Toward a psychology of positive youth development.

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

“…Research pertinent to the PYD perspective has become a more prominent part of the literature of adolescent development across the first decade of the twenty-first century (e.g., Benson 2006;Damon 2004;Larson 2000;Lerner et al 2005a, b;Lerner et al 2009a, b;Silbereisen and Lerner 2007). The empirical findings from this work have impacted both the nature of the developmental systems theoretical, or structural, model framing the PYD perspective (e.g., Phelps et al 2007) and the measurement model used to operationalize the structural model (e.g., Gestsdóttir and Lerner 2007b;Phelps et al 2009).…”

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

“…Their insight built on at least three sources. First, Larson (2000) provided a compelling vision for research aimed at understanding and promoting positive youth development (PYD). Second, Eccles and Gootman (2002) edited a field-defining report issued by the National Academy of Sciences about the ways in which community programs for youth development could promote several domains of constructs indicative of such development.…”

“…The links between the positive development of youth and their engagement with contextual resources (or ecological ''developmental assets;' ' Benson et al 2006), represented by community-based youth development programs that were of interest to Roth and Brooks-Gunn (2003a, b), Eccles and Gootman (2002), Larson (2000) and Hamilton (1999), reflected the zeitgeist of developmental science during the latter years of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st. Split conceptions of human development, which in earlier periods reduced the process of development either to naturebased, genetic or maturational determinants or to nurtureoriented models of shaping by a stimulus environment, were being replaced by models of fusion, or integrative developmental systems.…”

“…The scholars interested in PYD as a process (e.g., Benson et al 2006;Damon 2004Damon , 2008Eccles 2004;Eccles and Gootman 2002;Hamilton and Hamilton 2009;Larson 2000;Lerner et al 2013;Masten 2001;Spencer 2006) implicitly or explicitly framed their ideas within this relational developmental systems conception ). As such, PYD was regarded as an instance of an adaptive developmental regulation involving the bidirectional relations between the attributes of youth and the features of their family, school, and community contexts.…”

Invited Commentary: A Practitioner’s Journey into Developmental Research

“…I met Rich in the same auditorium about that time, as he was articulating his view of PYD, building off of the 5 Cs model and the strength-based, asset model of young people that he and others were creating (e.g., see Benson 2008;Damon 2008;Eccles and Gootman 2002;Larson 2000;Lerner 2007, for discussions). However, the model he presented involved mostly untested hypotheses.…”