Positive Youth Development, Participation in Community Youth Development Programs, and Community Contributions of Fifth-Grade Adolescents

Abstract

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 first-order 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. 2The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a longitudinal investigation that seeks to identify the individual and ecological bases of healthy, positive development among diverse adolescents. Framed by an instance of developmental systems theory, developmental contextualism (Lerner, 2002(Lerner, , 2004, the 4-H Study is designed to follow youth across the second decade of life and to examine their developmental trajectories. This article describes the theoretical and methodological components of the study, and reports some key findings derived from the first wave of data collection (which occurred in 2002-2003).While we present the theoretical and empirical literature that legitimates the structural model and the design of the study, and in turn provide details about all features of the measurement model, we do not present analyses pertinent to all research questions, particularly since key facets of this model are optimally tested with change-sensitive data that will be available only through subsequent, longitudinal waves of the study. Instead, we present findings pertinent to the presence and structure of the several characteristics presently focused on in the literature as composing PYD (i.e., the Five "C"s of competence, confidence, character, connection, and caring) (e.g., Eccles & Gootman, 2002). We also propose a theoretical measure of youth contribution appropriate for early adolescents and examine unitemporal patterns of covariation with the 5Cs.Simply, before we could test with longitudinal data our developmental contextual conception of the process through which PYD occurs, we needed to establish that the concept of PYD as it had been discussed in the literature had empirical reality, both in its purposed structure and its covariation with other key individual and ecological variables 2 . Accordingly, we address the question of whether in the present data set there is evidence for the theoretical expectations that PYD is positively related to contribution and negatively related to adolescent risk and 3 problem behaviors and, as well, whether there is an association between PYD and youth participation in community-based, youth development (Y...

Prenatal Exposure to Maternal Cigarette Smoking and the Adolescent Cerebral Cortex

“…The average of the five scales represents the PYD score. Scores for PYD have been found to be inversely related to the scores for depression indexed by the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression measure (Radloff, 1977), both within a given grade level (eg fifth grade; Lerner et al, 2005) and across grades (from 5th grade to 6th grade; Gestsdottir and Lerner, 2007;Jelicic et al, 2007). Similarly, in these same reports, scores for PYD are inversely related to indices of smoking, bullying, and drug use Gestsdottir and Lerner, 2007;Jelicic et al, 2007).…”

Special Issue Introduction: The Meaning and Measurement of Thriving: A View of the Issues

“…Note: Derived from Lerner et al (2005b) and Roth and Brooks-Gunn (2003a) a fundamental strength of human development, the hypothesis was generated that, if the strengths of youth (e.g., as represented by the S, O, and C components of intentional self regulation; Freund and Baltes 2002;Gestsdóttir and Lerner 2008) are aligned with resources for healthy growth present in the key contexts of adolescent development-the home, the school, and the communitythen enhancements in positive functioning at any one point in time (i.e., well-being; Lerner 2004) will be more likely to occur; in turn, the systematic promotion of positive development (i.e., thriving; e.g., Lerner 2004;Lerner et al 2005a, b) will occur across time. A key subsidiary hypothesis is that there exist, across the key settings of youth development (i.e., families, schools, and communities) ''developmental assets'' , that is, features of the ecology of human development that support the growth of a healthy youth.…”

Special Issue Introduction: Thriving Across the Adolescent Years: A View of the Issues

“…The study sought to examine the strengths of diverse youth within the multitude of settings in which they are embedded; many, but not all, youth were engaged in a variety of out-of-school-time (OST) activities, but, again, the great majority of youth were not engaged in 4-H programs. The findings from the study have been reported in several special issues of journals (Lerner et al 2005, special sections of journals , and in numerous single articles, chapters, and books (see Lerner et al 2013; in press, for reviews). The present special issue presents empirical reports from across all waves of the study.…”

“…The full details of the method of the 4-H Study have appeared in numerous publications (e.g., Lerner et al 2005Lerner et al , 2009bLerner et al , 2010Lerner et al , 2011. Accordingly, we provide here only a summary of the overall method of the study.…”

“…In the context of these scholarly currents, the 4-H Study of PYD was designed and launched in 2002 (Lerner et al 2005). Using the relational developmental systems-based model of PYD presented in Fig.…”