Eamining Year-long Leadership Gains in FFA Members by Prior FFA Involvement, Class Year, and Gender

Abstract

Students (N = 160) in three diverse FFA chapters were surveyed in early fall, midwinter, and late spring in regard to their leadership skills, confidence in leading, and motivation to engage in leadership-oriented behaviors. The results indicated small-to-moderate gains in transformational leadership skill and a marginally significant small-to-moderate decrease in “social-normative” motivation to lead, i.e., motivation based on a feeling of responsibility towards one’s organization. Further analysis revealed that students exhibit a moderate decrease in non-calculative motivation to lead in the spring semester. Female students made significant gains in transformational leadership skill and marginally significant gains in their leadership self-efficacy and transactional leadership skill as well as showed a decrease in their social normative motivation to lead. No changes emerged in the male students. Analysis by class year showed that juniors in high school made larger gains in overall capacity than in other class years, especially in their confidence in leading their peers. Prior FFA involvement did not emerge as a significant predictor of leadership development. These results imply the need for focused training of FFA advisors in regard to the leadership growth of students and, potentially, in the administration of opportunities for leadership.