User:AleutianTea/Positive youth development

Plan: in the lead section, there is a long winded quote. I am hoping to replace that with a more succinct description of PYD, which will hopefully give a good idea of what the rest of the article will talk about. The rest of the work I do will most likely be more sporadic, like adding a sentence expanding on various sections of the article. I will not add to "Using PYD to address stereotypes and inequality" or "Models of implementation" -- I do not have much, if any, research on these topics.

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Original Mainspace Prose: plain text

My Additions: italicized

Notes: bolded my additions after adding them to mainspace.

Article Draft

Positive youth development (PYD) programs are designed to optimize youth developmental progress. This is sought through a positivistic approach that emphasizes the inherent potential, strengths, and capabilities youth hold. PYD differs from other approaches within youth development work in that it rejects an emphasis on trying to correct what is considered wrong with children's behavior or development, renouncing a problem-oriented lens. Instead, it seeks to cultivate various personal assets and external contexts known to be important to human development.

Youth development professionals live by the motto originally coined by Karen Pittman, "problem free is not fully prepared" as they work to grow youth into productive members of society. Moreover, seen through a PYD lens, young people are not regarded as "problems to be solved;" rather, they are seen as assets, allies, and agents of change who have much to contribute in solving the problems that affect them the most. Programs and practitioners seek to empathize with, educate, and engage children in productive activities in order to help youth "reach their full potential". Though the field is still growing, PYD has been used across the world to address social divisions, such as gender and ethnic differences.

Background

Positive youth development originated from ecological systems theory to focus on the strengths of adolescents. Central to this theory is the understanding that there are multiple environments that influence children. Similar to the principles of positive psychology, the theory of PYD suggests that "if young people have mutually beneficial relations with the people and institutions of their social world, they will be on the way to a hopeful future marked by positive contributions to self, family, community, and civil society."

The major catalyst for the development of positive youth development came as a response to the negative and punitive methods of the "traditional youth development" approach. The traditional approach makes a connection between the changes occurring during adolescent years and either the beginning or peaking of several important public health and social problems, including homicide, suicide, substance use and abuse, sexually transmitted infections and teen and unplanned pregnancies. This connection was made infamous by developmental psychologist G. Stanley Hall who described adolescence as a time of "storm and stress". Another aspect of the traditional approach lies in that many professionals and mass media contribute to it through the portrayal of adolescents as inevitable problems that simply need to be fixed. This "fixing" motivated the "solving" of single-problem behavior, such as substance abuse. Specific evidence of this "problem-centered" model is present across professional fields that deal with young people. Language that reflects this approach includes the “at-risk child” and “the juvenile delinquent” . Many connections can also be made to the current U.S. criminal justice model that favors punishment as opposed to prevention.

The concept and practice of positive youth development "grew from the dissatisfaction with a predominant view that underestimated the true capacities of young people by focusing on their deficits rather than their development potential." PYD asserts that youth have inherent strengths and if given opportunities, support, and acknowledgement they can thrive. Encouraging the positive development of adolescents can help to lessen the likelihood of such problems arising by easing a healthy transition into adulthood. Therefore, emphasis is placed on asset-building. Crucial to the outlining of asset-building is Peter Benson's list of developmental assets. This list is divided into two categories: internal assets (positive individual characteristics) and external assets (community characteristics). Furthermore, research findings point out that PYD provides a sense of “social belonging” or “social membership,” participatory motivation in academic-based and community activities for positive educational outcomes, developing a sense of social responsibility and civic engagement, participating in organized activities that would aid in self-development, etc.

Goals

PYD focuses on the active promotion of optimal human development, rather than on the scientific study of age related change, distinguishing it from the study of child development or adolescent development. or as solely a means of avoiding risky behaviors. Rather than grounding its developmental approach in the presence of adversity, risk or challenge, a PYD approach considers the potential and capacity of each individual young person. A hallmark of these programs is that they are based on the concept that children and adolescents have strengths and abilities unique to their developmental stage and that they are not merely "inadequate" or "undeveloped" adults. Lerner and colleagues write: "The goal of the positive youth development perspective is to promote positive outcomes. This idea is in contrast to a perspective that focuses on punishment and the idea that adolescents are broken".

Positive youth development is both a vision, an ideology and a new vocabulary for engaging with youth development. Its tenets can be organized into the 5 C's which are: competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring. When these 5 C's are present, the 6th C of "contribution" is realized.

Key features

Positive youth development programs typically recognize contextual variability in youths' experience and in what is considered healthy or optimal development for youth in different settings or cultures. This cultural sensitivity reflects the influence of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. The influence of ecological systems theory is also seen on the emphasis many youth development programs place on the interrelationship of different social contexts through which the development person moves (e.g. family, peers, school, work, and leisure). This means that PYD seeks to involve youth in multiple kinds of prosocial relationships to promote the young person's wellness, safety, and healthy maturation. Such engagement may be sought "within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, and families". As a result, PYD seeks to build "community capacity". The community is involved in order to facilitate a sense of security and identity. Likewise, youth are encouraged to be involved in the community.

The University of Minnesota's Keys to Quality Youth Development summarizes eight key elements of programs that successfully promote youth development. Such programs are physically and emotionally safe, give youth a sense of belonging and ownership and foster their self-worth, allow them to discover their "selves" (identities, interests, strengths), foster high quality and supportive relations with peers and adults, help youth recognize conflicting values and develop their own, foster the development of new skills, have fun, and have hope for the future.

In addition, programs that employ PYD principles generally have one or more of the following features:

• promote bonding
• foster resilience
• promote social, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and moral competence
• encourages service
• foster self-determination
• foster spirituality
• foster self-efficacy
• foster clear and positive identity
• foster belief in the future
• sets expectations
• facilitation of identity creation
• provide recognition for positive behavior and opportunities for pro-social involvement
• promote empowerment
• promotes responsibility
• foster pro-social norms