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 developmental process involved in PYD. In addition, we review the ideas for and the features of youth development programs aimed at promoting PYD. We discuss the need for research interrelating different, theoretically-predicated measures of PYD and, as well, the importance of clear links between models of the PYD developmental process and of the youth development programs seeking to enhance PYD among diverse youth. We discuss several conceptual and practical problematics that must be addressed in order to integrate the three facets of PYD scholarship.

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. AbstractAs 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 EFA 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.Keywords: positive youth development, scale validation, short form, five Cs DEVELOPMENT OF SHORT PYD SCALES 3The Creation and Validation of Short and Very Short Measures of PYD Over the past two decades, the development and use of positive indicators of child wellbeing have increased substantially (Lippman et al., 2011;O'Hare, 2012). The primary movement framing this work has been the positive youth development (PYD; J. Lerner, Phelps, Forman, & Bowers, 2009; J. Lerner et al., 2012) perspective. PYD has been conceptualized in several ways and several theoretical frameworks have been posited (for a review, see J. Lerner et al., 2012).As these models become more popular with individuals working to enhance the positive growth of young people (Beets et al., 2009;Duerden, Witt, Fernandez, Bryant, & Theriault, 2012;; Kurtines et al., 2008), it is important that they are empirically useful, can be widely applied, and include constructs that are specific and measurable. However, these models are just beginning to be tested and there is still a great need for indicators of many instantiations of PYD (Lippman et al., 2011;O'Hare, 2012). Recent work has attempted to evaluate youth development frameworks (Heck & Subramaniam, 2009) The purpose of this report is to provide information about a questionnaire developed to assess PYD based on the Lerner and Lerner Five Cs Model of PYD (Bowers et al., 2010;Lerner et al., 2005). This approach employs...

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. AbstractAs developmental scientists cease to perceive adolescence as a period of turmoil and

Success in life is influenced by more than cognitive ability and opportunity. Success is also influenced by social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills: a person’s capacities to maintain social relationships, regulate emotions, and manage goal- and learning-directed behaviors. In this article, we propose an integrative model that defines SEB skills as capacities (what someone is capable of doing) rather than personality traits (what someone tends to do) and identifies five major skill domains: social engagement, cooperation, self-management, emotional resilience, and innovation. We then argue that operational measures of SEB skills should reflect rather than obscure the distinction between skills and traits. Finally, we propose an agenda for future work by highlighting open questions and hypotheses about the assessment, development, and outcomes of SEB skills as well as interventions and public policy targeting these skills.