Resilience theory provides a framework for studying and understanding how some youths overcome risk exposure and guides the development of interventions for prevention using a strengths-based approach. In this article, we describe basic concepts of the theory, such as promotive factors, and distinguish assets and resources that help youths overcome the negative effects of risk exposure. We also present three models of resilience theory—compensatory, protective, and challenge—and review empirical research on three promotive factors—ethnic identity, social support, and prosocial involvement—that include individual, family, and community levels of analysis and have modifiable qualities for informing interventions. Finally, we present examples of how research findings from the three promotive factors can be translated into interventions to enhance youth development.

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We report on an effectiveness evaluation of the Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES) program. YES applies empowerment theory to an after-school program for middle school students. YES is an active learning curriculum designed to help youth gain confidence in themselves, think critically about their community, and work with adults to create positive community change. We employed a modified randomized control group design to test the hypothesis that the curriculum would enhance youth empowerment, increase positive developmental outcomes, and decrease problem behaviors. Our sample included 367 youth from 13 urban and suburban middle schools. Controlling for demographic characteristics and pretest outcome measures, we found that youth who received more components of the curriculum reported more psychological empowerment and prosocial outcomes and less antisocial outcomes than youth who received fewer of the intervention components. The results support both empowerment theory and program effectiveness.

Depression is a serious mental health concern among adolescents. Violence exposure is a potent risk factor for depression. Social support may help reduce depression risk, even when adolescents are exposed to violence. Using a compensatory model of resilience, we investigate the influence of violence exposure and social support on depression over time in a sample of urban youth during the high school years (N=824, 52% female, mean age year 1 = 14.9). We used growth curve modeling to examine depressive symptoms across adolescence and its association with violence exposure and social support, accounting for important sociodemographic characteristics (sex, socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity). Depressive symptoms on average increase from year one to two of high school and then are stable or decline from years two to four. Violence observation and conflict in the family were each associated with increased depressive symptoms during the high school years. Mother support was associated with decreased depressive symptoms over time. Our results support a compensatory model of resilience. Promoting positive parent-child communication among urban youth living in disadvantaged contexts may help reduce the probability that exposure to violence will result in depressive symptoms.

Understanding the resources needed to achieve desired implementation and effectiveness outcomes is essential to implementing and sustaining evidence-based practices (EBPs). Despite this frequent observation, cost and economic measurement and reporting are rare, but becoming more frequent in implementation science, and when present is seldom reported from the perspective of multiple stakeholders (e.g., the organization, supervisory team), including those who will ultimately implement and sustain EBPs.Incorporating a multi-level framework is useful for understanding and integrating the perspectives and priorities of the diverse set of stakeholders involved in implementation. Stakeholders across levels, from patients to delivery staff to health systems, experience different economic impacts (costs, benefit, and value) related to EBP implementation and have different perspectives on these issues. Economic theory can aid in understanding multi-level perspectives and approaches to addressing potential conflict across perspectives.This paper provides examples of key cost components especially important to different types of stakeholders. It provides specific guidance and recommendations for cost assessment activities that address the concerns of various stakeholder groups, identifies areas of agreement and conflict in priorities, and outlines theoretically informed approaches to understanding conflicts among stakeholder groups and processes to address them. Involving stakeholders throughout the implementation process and presenting economic information in ways that are clear and meaningful to different stakeholder groups can aid in maximizing benefits within the context of limited resources. We posit that such approaches are vital to advancing economic evaluation in implementation science. Finally, we identify directions for future research and application.Considering a range of stakeholders is critical to informing economic evaluation that will support appropriate decisions about resource allocation across contexts to inform decisions about successful adoption, implementation, and sustainment. Not all perspectives need to be addressed in a given project but identifying and understanding perspectives of multiple groups of key stakeholders including patients and direct implementation staff not often explicitly considered in traditional economic evaluation are needed in implementation research.

Early exposure to violence during adolescence is related to negative psycho-social outcomes later in life. In the present study, we examined the influence of cumulative exposure to violence during adolescence and trajectories of perceived stress in emerging adulthood in a sample of at-risk urban youth (N = 850; 80.1% African American; 50% female). Growth curve modeling indicated an overall decrease in reported stress as individuals aged. Baseline levels of violence exposure (Mage = 14.9) were associated with higher perceived stress levels in emerging adulthood (Mage = 20.1), but also slightly more negative perceived stress slopes from adolescence into emerging adulthood (Mage = 15.9–22.1). Individuals reporting increased violence exposure over time during adolescence also reported higher perceived stress levels in emerging adulthood (Mage = 20.1). Associations held after controlling for demographics and baseline functioning variables. The results suggest that violence exposure may disrupt normative adaptation to daily stressors in emerging adulthood.

Empowerment-based strategies have become widely used method to address health inequities and promote social change. Few researchers, however, have tested theoretical models of empowerment, including multidimensional, higher-order models. We test empirically a multidimensional, higher-order model of psychological empowerment (PE), guided by Zimmerman’s (1995) conceptual framework including three components of PE: intrapersonal, interactional and behavioral. We also investigate if PE is associated with positive and negative outcomes among youth. The sample included 367 middle school youth aged 11–16 (M = 12.71; SD = 0.91); 60% female, 32% (n =117) white youth, 46% (n = 170) African-American youth, and 22% (n = 80) identifying as mixed race, Asian-American, Latino, Native American or other ethnic/racial group; schools reported 61–75% free/reduced lunch students. Our results indicated that each of the latent factors for the three PE components demonstrate a good fit with the data. Our results also indicated that these components loaded on to a higher-order PE factor (X2=32.68, df: 22, p=0.07; RMSEA: 0.04, 95% CI: 0.00, 0.06; CFI: 0.99). We found that the second order PE factor was negatively associated with aggressive behavior and positively associated with prosocial engagement. Our results suggest that empowerment-focused programs would benefit from incorporating components addressing how youth think about themselves in relation to their social contexts (intrapersonal), understanding social and material resources needed to achieve specific goals (interactional) and actions taken to influence outcomes (behavioral). Our results also suggest that integrating the three components and promoting PE may help increase likelihood of positive behaviors (e.g., prosocial involvement); we did not find an association between PE and aggressive behavior. Implications and future directions for empowerment research are discussed.

Organized activity participation provides important opportunities for adolescents to develop assets and resources related to positive youth development. Predisposing factors, in addition to sociodemographics and self-selection factors, may influence how youth participate over time. In this study, we used growth mixture modeling with longitudinal data from African American adolescents attending urban high schools in Flint, MI to identify subgroups of participation trajectories (Wave 1 N=681, mean age at wave 1=14.86 years, 51% female). We measured activity participation using psychological and behavioral engagement across multiple contexts over the four years of high school. We examined how predisposing risk and promotive factors were related to these trajectories, accounting for sociodemographic and self-selection factors. The results indicated three participation trajectories: a low group decreasing over time (74%), a moderate, consistent participation group (21%) and a moderate, increasing group (5%). More substance use was associated with lower odds of being in the moderate/consistent versus low/decreasing participation group. More parental support was associated with lower odds of being in the moderate/increasing versus the moderate/consistent group. Our results suggest that addressing predisposing factors such as substance use may help facilitate participation over time.