The Association Between the 5Cs and Anxiety—Insights From Three Countries: Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain

Abstract

Several of the most frequent psychological difficulties in childhood and adolescence are related to anxiety and lead to numerous short- and long-term negative outcomes in emotional, social, and academic domains. Empirical evidence consistently shows that the 5Cs (competence, caring, confidence, connection, and character) of Positive Youth Development (PYD) are positively related to adolescents’ contribution to self, family, and society as well as negatively related to risky behaviors and emotional difficulties, such as anxiety. Thus, the PYD can be one of the models that informs prevention programs. To provide contextualized, data-driven support for prevention efforts, we have analyzed the predictive value of the 5Cs for anxiety and anxiety dimensions using three different convenience youth samples from Portugal (N = 384, 46.6% female), Slovenia (N = 449, 69% females), and Spain (N = 768; 60.5% females). To assess the 5Cs, we used the same short form of the PYD scale in all samples (Geldhof et al., 2013) and different anxiety measures across samples: the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) in Portugal, the Lestvica anksioznosti za otroke in mladostnike anxiety scale (LAOM) in Slovenia and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) in Spain. The findings show significant associations of PYD and anxiety across all three contexts with all three different anxiety measures used. The associations vary across countries emphasizing the need to further research the role of contexts in anxiety prevention. Despite variations the results do indicate that connection is negatively associated with anxiety in all three contexts using the three anxiety measures, while confidence is a negative predictor and caring is a positive predictor of anxiety in Slovenia and Spain. Implications for practice within an educational framework for adolescents and youth are discussed, together with public policy recommendations.

Positive Youth Development and Depression: An Examination of Gender Differences in Croatia and Spain

“…Geldhof et al (2019) showed that Caring was positively associated with depression, concluding that "young people may suffer if they care too much" (p.1) and this dimension should grow adaptive developmental regulations with the context in order to lead to positive outcomes. In this same line, Caring was found to be positively related to other problems in mental health, such as anxiety (Kozina et al, 2021). Moreover, the dimension of Character, defined as respect for the rules of the society, is strongly and positively correlated with Caring.…”

Positive Youth Development and Mental Well-Being in Late Adolescence: The Role of Body Appreciation. Findings From a Prospective Study in Norway

“…For the case of caring, this suggests that being too concerned, over-empathic or over-invested in others might result in negative effects on own mental health. For character, the concern with following rules and being evaluated by others have been discussed as elements that explain the relationship with anxiety (Kozina et al, 2021). As previously Geldhof et al (2019) the mechanisms that underlie these observations need to be further examined.…”

“…This could be due to potentially less favorable consequences of having high scores on these constructs. For example, previous studies have shown that higher scores on caring (Holsen et al, 2017;Geldhof et al, 2019;Kozina et al, 2021), and character (Kozina et al, 2021) dimensions were associated with higher levels of symptoms of anxiety and depression. For the case of caring, this suggests that being too concerned, over-empathic or over-invested in others might result in negative effects on own mental health.…”

The Importance of the 5Cs of Positive Youth Development to Depressive Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Study with University Students from Peru and Spain

“…Based on previous research on internalizing behaviors, such as depression and anxiety, we expect to find a negative association between Character, Competence, Connection and Confidence and depressive symptoms [ 15 , 47 ] and a positive association between Caring and depressive symptoms [ 13 , 14 ].…”