A Developmental Intervention Science (DIS) Outreach Research Approach to Promoting Youth Development: Theoretical, Methodological, and Meta-Theoretical Challenges (original) (raw)
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Promoting Positive Youth Development: New Directions in Developmental Theory, Methods, and Research
Journal of Adolescent Research, 2008
The articles in this special issue report the efforts of the Miami Youth Development Project (YDP), a community-supported positive youth development program of outreach research that draws on a developmental intervention science (DIS) perspective (i.e., a fusion of the developmental and intervention science literatures). These reports illustrate how the application of DIS outreach research contributes to knowledge of human development at all levels (practical as well as methodological, theoretical, and metatheoretical). Consistent with a DIS outreach research approach, YDP is committed to the use of descriptive and explanatory knowledge about changes within human systems that occur across the life span in the development of evidence-based individual and institutional longitudinal change intervention strategies in promoting long-term developmental change. The evolution of the Miami YDP illustrates the value of DIS outreach research "in action."
Child & Youth Care Forum, 2010
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
The Effects of a Positive Youth Development Intervention on Problem Behavior Outcomes
This study reported an Outcome Mediation Cascade evaluation of the Changing Lives Program (CLP), a positive youth intervention. This study examined the effects of participation in the CLP on positive outcomes (Personal Expressiveness and Well-Being) and negative outcomes (Internalizing and Externalizing problem behaviors) as mediated by Identity Distress. 137 females and 101 males comprised the sample of this study, which draws from archival data of adolescents in alternative high schools in Miami. Findings indicated that the hypothesized model fit the data (χ2 (11) = 14.544, p = .020; RMSEA = .04; CFI = .995; SRMR = .028). Findings also provided preliminary evidence consistent with the hypothesis that in addition to having effects on targeted positive outcomes, PYD interventions are likely to have progressive cascading effects on untargeted problem outcomes.
Effects of positive youth development programs on school, family, and community systems
American Journal of Community Psychology, 2007
A review of efforts at social system change in 526 universal competence-promotion outcome studies indicated that 64% of the interventions attempted some type of microsystemic or mesosystemic change involving schools, families, or community-based organizations in an attempt to foster developmental competencies in children and adolescents. Only 24% of the reports provided quantitative data on the change that occurred in targeted systems. However, studies containing the necessary information produced several mean effect sizes that were statistically significant, and ranged from modest to large in magnitude. These data indicate that attempts to change social systems affecting children and adolescents can be successful. Future work should measure more thoroughly the extent to which the systemic changes that are targeted through intervention are achieved, and investigate how such changes contribute to the development and sustainability of the outcomes that might be demonstrated by participants of competencepromotion programs.
Next steps in advancing research on positive youth development
Prevention & Treatment, 2002
This article briefly reviews the ambitious and timely report "Positive Youth Development in the United States: Research Findings on Evaluations of Positive Youth Development Programs (Catalano, Berglund, Ryan, Lonczak, & Hawkins, 2002). We focus on the importance of the report, its implications for measurement and methodology in this field, defining the domain positive youth development and its importance independent of
Approaches to Positive Youth Development: A View of the Issues
SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks, 2007
The "positive youth development" (PYD) perspective is an orientation to young people that has arisen because of interest among developmental scientists in using developmental systems, or dynamic, models of human behaviour and development for understanding (1) the plasticity of human development and (2) the importance of relations between individuals and their real-world ecological settings as bases of variation in the course of human development (Lerner, 2005). The PYD perspective has arisen as well through the development and, in some cases, the evaluation of interventions designed and delivered within community-based, youth serving programs that have worked to counter what have been seen as steady states across the past five to six decades of substantial incidences of risk behaviours among adolescents. This book discusses several of the key models of PYD framing the literature of developmental science. In addition, we illustrate the use of the PYD perspective in understanding adolescent development in relation to the multiple contexts of youth development and in promoting PYD through community-based interventions or social policy. In turn, this chapter rationalizes and explains the foci of this book by discussing the origins and the features of the PYD perspective.
Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a framework used to design and guide programs and services for children and youth. PYD emphasizes the relationship between young people's strengths and resources and their capacity to live healthy and productive lives. The underlying tenets of PYD suggest that healthy child and youth development is characterized by a sense of responsibility, connectedness, and positive values. Put into practice, key PYD strategies include identifying youth strengths, engaging and motivating young people to support positive growth through these strengths, working with youth as collaborators, and harnessing resources that exist in a young person's environment. PYD advocates assert that common risk-oriented prevention and intervention frameworks fail to consider the idea that preventing a problem from occurring does not guarantee that youth are developing and growing in a healthy manner. Thus, from a PYD perspective healthy development is not simply the absence of problem behavior but it also includes the cultivation of resources and strengths within a child and her or his particular context. Ultimately, PYD suggests that young people who have mutually beneficial relationships with other people and institutions will enter adulthood as positive and successful contributors. In this sense, individuals and their respective social ecologies-peers, schools, families, and communities-are active contributors to the developmental process and promotion of well-being. Today, on-the-ground proponents of PYD are social workers and other individuals who advocate for policy change and funding for interventions and community-based services aimed at promoting healthy youth development. The grassroots efforts of advocates and interdisciplinary research efforts of scholars have also contributed greatly to a recent proliferation in PYD programs for children and youth. The PYD model has much to offer practitioners, community and program planners, and administrators seeking to develop or improve interventions and program services for children and youth. The positive focus on healthy child and adolescent development that the framework embodies has stimulated a rapid increase in PYD programs since the turn of the 21st century. More important, positive outcomes garnered from participants of PYD programs have now begun to support the utility of the model in real-world contexts. Yet as the field has grown, so have challenges in characterizing what constitutes a PYD program, organization, policy, or set of practices.
Effects of a Positive Youth Development Intervention on Problem Behavior Outcomes
PsycEXTRA Dataset
I would like to thank the members of the Miami Youth Development Project for their support throughout this process. I would especially like to thank Alan Meca for his assistance and Kyle Eichas for paving the way. I am also thankful for the members of my committee, whose feedback and encouragement have helped push things along. I would like to thank Dr. Kurtines for sharing his expertise over the development of this project, and for his patience and guidance. Finally, I am very grateful for Henry and his understanding while I committed time and energy to this project. v
Promoting Positive Development In Your Youth Programs
Today, youth are exposed to a variety of alarming risk behaviors that include youth violence, teen pregnancy, school dropout, and substance abuse. Traditionally, organizations, schools, and communities have conducted programs that seek to prevent or reduce particular risk behaviors. For example, a church program might conduct a smoking prevention class that attempts to reduce youth tobacco use. More recently, research has suggested that a more effective approach is to provide programs and activities that encourage positive development in youth (Werner & Smith, 1992; Schinke, Botvin, & Orlandi, 1991). Positive youth development is highly related to a decreased likelihood of involvement with all types of risk behaviors (Quinn, 1995). Youth who have experienced positive development have the following characteristics: