Agency is a person’s capacity and propensity to formulate intentions and take initiative to achieve them; these intentions are based on sense of purpose, individual values, goals, and needs.
Ideally, agency has positive goals for the individual and reflects important prosocial values. Agency is contingent upon the person’s mindset and skills and his or her interactions with the environment.i Children and youth who are able to enact their agency are actively involved in making their experiences, better able to adapt to various environments, use their creativity to overcome obstacles and achieve their desired outcomes.
