About
142
Publications
84,519
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
9,024
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Publications
Publications (142)
Prosociality is a multifaceted concept referring to the many ways in which individuals care about and benefit others. Human prosociality is foundational to social harmony, happiness, and peace; it is therefore essential to understand its underpinnings, development, and cultivation. This handbook provides a state-of-the-art, in-depth account of scie...
Adolescents’ civic engagement is related to other aspects of their positive development. Many family and school characteristics can promote adolescents’ civic engagement, but they are often studied separately. Furthermore, studies have often used adolescent self-reports and measured only one aspect of the multidimensional construct of civic engagem...
Dynamic, relational developmental systems-based models envision resilience and positive youth development as features of adaptive, mutually beneficial relations between adolescents and their ecologies. We argue that the promotion of resilience and PYD, and learning how to move diverse youth along the continuum of adversity from resilience (and “jus...
Background
Dynamic, relational developmental systems-based models of development emphasize that developmentally-nurturant youth-adult relationships elicit in youth perceptions of being known and loved. Although such perceptions are foundations of positive youth development (PYD), such measures do not exist.Objective
We sought to create a theoretica...
Scholars have regarded social responsibility as a motivator of civic actions. Social responsibility, however, does not consistently lead to civic actions. Informed by sociopolitical development theory and social cognitive theory, the present study examined critical reflection about societal inequalities and intentional self‐regulation as potential...
Famous people can positively influence young people by serving as examples of how to be a good person, but very little is known about which famous people youth look up to and why they do so. We coded and analyzed open-response data from 596 adolescents (Mage = 14.09 years; 58.5% girls, 57.5% White) in the northeastern United States to understand th...
We use Hamilton’s (1999) tripartite conception of the positive youth development (PYD) literature – that is, PYD as a theoretical construct, PYD as a frame for program design, and PYD as an instance of specific youth development programs – as a framework for reviewing scholarship involved in the PYD field across the second decade of the 21st centur...
The study of positive youth development (PYD) requires theory-based methodological considerations pertinent to measurement, research and program design, and data analysis. We outline the appropriate steps that researchers and program evaluators must enact to address these methodological foci in their respective attempts to describe, explain, and op...
Programs effective in promoting positive youth development (PYD) involve curricular features termed the Big Three: Positive and sustained adult–youth relationships; life-skill-building activities; and youth contribution and leadership opportunities. Data from 610 adolescents (50% female; M age = 16.39 years, SD = 1.83) enrolled in Compassion Intern...
Researchers and evaluators interested in positive youth development (PYD) programs seek to understand what works for what youth in what ways. Typically, measurement and analysis are framed by ergodic theorems, which assume homogeneity of individuals and stationarity in individuals' developmental pathways. However, such commonality (homogeneity and...
Despite acknowledgment that character operates as a multi-faceted system of multiple attributes, few efforts have examined this system by investigating how character attributes may combine in profiles and how profiles are related to individual internal strengths and contextual assets. Using data from 552 adolescents from the Northeastern United Sta...
Background
When delivered in a safe space, programs effective in promoting positive youth development (PYD) involve key features termed the Big Three: (1) Positive and sustained adult–youth relationships; (2) Life-skill-building activities; and (3) Opportunities for youth contribution and leadership. However, no measures exist in the literature for...
Given the strong link between religiousness and hope, we sought to further understand the relations of these potentially powerful resources for youth living in adversity. Although existing research suggests that religiousness might be associated with adolescent hope via spirituality and social connections, few studies have tested models that integr...
There are significant nomothetic, differential, and idiographic domains of human development. We suggest the usefulness of efforts to understand human development in regard to specific facets of development—for instance, relationships within families with adolescent children—beginning with a focus on the specific, idiographic attributes of individu...
Background
The more than one billion children living in poverty worldwide are often marginalized from the resources needed for health and well-being, a situation that may create feelings of hopelessness and diminish chances for thriving. Compassion International (CI), a faith-based child-sponsorship organization committed to alleviating child pover...
The UN 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for disaggregating results of program effectiveness within subgroups. Using the Bornstein (2017) specificity principle, involving within-group assessments regarding what specific youth prosper in what specific ways in what specific programs, we analyzed data from 888 Salvadoran youth...
Relational developmental systems metatheory frames many contemporary models of human development, including two strengths-based approaches to enhancing the lives of diverse children and adolescents, the positive youth development (PYD) perspective and resilience science. Both approaches emphasize the potential for plasticity in human development, a...
International interest is growing concerning using strength-based models of adolescent development to understand how mutually influential relations between individuals and their key settings may be a basis for positive, healthy development. Bidirectional relations models are linked to relational developmental systems (RDS) metatheory, with a focus...
Natural mentoring relationships have been linked to diverse outcomes in youth; however, little research has examined the role of natural mentors in adolescent eating disorder symptomatology. The present study applied a strength-based, positive youth development (PYD) perspective to examine the cross-sectional relations among disordered eating attit...
The "5 Cs of PYD Model" is an influential theory involving the role of Intentional Self-Regulation (ISR) in positive youth development (PYD). The model, which was developed with U.S. populations, has recently been used in other cultural contexts and, as such, the measurement invariance of the ISR-PYD model across cultural contexts must be assessed....
We present an overview of the positive youth development (PYD) perspective and the relational developmental systems (RDS) metatheory that frames this perspective. We describe the Lerner and Lerner model of PYD, and some of the findings from the 4-H Study of PYD regarding how thriving can be promoted among America’s diverse youth. We also address li...
This paper describes the configuration and changes in young adolescents’ participation in structured after school activities. Using data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development the 983 youth studied in both the first and the second waves of this research (fifth and sixth grade, respectively) were found to engage in structured after school...
The relations in early adolescence among out-of-school-time activities and indicators of youth development were assessed through the use of 8th grade data from the longitudinal, 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. Hierarchical multiple linear regressions indicated that “hanging out” with friends without set plans and excessive media use were a...
This article provides initial data about the reliability and validity of tools aimed at promoting youth intentional self regulation (ISR) within mentoring programs. Based on the translation of the theory-based research about ISR and youth thriving conducted within the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), the GPS to Success tools use the m...
Using the tripartite model introduced by Hamilton and colleagues, this chapter describes the concept of positive youth development (PYD) as a developmental process, as a philosophy emphasizing the strengths of youth, and as the set of practices of youth programs and organizations focused on fostering the healthy or positive development of youth. We...
Research has explored young people’s role models in general, but little is known about role models whom youth look up to in relation to their character. The authors asked 220 adolescents (M age = 13.4, 45% White, 15% Hispanic, 11% Black) from Massachusetts and Connecticut to nominate a character role model, someone they knew personally and looked u...
Understanding interpersonal relationships and the skills an individual needs for building
and engaging in interpersonal relationships is central to the study of the construct
of connection, as an indicator of positive youth development, and to understanding the
challenges adolescents face as they transition to adulthood. Accordingly, we conducted
a...
Whether discussing the process involved in positive youth development (PYD), articulating an approach (or philosophy) of youth programs associated with PYD, or enacting a program aimed at promoting PYD, ideas derived from relational developmental systems (RDS) metatheory are pertinent. Accordingly, we discuss the RDS metamodel and explain the appro...
For young men, the transition to adulthood may be a time of heightened adherence to traditional gender roles and norms of masculinity. However, recent research with young men in gender-specific contexts has indicated that some contexts support a construction of masculinity that is more inclusive. Through a theoretical thematic analysis of interview...
The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD) explored the foundations and implications of thriving across much of the second decade of life. In this chapter, we describe the theory framing this study, present additional research on PYD, and present the details of the method used in the study. In addition, we provide an overview of the chapters...
The growing consensus among developmental scientists argues that optimizing young people’s development requires much more than simply ensuring that they avoid negative outcomes (e.g., drug use, delinquency). We must also foster strengths that help youth thrive in their diverse ecologies. In this chapter we draw on data and research from the 4-H Stu...
Resources to promote positive development in young people have been identified in many contexts such as families, schools, neighborhoods, and out-of-school time programs. The most important resources within these contexts are the relationships that young people have with committed, caring adults. In this chapter, we provide an overview of research,...
Sexual activity may be a part of positive, adaptive youth development, particularly in the later years of adolescence. Through promoting positive youth development (PYD), youth development programs can take an active role in improving adolescent sexual health. In this chapter, we emphasize the positive potential of adolescent sexuality development....
This book presents the results of a longitudinal 4-H study of youth development. The volume discusses how self-regulation and contextual resources (e.g., strong relationships with parents, peers, and the community) can be fostered in young people to contribute to optimal functioning throughout life. Each chapter examines a particular aspect of yout...
We address how to conceptualize and measure intentional self-regulation (ISR) among adolescents from four cultures by assessing whether ISR (conceptualized by the SOC model of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation) is represented by three factors (as with adult samples) or as one “adolescence-specific” factor. A total of 4,057 14- and 18-year-o...
Framed within a relational developmental systems model, the 4-H Study of positive youth development (PYD) explored the bases and implications of thriving across much of the second decade of life. This special issue pertains to information derived from the recently completed eight waves of the 4-H Study of PYD, and presents findings about the relati...
As developmental scientists seek to index the strengths of adolescents and adopt the positive youth development (PYD) perspective, psychometrically sound measurement tools will be needed to assess adolescents’ positive attributes. Using a series of exploratory factor analyses and CFA models, this research creates short and very short versions of th...
Previous analyses of data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD) have examined concurrent trajectories of positive development and risk/problem behaviors among adolescents, finding complex and not necessarily inverse relationships among them. In this article, we expand on prior research by employing a person-centered approach to mod...
Theory and research in adolescent development have emphasized that contributing to self, others, and community is important to the success of society and predictive of positive youth and later adult development. Despite this emphasis, there is a lack of qualitative and youth-centered research exploring whether adolescents themselves value contribut...
Both parents and important non-parental adults have influential roles in promoting positive youth development (PYD). Little research, however, has examined the simultaneous effects of both parents and important non-parental adults for PYD. We assessed the relationships among youth-reported parenting profiles and important non-parental adult relatio...
Previous work on peer victimization has focused primarily on academic outcomes and negative indicators of youth involved in bullying. Few studies have taken a strength-based approach to examine attributes associated with bullies and victims of bullying. As such, we examined developmental trajectories of moral, performance, and civic character compo...
Mentoring programs may be contexts for building important intentional self-regulatory skills in adolescents. In this study, we provide data about the factor structure of new measures that assess youth intentional self-regulation (ISR) within such programs: the “GPS growth grids.” Using data from 409 mentor/youth dyads from 24 programs around the Un...
Little research has investigated postsecondary institutions as a context for character development, despite theoretical suggestions about their potential significance. Accordingly, the authors initiated the Assessment of Character study, a mixed methods investigation of character development, among students at the Williamson Free School of Mechanic...
Youth relationships with important nonparental adults (INAs) influence adolescent development. However, prior studies have not simultaneously examined the quantity and quality of INA relationships in predicting youth outcomes, nor have prior studies considered mediators of these constructs. In a sample of tenth through twelfth graders, we modeled t...
The human brain continues to develop throughout childhood and adolescence. What is the relationship between behavior and these structural changes in the adolescent brain? One way to address this issue is to compare trajectories in brain development of children and adolescents with different cognitive abilities, personality, or more broadly, of indi...
The study of positive youth development (PYD) rests on the integration of sound developmental theory with rigorous developmental methods. To illustrate this link, we focused on the Selection (S), Optimization (O), and Compensation (C; SOC) model of intentional self regulation, a key individual-level component of the individual context relations inv...
Using a person-centered approach, we examined the relations between goal selection, various indicators of parenting, and positive development among 510 Grades 9 to 11 participants (68% female) in the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), a longitudinal study involving U.S. adolescents. Goal selection was operationalized by the "Selection"...
Two theoretical perspectives have been proposed to describe, explain, and intervene in adolescent development - prevention science and positive youth development (PYD). An integrative model bridging these two perspectives posits that it is important to assess the extent to which the same, similar, or complementary mechanisms may be responsible for...
We introduce this special issue on the individual and contextual bases of adolescent thriving by describing the relational developmental systems theory-based, positive youth development (PYD) perspective that frames much of contemporary research about health and positive development across the adolescent period and that, more specifically, frames t...
Using the tripartite conception of positive youth development (PYD) suggested by Hamilton (1999) – as a developmental process, a philosophy or approach to youth programming, and as instances of youth programs and organizations focused on fostering the healthy or positive development of youth – we review different theoretical models of the developme...
Both organismic and intentional self-regulation processes must be integrated across childhood and adolescence for adaptive developmental regulations to exist and for the developing person to thrive, both during the first two decades of life and through the adult years. To date, such an integrated, life-span approach to self-regulation during childh...
The positive youth development (PYD) perspective emphasizes that thriving occurs when individual ↔context relations involve the alignment of adolescent strengths with the resources in their contexts. The authors propose that a key component of this relational process is the strength that youth possess in the form of self-regulatory processes; these...
Interests in the strengths of youth, the plasticity of human development, and the concept of resilience coalesced in the 1990s to foster the development of the concept of positive youth development (PYD). This chapter presents the features of the relational developmental systems theoretical model of the PYD developmental process, and then uses this...
The study of positive youth development (PYD) rests on the integration of sound developmental theory with rigorous developmental methods, To illustrate this link, we focused on the Selection (S), Optimization (O), and Compensation (C; SOC) model of intentional self regulation, a key individual-level component of the individual context relations inv...
The present study was designed to examine the association of positive youth development with the likelihood of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, hard drug, and sex initiation between 5th and 10th grades. A national, largely middle-class sample of 5,305 adolescents, participating in a longitudinal study funded by the National 4-H Council (although not al...
The understanding of positive development across adolescence rests on having a valid and equivalent measure of this construct across the breadth of this period of life. Does the Positive Youth Development (PYD) construct based on the Five Cs model have satisfactory psychometric properties for such longitudinal measurement invariance? Using longitud...
Although the role of school engagement in influencing children's academic competence has been recognized in past theory and research, how school engagement may mediate the relationships between ecological and personal resources and academic competence remains largely unknown. Using structural equation modeling procedures, the present study was aime...
Civic participation does not necessarily equate to civic engagement. However, to date, integrated measures of civic engagement that go beyond civic behaviors have not been developed. In this article, we propose an integrated construct of civic engagement, active and engaged citizenship (AEC), that includes behavioral, cognitive, and socioemotional...
Although the positive youth development (PYD) model initially assumed inverse links between indicators of PYD and of risk/problem behaviors, empirical work in adolescence has suggested that more complex associations exist between trajectories of the two domains of functioning. To clarify the PYD model, this study assessed intraindividual change in...
We introduce this special issue on the foundations and functions of adolescent thriving by summarizing the developmental systems theory-based, positive youth development (PYD) perspective. The PYD perspective frames much of contemporary research about health and positive development across the adolescent period and, more specifically, frames the 4-...
School bullying has negative implications for adolescent academic competence, making it important to explore what factors promote such competence for adolescents who bully and who are bullied. Potential contextual and individual variables linked to academic competence were examined in the context of bullying. Data were derived from the Grades 5 and...
Interests in the strengths of youth, the plasticity of human development, and the concept of resilience coalesced in the 1990s to foster the development of the concept of positive youth development (PYD). This chapter presents the features of the relational developmental systems theoretical model of the PYD developmental process, and then uses this...
We introduce this special issue on the foundations and functions of adolescent thriving by summarizing the developmental systems theory-based, positive youth development (PYD) perspective that frames much of contemporary research about health and positive development across the adolescent period and that, more specifically, frames the 4-H Study of...
Intentional self-regulation is a core facet of human functioning, involving people's modulation of their thoughts, attention, emotions, and behaviors to react to environmental demands and to influence their own development. Using data from Grades 8, 9, and 10 of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), the structure of intentional self-re...
Using data from the first three waves (Grades 5, 6, and 7) of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, this study assessed if being a bully or being a victim accounts for an adolescent's academic competence, if selected contextual and individual variables impact an adolescent's academic competence, and if such impact differs in relation to an a...
Theory and research suggest that structured, out-of-school-time activities, and in particular youth development programs aimed at promoting positive youth development (PYD), are key developmental assets for such development. Using longitudinal data from 945 fifth and sixth graders participating in the 4-H Study of PYD, initial descriptive informati...
Longitudinal research pertinent to school bullying among adolescents raises important ethical issues. As we examine in this chapter, because bullying involves the repeated exposure to negative actions against which bullied youths cannot adequately defend themselves, longitudinal researchers must balance the scientific goals of their research with t...
Introduction The positive or productive development of youth is a key focus of the contemporary study of adolescence (J. Lerner et al., 2009; Steinberg & Lerner, 2004). Based on the assumption that all young people have strengths, the “positive youth development” (PYD) perspective seeks to identify the individual attributes of youth that, when coup...
