indicates that groups can assist minority populations experiencing discrimination to raise their self-esteem. In particular, the authors examined the effect of youth group participation in a young people's organization for gay and lesbian youth group in Chicago. The group was said not only to help increase these young people's sense of self-esteem but also to help them in terms of dealing with issues surrounding their dual socialization roles in the gay and straight normative communities.
With respect to youth groups and their impact in terms of teaching young people social skills, Kuczmarski (1978) examined three youth organizations--a youth drop-in center, a YMCA, and a church group. She found that different groups teach different kinds of social skills.
For example, in the drop-in center, youth learned to get along in a social group, to take individual responsibility for their behavior, and to be mutually supportive of the other group members. Youth in both the YMCA and the church group learned more refined social skills (e.g., speaking in front
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