The relationship between participation in community service-learning projects and personal and leadership life skills development in Louisiana high school 4-H leadership activities

Evidence does not exist that documents the effectiveness of Louisiana 4-H community service-learning projects. The purpose of this study is to compare self-reported perceptions of personal and leadership life skills development of Louisiana high school 4-H leadership activity participants by whether they participate in the 4-H Junior Leader Club (JLC) and/or the CHARACTER COUNTS! (CC) peer teaching program. The target population for this study was all high school students who participated in either the CC peer teaching program or the 4-H JLC. Therefore, this study was limited to those parishes that have both a CC peer teaching program and a 4-H JLC. A survey instrument was mailed to 321 high school students with 165 surveys returned. The survey instrument for this study was the Leadership and Personal Development Inventory (LPDI) developed by Richard Carter (1989). Louisiana high school 4-H leadership participants are typically 15 years old, female, white, live in towns with a population under 10,000 and receive mostly A\u27s and B\u27s in high school. Mean scores for the LPDI indicated that participants agreed they demonstrated the items on the inventory. Results showed no difference existed in the perceived personal and leadership life skills development among the three groups on the LPDI. Membership in 4-H JLC explained a small amount of the variance (2.4%) in the development of personal and leadership life skills after variance in personal and demographic variables were controlled. Further research should consider using the researcher\u27s reconfigured scales from Carter\u27s (1989) Leadership and Personal Development Inventory survey to study 4-H participants involved in a more structured 4-H experience that has requirements to complete membership