to leadership practices.

The purpose of this study was to explore how variables such as student demographics, pre-college leadership activities, and perceived pre-college parenting behaviors predict students’ leader self-efficacy (i.e., individuals’ confidence in themselves to lead and belief that others will support their leadership [Hannah et al., 2008]) in college and leader emergence (i.e., college-based leadership involvements [DeRue & Ashford, 2010]) in college. Undergraduate students (n = 420) at a large, public university in the Mid-Atlantic were surveyed to examine these relationships and data were analyzed using hierarchical and logistic regression, with appropriate controls and moderators. Findings included discovery that pre-college engagement with sports team positional leadership, community service, extracurriculars, and positive parenting behaviors, such as family routine and greater quality time with parents, predicted leader self-efficacy. Further, findings noted that pre-college community service, extracurriculars, peer tutoring and perceptions of parental quality time and proactive parenting predicted leader emergence. This study suggests that students’ leadership development is influenced by myriad systems across the lifespan and demonstrates that, as educators committed to student development, we must engage the full arc of our students’ leadership journeys and provide for intentional partnerships between higher education and the K-12 community.

The Teen Excellence in Leadership Institute (TELI) was created to provide meaningful leadership and civic- engagementexperiencestoteens.WeintegratedChickering’sTheoryofIdentityDevelopmentandthe 4-H Citizenship Framework to develop program objectives and a model, consisting of four components: understanding of self, developing a network, community problem solving, and advocacy. This study aimed to determinetheoveralleffectivenessoftheprogram,highlightareasforprogramimprovement,andprovide a proof of concept for the model. Results on select 4-H Citizenship Common Measures indicated statistically significantgainsinthefourcomponentsofthemodelforcohortsoneandtwo.Focusgroupdatarevealed five themes: diversity, connection, skill development, practical application, and learning about self. Evaluative resultssubstantiateprogramimpactandareasforcontinuedprogramdevelopment.