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Positive Jugendentwicklung
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The authors examined the usefulness of a self-report measure for elective selection, loss-based selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) as strategies of life management. The expected 4-factor solution was obtained in 2 independent samples (N = 218, 14–87 years; N = 181, 18–89 years) exhibiting high retest stability across 4 weeks (rtt = .74–.82). As expected, middle-aged adults showed higher endorsement of SOC than younger and older adults. Moreover, SOC showed meaningful convergent and divergent associations to other psychological constructs (e.g., thinking styles, NEO) and evinced positive correlations with measures of well-being which were maintained after other personality and motivational constructs were controlled for. Initial evidence on behavioral associations involving SOC obtained in other studies is summarized.
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 relations between individual and contextual variables that are involved in the thriving process. This introduction briefly reviews the historical background and the theoretical frame for the 4-H Study and describes its general methodology. We provide an overview of the articles in this special issue and discuss the ways in which the articles elucidate different facets of the thriving process. In addition, we discuss the implications of this research for future scholarship and for applications aimed at improving the life chances of diverse adolescents.
As developmental scientists cease to perceive adolescence as a period of inevitable turmoil and adopt the Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective, psychometrically sound measurement tools will be needed to assess adolescents' positive attributes. In this article we examine the longitudinal stability of the very short version of the PYD scale developed as part of the 4-H Study of PYD. Using a sample of 7,071 adolescents (60 % female) followed between Grades 5 and 12, our results suggest general stability of PYD across adolescence, both in terms of mean levels and rank-order stability. We also show that both a global measure of PYD and the individual Five Cs of PYD consistently correlate with important criterion measures (i.e., contribution, depressive symptoms, and problem behaviors) in expected ways. Although our results suggest weak relationships among our three criteria, we especially note that across adolescence PYD becomes more strongly correlated with contribution but less strongly correlated with depressive symptoms, and that confidence becomes more strongly related to depressive symptoms. We discuss implications for use of the present PYD measure in youth development programs.
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 relationships and the development of hope, particularly during adolescence. Accordingly, the first goal of this study was to identify developmental profiles of youth with respect to hopeful future expectations (HFE) and parental trust across adolescence. Next, we explored whether these developmental trajectories were related to youth Contribution, indexed by community leadership, service, and helping attitudes and behaviors. We used growth mixture modeling to simultaneously examine trajectories of adolescents' perceived connections with parents (indexed by parent trust) and HFE among 1,432 participants (59 % female) from Waves 3 through 6 (Grades 7 through 10) of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. A four-profile model provided the best fit to the data, with the following profiles: Moderate HFE/U-shaped Trust; Moderate HFE/Increasing Trust; Both Decreasing; and Both High Stable profiles. We then explored whether hope-trust profiles were related to youth Contribution in Wave 7. Contrary to hypotheses, results indicated that the profile reflecting the greatest discrepancy in HFE and trust across early to middle adolescence (i.e., Moderate Hope/U-shaped Trust) was associated with the highest mean Contribution scores. The implications of the findings for future theory and research are discussed.
Adolescence is a period of marked change in the person’s cognitive, physical, psychological, and social development and in the individual’s relations with the people and institutions of the social world. These changes place adaptational demands on adolescents, ones involving relations between their actions upon the context and the action of the context on them, a bidirectional process that has been labeled developmental regulation. The attributes and means through which the adolescent contributes to such regulation may be termed self-regulation. This article differentiates between organismic and intentional self-regulation and examines the development of intentional self-regulation in adolescence, and the individual and contextual contributions to its development. The model of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation, developed by Paul Baltes, Margaret Baltes, and Alexandra Freund, is used as a means to conceptualize and index intentional self-regulation in adolescence. The relation between intentional self-regulation and positive development of youth is examined.
Zusammenfassung: Prävention begnügt sich oft mit dem Ziel, Risiken zur Entwicklung von Problemverhalten zu vermeiden, von denen aber viele nicht zu unterbinden sind. Deshalb wird häufig gefordert, stattdessen Schutzfaktoren zu fördern, die dem Individuum mehr Möglich- keiten geben, sich angesichts von Risiken positiv zu entwickeln. Ergänzend wird eine neue Ausrichtung dargestellt, die davon ausgeht, dass selbst eine Entwicklung ohne psychosoziale Anpassungsstörungen noch lange nicht dem entspricht, was man sich wünscht, nämlich Ju- gendliche mit Initiative, Verantwortlichkeit und Gesundheit. Hierfür ausschlaggebend sind "developmental assets" (Entwicklungsressourcen), die zu stärken schon das Anliegen von Le- benskompetenz-Programmen war, jetzt jedoch im umfassenderen Konzept positiver Jugend- entwicklung neue Bedeutung gewinnt, aber auch Ergänzungen verlangt. Schlüsselwörter: Positive Jugendentwicklung, Developmental Assets, Intervention Abstract: Prevention often aims at the reduction of risks. Because many of them cannot be changed, the need to focus on the promotion of protective factors (i.e. enable individuals to co- pe with risks) has been stressed. Additionally, a new view has been gaining acceptance based on the assumption that problem-free development does not mean being fully prepared for life (i.e. healthy adolescents that show initiative and responsibility). Most of the so called "deve- lopmental assets" that are responsible for these positive outcomes were already targeted through Life-Skills-Programs. These programs gain now new impact within the wider concept of promotion of positive youth development, but also need further elaboration.
The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), a longitudinal investigation of a diverse sample of 1,700 fifth graders and 1,117 of their parents, tests developmental contextual ideas linking PYD, youth contributions, and participation in community youth development (YD) programs, representing a key ecological asset. Using data from Wave 1 of the study, structural equation modeling procedures provided evidence for five firstorder latent factors representing the “Five Cs” of PYD (competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring) and for their convergence on a second-order PYD latent construct. A theoretical construct, youth contribution, was also created and examined. Both PYD and YD program participation independently related to contribution. The importance of longitudinal analyses for extending the present results is discussed.
Modern-day life necessitates the application of interventions to facilitate the development of the youth
in a more positive trajectory. Lacunae in the Positive Youth Development (PYD) paradigm include, inter
alia, the lack of integration between theory and application and a lack of exposition of the processes
underlying developmental change in the youth. The aim of this study was to develop a theoretical model
to facilitate the development of youth in early adolescence. The proposed model builds on existing
models, namely the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory and the Selection
Optimization and Compensation (SOC) model. A review of the literature on the PYD paradigm and
other areas of psychology with a similar strength-based focus, yielded theory which could be used to
expand on the basic framework. The resulting Positive Youth Development Intervention model (PYDI)
is described with reference to meta-theoretical assumptions, theoretical hypotheses, and constructs
referring to phenomena and processes to be facilitated on an empirical level. This model can be
operationalised to develop an intervention which can then be evaluated, thereby contributing to bridging
theory and application in PYD.
Advances in our understanding of adaptation are rooted in the seminal work of Garmezy, Rutter, Werner, and others who “discovered”
a not inconsiderable proportion of children who, thought to be at risk for current and future maladaptation, showed few or
no signs of pathology and often exhibited high levels of competence (Garmezy, 1974; Rutter, 1979; Werner & Smith, 1982). Investigating what made a difference in this group of children’s lives led at first to descriptions of correlates of positive
development among children living in high-risk contexts and has progressed to complex process models allowing for multiple
causal effects across multiple ecologies (Masten, 1999a). Two of the great contributions from this line of work have focused on elucidating the mechanisms thought to underlie both
adaptive and maladaptive developmental trajectories under conditions of adversity, as well as advancing the position that
studies of positive adaptation and competence should be studied alongside the more dominant models of risk, pathology, and
treatment (Garmezy, 1974; Rutter, 1979; Masten, 2001). These advancements in turn have been instrumental in current intervention and prevention practices (Rolf & Johnson, 1999).
Advances in applied developmental science have contributed to the large literature on positive youth development (PYD) interventions.
This study reports an investigation of a PYD program using an outcome-mediation evaluation model that drew on the treatment
intervention science literature. The Changing Lives Program (CLP) is a community supported gender and ethnic inclusive PYD
intervention framework. Using an empowerment approach, the CLP was implemented in a practice setting as a selective/indicated
positive youth development program for multi-ethnic, multi-problem at risk youth in urban alternative high schools. The outcome-mediation
evaluation model provided evidence in support of the direct outcome effects of the intervention. The model also proved effective
in identifying at a micro process level a number of plausible causal mechanisms for use in the development of more conceptually
complete models of the causal mechanisms that underlie intervention change. Implications for future development of theory
informed empirically supported intervention models of PYD programs are discussed.
KeywordsPositive youth development-Developmental intervention science-Mediation-outcome research design-Identity development
Extracurricular activities provide a key context for youth development, and participation has been linked with positive developmental outcomes. Using data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), this study explored how the intentional self regulation ability of youth interacted with participation in extracurricular activities to affect PYD among adolescents living in neighborhoods with relatively low ecological assets. In total, 545 youth were included in the study (50.3% female). Most of the youth were European American (41%) or Latino (37%; African American, 10%; Asian American, 7%; Native American, 4%; and other, 1%). In general, youth with the greatest capacity to self regulate benefitted the most, as compared to their peers with less capacity to self regulate, from involvement in extracurricular activities. Consistent with a developmental systems perspective, and specifically with bioecological theory, the findings from this study confirmed that, within lower asset settings, children with the most positive person-level factors (intentional self regulation) benefit the most from proximal processes such as extracurricular activity involvement.
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 longitudinal data derived from the 4-H Study of PYD, we assessed 920 youth (61.6% female) from a racially and ethically diverse sample (67.3% European American) who participated in three waves (Grades 8-10) of data collection. Building on prior findings that the Five Cs (i.e., Competence, Confidence, Connection, Character, and Caring) model of PYD was a robust measure that could be assessed comparably during early adolescence, we tested a hierarchy of second-order confirmatory factor analysis models to assess the extent to which PYD can be measured equivalently across middle adolescence. Evidence was found for strict measurement invariance across three measurement occasions, including equivalence of first-order and second-order factor loadings, equality of intercepts of observed variables, and equality of item uniqueness and disturbances of the first-order factors. These results suggest that PYD can be measured in the same way across measurement occasions, a prerequisite for the study of development. Implications for research and application of being able to measure PYD equivalently across adolescence are discussed.
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 positive and problematic indicators across Grades 5-10, and the links between these trajectories of development, among 2,516 participants from the 4-H Study of PYD (58.1% females; 64.9% European American, 7.0% African American, 12.3% Latino/a American, 2.6% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 1.8% Native American, 3.0% multiethnic-racial, and 8.4% with inconsistent race/ethnicity across waves). Results from person-centered analyses indicated that most youth clustered in the high trajectories of positive indicators and in the low trajectories of the negative ones. Consistent with past research, overlap between trajectories of positive and negative behaviors was found. These results suggest that theory and application need to accommodate to variation in the links between positive and problematic developmental trajectories.
A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless. The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human being lacking the positive features that make life worth living. Hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance are ignored or explained as transformations of more authentic negative impulses. The 15 articles in this millennial issue of the American Psychologist discuss such issues as what enables happiness, the effects of autonomy and self-regulation, how optimism and hope affect health, what constitutes wisdom, and how talent and creativity come to fruition. The authors outline a framework for a science of positive psychology, point to gaps in our knowledge, and predict that the next century will see a science and profession that will come to understand and build the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish.
Community Youth Development: Programs, Policies, and Practices focuses on positive methods for youth development that are rapidly supplanting the traditional deficit-oriented, problem-reduction approaches. Edited by eminent scholars Francisco A. Villarruel, Daniel F. Perkins, Lynne M. Borden, and Joanne G. Keith, this accessible volume provides practical tools and models for developing community-wide initiatives that strengthen protective factors, build competencies, and focus on thriving indicators. Examining the needs of multiple audiences, programs, and policies, each chapter contributes to an overall understanding of the "how" and "why" of community youth development. Designed for upper division undergraduate and graduate students in human development, family studies, and education, Community Youth Development: Programs, Policies, and Practices is also an invaluable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policy advocates for youth and community development.
From a European Perspective This book charts territory that is profoundly important, and yet rarely fully understood. The authors have attempted a task that has relevance to the widest possible range of professionals working with children and adolescents. In describing and assessing the fields prevention and promotion they have performed an immense service to researchers in this field, but also to practitioners across the spectrum, from mental health nurses and doctors to teachers and psychologists, from social work professionals to psychiatrists and youth counselors. There are two other key elements that should be emphasized from the outset. The first is that the approach in this book is truly multi-disciplinary, with the authors making a genuine attempt to draw upon knowledge and practice derived from all the relevant disciplines. The second element which makes this book so important is that the authors have worked across countries, to ensure that work in the field of intervention from both North America and from Europe should be included. This is as welcome as it is refreshing. There appear to be so many barriers to true collaboration between the two continents, and so many examples of either North American to what is going on "across the or European social scientists appearing blind border" that the approach taken here should be wholeheartedly commended. This book is essentially a review, but a rather special review.
Community youth development: Partnership creating a positive world U.S. citizens have been startled into the realization that their communities are all vulnerable to violence, regardless of whether they are rural, suburban, or urban. The violent acts of young people toward their peers have repeatedly shocked the nation (e.g., the tragic events in Eugene, Oregon; Littleton, Colorado; and Jonesboro, Arkansas). Given this frightening new understanding, across the country communities are trying desperately to understand what it takes to create environments that promote the positive and healthy development of all youth. Communities are attempting to redesign themselves to be places that promote both positive behavior in youth and the general well-being of all young people while simultaneously preventing negative behavior. Although communities have begun to see the importance of addressing what we will call “positive youth development,” many communities have a limited understanding of the community mobilization required to create an environment ...
This article summarizes a much lengthier one that appeared in Prevention and Treatment. The earlier article grew out of a project initiated by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. The Positive Youth Development Evaluation project described why policy makers, practitioners, and prevention scientists advocated a shift in approach for how youth issues are addressed in this country. The Positive Youth Development Evaluation project sought to define how youth development programs have been defined in the literature and then to locate, through a structured search, strong evaluations of these programs and summarize the outcomes of these evaluations. In the current article, we explain why prevention has shifted from a single problem focus to a focus on factors that affect both positive and problem youth development, describe what is meant by positive youth development, and summarize what we know about the effectiveness of positive youth develop...
Liberty: Thriving and Civic Engagement Among America’s Youth examines what it means to develop as an exemplary young person - that is, a young person who is thriving within the community and on the rise to a hopeful future. The book explores several key characteristics of positive youth development such as competence, character, confidence, social connections, and compassion that coalesce to create a young person who is developing successfully towards an "ideal" adulthood, one marked by contributions to self, others, and the institutions of civil society. In this unique work, author Richard M. Lerner brings his formidable knowledge of developmental systems theory and facts on youth development to analyze the meaning of a thriving civil society and its relationship to the potential of youth for self-actualization and positive development.
Scientific research and science-guided practice based on the promotion of an individual's strengths constitutes a radical shift in a new and growing area of study within the field of human development. Its trademark term is 'positive youth development'. This approach to human development is based on the idea that, in addition to preventing problems, science and practice should promote the development of competencies, skills, and motivation in order to enhance individuals' developmental pathways. Approaches to Positive Youth Development, is based on this concept and brings together authors from across Europe and America who are leaders in their respective fields. The main focus of the book, beyond a clarification of the paradigmatic foundations, concerns the major contexts of adolescents and young adults, namely, neighborhoods and leisure locales, school and family, and the major themes of healthy psychosocial development, namely, competences and knowledge, pro-social behavior, transcending problems of delinquency, civic engagement, identity, agency, and spirituality.
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 the scale used to measure the Five Cs of PYD in the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. We created separate forms for earlier versus later adolescence and ensured that items displayed sufficient conceptual overlap across forms to support tests of factorial invariance. We discuss implications for further scale development and advocate for the use of these convenient tools, especially in research and applications pertinent to the Five Cs model of PYD.
IPSY (Information + Psychosocial Competence = Protection) is a universal life skills program aiming at the promotion of generic intra- and interpersonal life skills, substance specific skills (for example, resistance skills), school bonding, knowledge, and the prevention of substance misuse with a focus on alcohol and tobacco in youth. This program is based on the WHO's life skills approach as well as on theories and empirical findings concerning the development of substance misuse during early adolescence. IPSY is implemented by teachers over three years of schooling (grades 5–7 in Germany). Guided by models of translational research dealing with conditions of a successful translation of etiological findings into evidence-based prevention programs, the chapter highlights the results of a more than ten-year research program focusing on the development and evaluation of the IPSY program. Findings on long-term general effects, mediators and moderators of program effectiveness, and cross-cultural transferability of the program to other European countries are summarized and discussed in light of dissemination issues.
Positive youth development (PYD) and resilience science differ in emphasis and focus but share many roots, assumptions, concepts, and goals. Both frameworks are grounded in developmental systems theory, both are focused on positive adaptation, and both are translational, sharing a common goal of promoting positive development. Yet there also are differences. This commentary examines the concepts, methods, and goals that define the PYD framework as embodied by the 4-H Study of PYD from the perspective of contemporary resilience science in human development, with an eye toward delineating similarities, differences, and future directions.
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 modeling risk behaviors, assessing development from approximately 6th grade through 12th grade among 4,391 adolescents (59.9 % female). Latent profiles involving the problematic behaviors of delinquency, depressive symptoms, substance use, sexual activity, disordered eating behaviors, and bullying were then assessed for concurrent relationships with the Five Cs of PYD: Competence, Confidence, Character, Caring, and Connection. We found six latent profiles, based primarily on mental health, aggression, and alcohol use, with significant differences in Confidence levels among many of the profiles, as well as some differences in the four other Cs. We discuss directions for future research and implications for application to youth policies and programs.
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 (approximately Grade 12) of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, this study examined patterns of breadth in out-of-school time participation in activities and associated outcomes in positive youth development (PYD), Contribution to self and community, risk behaviors, and depressive symptoms. We assessed 927 students (on average across waves, 65.4 % female) from a relatively racially and ethnically homogeneous sample (about 74 % European American, across waves) with a mean age in Wave 3 of 12.98 years (SD = 0.52). The results indicated that high likelihood of participation in activities was consistently associated with fewer negative outcomes and higher scores on PYD and Contribution, as compared to low likelihood of participation in activities. Changes in the breadth of participation (in particular, moving from a high to a low likelihood of participation) were associated with increased substance use, depressive symptoms, and risk behaviors. Limitations of the current study, implications for future research, and applications to youth programs are discussed.
The philosophy guiding youth development programs-that resilience and competency building are central to helping youth navigate adolescence in healthy ways-provides the groundwork for an exciting and promising array of programs for adolescents. Despite the number of programs or the importance of their objectives, whether they promote healthy adolescent development remains unclear because the definition of youth development programs is elusive and evolving. Drawing on both the literature and the results from a survey of highly regarded youth development programs, this article examines 3 defining characteristics of the youth development program-program goals, atmosphere, and activities. The results suggest a provisional definition of youth development programs based on the prevalent aspects of the goals, atmosphere, and activities reported by respondents. Youth development programs seek not only to prevent adolescents from engaging in health-compromising behaviors but to build their abilities and competencies. They do this by increasing participants' exposure to supportive and empowering environments where activities create multiple opportunities for a range of skill-building and horizon-broadening experiences. The operational definitions of the 3 features of youth development programs can serve as the starting point for the development of better measures to assess the type and quality of experiences youth experience through participation in youth development programs, and the programs' effectiveness at promoting positive developmental outcomes.
The issue that frames this volume is the strengthening of the human development infrastructure in American communities. This
infrastructure is concerned with the patterns and rhythms of relationships, resources, opportunities, and experiences—and
the programs and policies that undergird them—for raising competent, connected, and successful children and adolescents. Since
1990, my work, and that of my colleagues at Search Institute, has focused on an action research agenda designed both to understand
the role of community in human development and to position communities as co-learners with Search Institute in creating sustainable
strategies for unleashing their human development capacity. As of fall, 2001, nearly 700 American urban, suburban, and rural
communities in more than 30 states have launched initiatives based on this work.
Theories of positive youth development (PYD) regard such development as bases of both community contributions and lessened likelihood of risk/problem behaviors. Using data from the 4-H Study of PYD, we tested these expectations by examining if PYD in Grade 5 predicted both youth contributions and risk behaviors and depression in Grade 6. Results of random effects regression and SEM models indicated that, as expected, PYD in Grade 5 predicted higher youth contributions and lower risk behaviors and depression at Grade 6. There were significant sex differences for contribution (girls had higher scores) and for risk behaviors (boys had higher scores), but not for depression. In turn, the structural model fit was equivalent for boys and girls. Results are discussed in regard to promoting PYD to enhance successful development, or thriving, and to reduce problem behaviors.
This article explores the recent approach to youth research and practice that has been called positive youth development. The author makes the case that the approach grew out of dissatisfaction with a predominant view that underestimated the true capacities of young people by focusing on their deficits rather than their developmental potentials. The article examines three areas of research that have been transformed by the positive youth approach: the nature of the child; the interaction between the child and the community; and moral growth. It concludes with the point that positive youth development does not simply mean an examination of anything that appears to be beneficial for young people. Rather, it is an approach with strong defining assumptions about what is important to look at if we are to accurately capture the full potential of all young people to learn and thrive in the diverse settings where they live.
The relations among observed ecological assets in youth's families, schools, and neighborhoods with positive and negative developmental outcomes were assessed with a sample of 646 fifth-grade youth. The majority of participants were Latino (37.5%) or European American (35.5%) and lived in 2-parent families. Ecological asset indicators were categorized into 4 dimensions: human, physical or institutional, collective activity, and accessibility and were measured equivalently across the three contexts. Different dimensions of the family, school, and neighborhood settings had the most comprehensive impact on the different developmental outcomes, specifically collective activity in the family, accessibility in school, and human resources in the neighborhood. This research establishes a baseline for the empirical inquiry into the impact of observed resources present within families, school, and neighborhoods. Contemporary developmental science recognizes that human development is a bidirectional, individual ↔ context relational process (Lerner, 2006). Just as there are multiple levels of organization within the in- dividual (e.g., genes, motivation, and cognitive abili- ties) that influence one's developmental course, so too are there different levels of organization within the so- cial ecology (e.g., families, schools, and neighbor- hoods) that contribute to development. In this article, we focus on the multilevel social context. We propose a framework for conceptualizing and measuring differ- ent, observed aspects of the social ecology that can be simultaneously applied to multiple settings to examine the unique and combined effects of the ecology on pos- itive and negative developmental outcomes.
This paper summarizes several major shifts that have occurred in the past 15 to 20 years in what researchers, policy makers and practitioners think about what young people need, what they get and where they get it. There have also been important shifts in thinking about what young people do, should and can do, and when it is reasonable to expect results. Based on work started in 1990 at the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research at AED, this paper expands upon Karen Pittman and Merita Irby's 1996 paper, Preventing Problems or Promoting Development. This updated version incorporates critical ideas about young people as participants and change makers--ideas that, in our minds, constitute the next, more powerful iteration of the youth development approach. (Contains 9 tables and 16 figures.) [This document is based upon Pittman, K. & Irby, M. (1996). "Preventing Problems or Promoting Development?" Washington, DC: The Forum for Youth Investment, Impact Strategies, Inc.]
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 all participants were enrolled in 4-H or other after-school programs), completed measures of positive youth development (PYD) constructs and of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and hard drug use once per year between 5th and 10th grades. At the 9th and 10th grade assessments, adolescents were asked whether they had initiated sexual intercourse and, if so, at what age they had first engaged in intercourse. Although the present sample was somewhat lower risk compared to national averages, survival analysis models indicated that PYD was significantly and negatively associated with the initiation hazards for tobacco use, marijuana use, and sex initiation for girls only, and with hard drug use for both genders. PYD was also positively associated with the odds of condom use across genders. Results are discussed with regard to PYD as a preventive process.
In this book, Scales and Leffert review more than 800 scientific articles and reports that relate to Search Institute's conceptual framework of developmental assets—positive relationships, opportunities, skills, values, and self-perceptions that all young people need to be healthy, caring, and productive. Each chapter shows (1) how the scientific literature defines the category of assets; (2) research findings on the impact assets on young people's behaviors, including variations in findings among different populations of youth; (3) in-depth information on how each asset works; (4) data on young people's experiences from Search Institute surveys of almost 100,000 6th–12th grade youth; (5) areas in the scientific literature that may not be adequately reflected in the current framework of developmental assets; and (6) what the literature says about how the assets can be built in young people's lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This chapter discusses the emphasis in contemporary scholarship about human development on developmental systems theories, models of development that emphasize relational approaches to the multiple levels of organization involved in development across the life span. Philosophical and scientific interest in developmental systems theory has influenced the study of human development to change from an emphasis on psychological science to an interest in integrating ideas and methods from multiple scientific fields in the service of describing, explaining, and optimizing the course of human life. Within this relational approach, the study of diversity and the promotion positive development across the life span become major substantive foci of developmental science.
Keywords:
application;
developmental science;
diversity;
plasticity;
positive human development;
relationism
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-regulation, as indexed by a measure of selection (S), optimization (O), and compensation (C), or SOC, was assessed. Within-and-across-time links between SOC scores and indicators of PYD, and risk/problem behaviors were ascertained. A tripartite structure of intentional self-regulation was identified across all three grades, and SOC scores at all times positively covaried with PYD and negatively with risk/problem behaviors. Findings were strongest for overall SOC scores and for the components of “O” and “C.” We discuss the implications of these findings for youth development programs.
Developmental system theories recognize that variables from multiple levels of organization within the bioecology of human development contribute to adolescent development, including individual factors, family factors and the neighborhood which includes extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities provide a context for youth development, and participation has been linked with positive developmental outcomes. This study uses data from a subsample of early adolescents in the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development to determine whether neighborhood assets moderate the effect of adolescent activity involvement on positive and negative developmental outcomes. The relationship between activity involvement and neighborhood assets was different for girls as compared to boys when assessing outcomes of positive youth development, risk behavior, and depression. Consistent with a developmental systems perspective, the findings affirm the need for researchers and practitioners to consider multiple contextual influences when seeking to understand or promote, respectively, positive youth development.
Several disconnects serve to weaken the use of evidence based programming in community settings. Communities face the need to address the challenges of multiple risk behaviors faced by adolescents in their communities, but must also work to support successful transitions to adulthood and the broader positive development of their youth. The stronger integration of positive youth development and prevention of youth risk at the community level may offer an opportunity to support the implementation and ongoing development of evidence-based practices (EBPs). This article provides an overview of the VCU Clark-Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development Institute's community mobilization effort in Richmond, Virginia and reports preliminary findings from our integrated mobilization efforts. First, we review the role of our Community Advisory Council in their collaborative work to support positive youth development and reduce risk for youth violence. Next, we present examples of institute efforts in providing technical assistance relevant to supporting the use and development of EBPs. We then discuss the adaptation of an evidence-based program to target positive youth development. We also present overviews from qualitative investigations examining barriers and supports that inform and are relevant to the implementation of EBPs. Finally, we consider ways in which community efforts inform and shape institute efforts to develop EPBs. Taken together, these activities provide examples of how community-based mobilization efforts can integrate and inform the implementation of EBPs and the role and use of prevention science as a tool in supporting effective programming to promote positive youth development and prevent youth violence.
This chapter describes a framework for conceptualizing interventions intended to create the conditions linked to positive youth development. These interventions involve strategies designed to enhance either the will or the capacity of individuals, organizations, systems, or communities to change.
Theoretical issues pertinent to a dynamic, developmental systems understanding of positive youth development and the thriving process in such development are discussed. Thriving involves relative plasticity in human development and adaptive regulations of person-context relations. An integrated moral and civic identity and a commitment to society beyond the limits of one's own existence enable thriving youth to be agents both in their own, healthy development and in the positive enhancement of other people and of society. Thriving youth become generative adults through the progressive enhancement of behaviors that are valued in their specific culture and that reflect the universal structural value of contributing to civil society.
Using data from the first three waves of data (Grades 5, 6, and 7) from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), the authors assessed among 1,184 youth (58.5% female) the patterns of change associated with indicators of PYD and of risks/problem behaviors. Results indicated that five PYD trajectories represent change across grades, four trajectories were associated with indicators of internalizing problems, and three trajectories were associated with indicators of externalizing problems. Although theoretical expectations associated with the study of both child and adolescent resilience and PYD led to the expectation that most youth across the early adolescent period would show change marked by the coupling of increases in PYD and decreases in risk/problem behaviors, only about one-sixth of all youth in the sample manifested this particular pattern of change. Other youth remained stable over time, showed increases in PYD and risk, and declined in PYD. The multiplicity of patterns of conjoint trajectories for PYD and risks/problem behaviors constitutes a challenge for both developmental theory and applications aimed at enhancing resilience and positive development among adolescents.
& The Center for Child Well-Being (Hrsg Well-being: Positive development across the life course
- M H Bornstein
- L Davidson
- C M Keyes
- K Moore
Youth programs as builders of social capital
- M Calvert
- M Emnery
- S Kinsey
Engagierte Jugend - lebendige Gesellschaft. Expertise zum Carl-Bertelsmann-Preis
- R M Lerner
- A E Alberts
- D L Bobeck
Promoting positive youth development: Theoretical and empirical bases White paper prepared for the Science of Adolescent Health and Development, National Research Council
- R M Lerner