Focus on Methodology: Beyond paper and pencil: Conducting computer-assisted data collection with adolescents in group settings.

Computer-assisted data collection offers advantages over traditional paper and pencil measures; however, little guidance is available regarding the logistics of conducting computer-assisted data collection with adolescents in group settings. To address this gap, we draw on our experiences conducting a multi-site longitudinal study of adolescent development. Structured questionnaires programmed on laptop computers using Audio Computer Assisted Self-Interviewing (ACASI) were administered to groups of adolescents in community-based and afterschool programs.

Practitioner expertise: creating quality within the daily tumble of events in youth settings.

Practitioners in youth settings experience life on the ground as a tumble of events, shaped by a confluence of youth needs, institutional expectations, and other inputs. The quality of the setting is determined in part by practitioners' expertise in shaping and responding to these events. The situations that arise in practice, and how staff respond, can be turning points, good or bad, in youths' experience of the setting.

Dilemmas of youth work: balancing the professional and personal.

Being an effective and intentional youth practitioner involves more than planning. It includes being able to react intelligently to the many difficult situations that arise. Practitioners in out-of-school and after-school settings regularly confront complex dilemmas that emerge in their daily work.