This analysis suggests how youth’s participation in programs provides a set of favorable opportunities for developing personal autonomy and negotiating family autonomy. For some youth, these opportunities involve some form of adolescent-parent conflict or tension. But conflict is not inevitable because youth and parents often have convergent goals. Youth programs in summary provide a super-ordinate opportunity pathway: a structured sequence of affordances for autonomy processes. First, the decision to join the program is an opportunity for youth to exercise independent judgment over an important decision that affects their lives. As youth participate in a program, their participation provides opportunities for youth to develop capacities for self-reliance and personal autonomy. Lastly, experience in the program can feed back and influence adolescents’ autonomy in family relationships. Current research and theory suggest that the healthy path of autonomy development involves gradual negotiation of adolescents’ independence within a context of continued family connection. To help facilitate positive development in youth relationships with their families, it is important to understand what arenas provide favorable opportunities for these adolescent-parent transactions and how they progress. This theory-generating study examined the role that adolescents’ participation in youth development programs played as a venue for these negotiations. The study followed high school aged youth in 12 arts, technology, and leadership/service programs over a 2 to 9 month natural period of participation. References