Focus Area 6: Behavioral Intervention Introduction

You will encounter a wide variety of behavior as a youth worker. Understanding appropriate and effective behavioral interventions is fundamental to fostering positive youth development to help youth succeed. In this module, you’ll explore what causes youth to behave the way they do, learn some steps you can take to help them manage their behaviors better, and understand how important it is for you to manage your own behaviors.

One of the best things about working with youth is that they are a lot of fun. You get to experience their playfulness and engage in activities that a lot of people give up when they become adults. Most of the time, you’ll find helping youth manage their behaviors is interesting, intriguing, and rewarding.

But, as a youth worker you also have to deal with a variety of behaviors you’ll find frustrating, difficult, and sometimes very concerning. Dealing with these behaviors may be the toughest part of the profession. No one really enjoys interacting with youth when they are oppositional, angry, and sometimes even violent.

It’s okay to be a little apprehensive about negative behaviors, but it’s a big part of everyday youth work. It’s even likely that negative behaviors are the very reason a youth may need to participate in your program. Being aware and understanding that some behaviors will make you feel nervous, anxious, or worried is a good thing.

Awareness of your feelings is critical. You don’t need to be perfect in everything you do, but you do have to be mindful of yourself. Your willingness to grow as a person and as a professional will help you become more proficient, even in areas that may cause you to feel nervous.

Helping youth manage their behavior requires a variety of skills, a broad base of knowledge, and a whole lot of confidence. Your job is based on interpersonal relationships which adds a degree of difficulty, but also makes the work more rewarding. Relationships are difficult. As a youth worker, your job is to work through problem behaviors and still build a trusting relationship…no easy task.

Consider some of the difficult behaviors you may have encountered in your work with youth:

• Anger outbursts
• Aggression
• Threats
• Bullying
• Behaviors disruptive to the group and social environment
• Emotional distress like intense crying
• Self-harm
• Suicidal signs/threats
• Manipulation, such as lying or passive-aggressive behavior
• Acting out in ways that may elicit strong emotional responses from people around them
• Avoiding other people and social situations

Behaviors like these are the reason you need to master behavioral interventions. Given time and a commitment to your own personal and professional growth, you can and will become skilled in behavioral interventions. Experience and training will help you understand that difficult behaviors are simply opportunities to help youth develop healthy coping skills and find more useful ways of getting their needs met. Effective youth workers understand that these behaviors are teachable moments.