Background: Dynamic, relational developmental systems-based models of development emphasize that developmentally-nurturant youth-adult relationships elicit in youth perceptions of being known and loved. Although such perceptions are foundations of positive youth development (PYD), such measures do not exist. Objective: We sought to create a…

Despite acknowledgment that character operates as a multi-faceted system of multiple attributes, few efforts have examined this system by investigating how character attributes may combine in profiles and how profiles are related to individual internal strengths and contextual assets. Using data from 552 adolescents from the Northeastern United…

The "5 Cs of PYD Model" is an influential theory involving the role of Intentional Self-Regulation (ISR) in positive youth development (PYD). The model, which was developed with U.S. populations, has recently been used in other cultural contexts and, as such, the measurement invariance of the ISR-PYD model across cultural contexts must…

Whether discussing the process involved in positive youth development (PYD), articulating an approach (or philosophy) of youth programs associated with PYD, or enacting a program aimed at promoting PYD, ideas derived from relational developmental systems (RDS) metatheory are pertinent. Accordingly, we discuss the RDS metamodel and explain the…

We introduce this special issue on the individual and contextual bases of adolescent thriving by describing the relational developmental systems theory-based, positive youth development (PYD) perspective that frames much of contemporary research about health and positive development across the adolescent period and that, more specifically, frames…

The positive youth development (PYD) perspective emphasizes that thriving occurs when individual [double arrow] context relations involve the alignment of adolescent strengths with the resources in their contexts. The authors propose that a key component of this relational process is the strength that youth possess in the form of self-regulatory…

Both organismic and intentional self-regulation processes must be integrated across childhood and adolescence for adaptive developmental regulations to exist and for the developing person to thrive, both during the first two decades of life and through the adult years. To date, such an integrated, life-span approach to self-regulation during…

Using a person-centered approach, we examined the relations between goal selection, various indicators of parenting, and positive development among 510 Grades 9 to 11 participants (68% female) in the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), a longitudinal study involving U.S. adolescents. Goal selection was operationalized by the "Selection"…

Two theoretical perspectives have been proposed to describe, explain, and intervene in adolescent development--prevention science and positive youth development (PYD). An integrative model bridging these two perspectives posits that it is important to assess the extent to which the same, similar, or complementary mechanisms may be responsible for…

Theory and research suggest that structured, out-of-school-time activities, and in particular youth development programs aimed at promoting positive youth development (PYD), are key developmental assets for such development. Using longitudinal data from 945 fifth and sixth graders participating in the 4-H Study of PYD, initial descriptive…

The understanding of positive development across adolescence rests on having a valid and equivalent measure of this construct across the breadth of this period of life. Does the Positive Youth Development (PYD) construct based on the Five Cs model have satisfactory psychometric properties for such longitudinal measurement invariance? Using…

Although the positive youth development (PYD) model initially assumed inverse links between indicators of PYD and of risk/problem behaviors, empirical work in adolescence has suggested that more complex associations exist between trajectories of the two domains of functioning. To clarify the PYD model, this study assessed intraindividual change in…

Intentional self-regulation is a core facet of human functioning, involving people's modulation of their thoughts, attention, emotions, and behaviors to react to environmental demands and to influence their own development. Using data from Grades 8, 9, and 10 of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), the structure of intentional…

Discusses contemporary theories of adolescence, stressing developmental systems models that integrate individual and contextual levels of analysis. Maintains that adolescence should be studied with multivariate-longitudinal designs, change-sensitive measures, and data analytic strategies capitalizing on triangulation across quantitative and…

Theories of positive youth development (PYD) regard such development as bases of both community contributions and lessened likelihood of risk/problem behaviors. Using data from the 4-H Study of PYD, we tested these expectations by examining if PYD in Grade 5 predicted both youth contributions and risk behaviors and depression in Grade 6. Results…