Developmental complexity, in particular developing an internal voice, is one of the foundations of character development. Here the author describes developmental complexity, its evolution over adolescence and young adulthood, how it links to character development and the five strategies to promote it, and how learning partnerships are one form of…

Positive Youth Development (PYD) model is a strength-based perspective of transition to adulthood derived from developmental systems theory. Developmental assets (DAs) framework describes the individual and contextual resources that may promote PYD. This work aims to analyze the associations between internal and external DAs and PYD, as well as…

Adolescent pregnancy is a significant societal issue that results in lost opportunities for teenage girls in both developed and developing countries. This phenomenological research study explored the lived experience of adolescent mothers during their college years. Eight participants were asked, via unstructured interview, to share their…

Through the provision of different types of social support, significant nonparental youth--adult relationships can facilitate youth's positive development across adolescence. However, despite the potential benefits of these relationships, there has been little consideration of how the relational process may vary across different adolescent stages.…

We tested the reliability and construct validity of a Chinese translation of one of the forms of the Behavior Assessment System for Children (3rd Edition)--Self-Report of Personality for adolescent 11- to 21-year olds (BASC-3-SRP-A). The BASC-3-SRP-A yields 16 subscales that form four composite scales. Data were obtained from 444 12- to 14-year…

We examined the relationship between high school and collegiate organizational involvement and their differential and collective effects on the development of leader self-efficacy, motivation to lead and leadership skill. Our goal was to better understand how the student leader development process unfolds at different points in time over young…

In an effort to fully understand the impact of campus-community partnerships, and the programs that compose them, our research team has conducted action research over the course of the last 10 years. In particular, we have conducted this research on the partnership we operate, Husky Sport, focused on how its programs influence the behaviors and…

Leadership and developmental scholars have highlighted the need to enhance youth leadership skills. Yet, research that explains youths' perceptions of how and when role models influences their leadership growth processes is limited. To address these gaps and begin to develop an understanding of youths' perspectives, we employed a qualitative,…

The hit movie saga "Twilight" has made an impact on viewers of all ages. This article seeks to explore the uses of film in psychology classes with a focus on ways in which instructors may find scenes from the "Twilight" series helpful and engaging for students. The authors describe scenes and themes from the first three movies…

This article examines arts participation as a context for youth to develop purpose. Two analyses were conducted of interviews with arts-involved youth to explore the relationship between their arts participation and purpose, which was defined as an "intention to accomplish something that is both meaningful to the self and contributes to the…

This article reconsiders the association between childhood arts participation and cognitive and developmental outcomes. Using data from a large, nationally representative sample with extensive covariates, we employ propensity score weighting to adjust comparisons of children who do and do not participate in arts education (music and performing…

The present study used multidimensional and person-centered approaches to identify subgroups of adolescents characterized by unique patterns of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement and examined whether adolescent developmental outcomes varied as a function of different combinations of engagement components. Data were collected on 1,025…

Over the past several years, there has been a resurgence of interest in--and reconceptualizing of-- character education in primary and secondary schools across the United States. An important question, then, is how this new emphasis on character development at the K-12 level impacts the work of university faculty and student affairs professionals.…

The illegal, non-prescriptive use of prescription stimulants appears to be growing among college students. Recent analyses using "DSM-IV" criteria suggest that this group of misusers may actually represent cases of undiagnosed ADHD. Such analyses, however, are limited by a diagnostic system that is neither contextural nor dimensional. The ADHD…

Problem Statement: Adolescence is a stage of major growth and development in terms of significant cognitive, behavioral, psychological, and physiological changes. For adolescents, these developmental changes could be accompanied by stressful situations. Adolescents need to cope with these stressors successfully, yet the developmental period of…