Sara K Johnson

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Tufts University

Research about identity development has focused primarily on researcher-chosen domains or overlooked content entirely. To investigate the content that is salient to adolescents, we analyzed responses to a shortened Twenty Statements Test (ten answers to the question, “Who am I?”) from 415 adolescents in the northeastern United States (Mage = 13.59...

How researchers use statistical analyses shapes their research toward or away from an anti-racist agenda. In this article, we demonstrate how developmental scientists can use the QuantCrit framework to critically examine the process of conducting quantitative analyses. In particular, we focus on mixture modeling to clearly demonstrate how the integ...

An intersectional approach to human development emphasizes the multiple social categories individuals occupy, some of which confer privilege (e.g., being White) and some of which confer marginalization (e.g., being poor). This approach is needed especially in critical consciousness scholarship, and particularly in regard to understanding whether an...

Developmental scientists are often interested in subgroups of people who share commonalities in aspects of development; these subgroups often cannot be captured directly but instead must be inferred from other information. Mixture models can be used in these situations. Two specific types of mixture models, latent profile transition analyses and gr...

The development of personal and social identity have been studied mostly in parallel, leaving a gap in how young people explore who they are as simultaneously an individual and social being. An exploratory convergent mixed-methods design involving latent profile analyses and content analysis was used to examine personal, racial, sexual orientation,...

Longitudinal data are necessary for the study of young adult development, but researchers face many options with respect to designs. This chapter focuses on longitudinal mixed-methods designs, which refer to research that integrates qualitative and quantitative data analyses. The first section describes why researchers should consider mixed-method...

Given the access that white youth have to privilege and power, it is important to understand how they might develop life goals related to dismantling multiple forms of oppression, which we term critical purpose. Parents may support their children's critical purpose via their own critical reflection (understanding of the root causes of disparities i...

Research suggests that character attributes may enable youth to envision and perform civic actions that benefit society, but few studies have examined the longitudinal associations between character attributes and civic actions. As a response to this gap, this study investigated how specific character attributes (purpose, future mindedness, humilit...

Cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) delivers low-intensity electrical currents to the brain to treat anxiety, depression, and pain. Though CES is considered safe and cost-effective, little is known about side effects emerging across different contexts. Our objective was to investigate how varying physical and cognitive demands impact the frequ...

Racism is an element of the sociocultural context that may significantly impact personal identity development among youth of color in the U.S. However, theories of personal identity development largely do not consider the influence of racialized experiences. This paper presents a theoretical framework of the role of racism on adolescent personal id...

Identity distinctiveness, continuity, and coherence are all components of adolescents’ identity development, but their longitudinal relations have rarely been examined. Data were analyzed on these three constructs collected over three years from 349 Dutch adolescents (Mage = 14.7, SDage = 0.7, 215 [61.6%] girls and 133 [38.1%] boys). A cross-lagged...

Critical consciousness represents the analysis of inequitable social conditions, the motivation to effect change, and the action taken to redress perceived inequities. Scholarship and practice in the last two decades have highlighted critical consciousness as a key developmental competency for those experiencing marginalization and as a pathway for...

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...

Positive youth development (PYD) models are widespread, but the empirical evidence for them is primarily nomothetic (i.e., investigations of universal patterns). Contemporary developmental theory suggests that concepts and processes within PYD models should also be explored with respect to specificity. This study demonstrates how the Five Cs Model,...

Using latent profile analysis, we investigated how the civic assets of critical reflection (analysis of oppression), civic efficacy (feeling that one's civic action will be effective), and social responsibility (sense of duty to support one's community) manifest within 284 youth of color. Four distinct profiles of civic assets were identified. We e...

Civic actions are behaviours intended to improve conditions for others or help shape a community's future. Such actions vary widely from voting to voluntary helping, from canvassing to community organizing, and attempts have been made to categorize the array of civic actions. However, the question of why young adults engage in some types of civic a...

Measures that are applicable to assess the positive youth development (PYD) of racially diverse college students are needed. The present study tested if a revised version of the very short form of the PYD measure (PYD-VSF) was applicable to college students from five racial groups in the U. S. (White, Black, Latinx, Asian, and other) across three m...

Identity development-exploring options and making commitments-is an important process related to human functioning across the lifespan. An accurate understanding of identity development processes requires precise measures, but commonly used questionnaires have not been subject to intensive psychometric analyses. We investigated the psychometric pro...

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...

Residential summer camps, one of the most popular organized programs for children in the United States, may promote several aspects of positive youth development. These positive outcomes may stem in part from camp counselors, who often forge close relationships with youth, but few studies have examined these relationships. To facilitate this resear...

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...

Intentional Self-Regulation (ISR)—broadly defined, goal-directed behavior—is an important skill in promoting positive and adaptive development across the life span. The Selection-Optimization-Compensation (SOC) model of ISR describes goal directed behavior among children, adolescents, and adults. This study used an inductive and deductive approach...

The five-dimensional process-oriented model of identity development delineates the formation and evaluation cycles of identity and includes ruminative exploration. In South Korea, individualistic and collectivistic cultures coexist, and such culture may influence the identity development process of young adults. However, identity development in Kor...

The use of Intensive Family Preservation services (IFPS) has increased dramatically in recent years, with most states having such programs in place to assist families involved in the child welfare system. While IFPS programs are diverse in their scope, nature, and service provision, most are home-based and employ a highly trained social services pr...

Black families and youth likely consider specific racial discriminatory situations in preparation‐for‐bias messages and racial coping responses. Our study investigated coping responses embedded in youth‐reported Black families’ preparation‐for‐bias messages and youths’ proactive coping responses to specific racially discriminatory situations—teache...

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...

Identity broadly refers to a cognitive structure that incorporates all of a person's answers to the question “Who am I?” Identity may be considered positive when a person has an identity (some sense of who they are and what they are about), they feel positively about this identity (there are aspects of their identity that they feel good about), and...

The aims of this study were to determine whether, and how, young people’s beyond-the-self life goals coexisted with other life goals, and whether having at least one beyond-the-self goal was associated with higher thriving (the Five Cs of Positive Youth Development [PYD]) and volunteering, compared to having either no goals, or goals that were only...

Engagement in youth development programs reflects the quality of young people’s program-related experiences. However, more research is needed that explores cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions of engagement in programs that serve underrepresented youth of color. The present cross-sectional and mixed-methods study assessed potential relat...

Physical activity is important for well-being across the life span. However, links between patterns of adolescent activity, competence perceptions, and young adult outcomes are underexplored. We used data from seven waves of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (N = 5,961) to assess patterns of adolescent athletic participation, whether thes...

There were two purposes of the present research: first, to add to scholarship about a key character virtue, hopeful future expectations; and second, to demonstrate a recent innovation in longitudinal methodology that may be especially useful in enhancing the understanding of the developmental course of hopeful future expectations and other characte...

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...

Higher education may be a setting wherein character is revealed or developed. The purpose of this study was to investigate stakeholders’ perspectives about the processes involved in character development at a postsecondary institution with a trade and character education focus: Williamson College. The authors analyzed qualitative data from administ...

This paper measures the entrepreneurial intent and related characteristics of engineering undergraduates, as compared with business students. The purpose of this study is to describe and test the difference on entrepreneurial intent and related characteristics for engineering and business students with different career goals for both genders. Data...

Relational developmental systems (RDS) models frame contemporary scholarship in human development – whether in infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, or late adulthood – and encourage investigations of variation both within time and across people in their trajectories of individual↔context relations using person-centered and change-sensitive m...

Contribution to civil society is a key outcome of positive youth development (PYD), as evidenced by findings from the 4-H Study of PYD. In this chapter, we focus on conceptualizations and measurement of contribution within PYD research. We first discuss conceptualizations of contribution as Active and Engaged Citizenship (AEC) and the relations a...

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...

We discuss the evolution of scientific theory using the example of the relational developmental systems (RDS) metamodel, a conception emphasizing mutually influential relations between individuals and contexts. An important basis for RDS ideas in contemporary developmental science is Lerner and Spanier's (1978) discussion of mutually influential re...

Within contemporary developmental science, models derived from relational developmental systems metatheory emphasize that the basic process involved in the ontogeny of civic engagement involves mutually-influential and beneficial relations between the developing individual and his or her complex and changing social, cultural, and physical contexts...

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...

Most young people in the U.S. participate in some form of structured movement activity, such as sports or dance, and these activities have the potential to support positive youth development and continued engagement in healthy activity. In this chapter, we discuss the potential benefits and risks associated with youth participation in movement acti...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Hopeful expectations for the future have been shown to play an important role in the positive development of youth, including youth contributions to society. Although theory and some research suggest that familial socialization may influence future-oriented cognitions, little work has focused on the possible interrelation of parent-child relationsh...

Prior research has demonstrated that participation in out-of-school time activities is associated with positive and healthy development among adolescents. However, fewer studies have examined how trajectories of participation across multiple activities can impact developmental outcomes. Using data from Wave 3 (approximately Grade 7) through Wave 8...

Intentional self-regulation (ISR) undergoes significant development across the life span. However, our understanding of ISR’s development and function remains incomplete, in part because the field’s conceptualization and measurement of ISR vary greatly. A key sample case involves how Baltes and colleagues’ Selection, Optimization, and Compensation...

Young people's civic engagement over the transitiontoadulthoodisoften sporadic, interspersed with life transitions, and patterned differently across people. Understanding covariates of patterns of civic engagement, and changes in these patterns, could enhance efforts to promote young adults' civic engagement. Using two time points of data from the...

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...

Since Amato and Gilbreth’s (1999) meta-analysis of nonresident father involvement and child well-being, nonmarital childbirths and nonresident father involvement both have increased. The unknown implications of such changes motivated the present study, a meta-analytic review of 52 studies of nonresident father involvement and child well-being. Cons...

Identity development is an important maturational task during emerging adulthood; higher education institutions may be facilitative contexts for these processes. Many colleges strive to promote students' identities as engaged citizens of their communities through service activities. Prior research suggests that these experiences can positively affe...

The authors describe an approach to analyzing dyadic data that can be utilized with the smaller samples often available to researcher–practitioners working with couples in counseling. Specifically, the authors describe how to use the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM), a common dyadic data analysis tool, using a pooled regression approach t...

The study investigates the experiences of emerging adults who had worked as counselors at overnight summer camps; identity-related issues emerge as most salient in the analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with 12 women and 8 men from 8 camps. Their descriptions portray the identity exploration that took place within the camp context, through o...