Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) are increasingly used in clinical and school settings to promote psychological and social-emotional well-being among youth. However, the precise role of youth-animal relationships in shaping developmental trajectories is understudied. Research is needed to expand human-centric models of child development,…

Including animals in autism intervention is growing in both research and practice. A systematic literature review was conducted to collate and synthesize all empirical research on animal-assisted intervention (AAI) for autism published from 2012 to 2015. Findings from 28 included studies revealed that AAI programs generally include one animal per…

Positive development models shift focus for intervention from avoiding problems, deficits, or psychopathology to promoting skills, assets, and psychological well-being as the critical interests in development and intervention. The field can be characterized as multiple parallel lines of empirical inquiry from four frameworks: Social Competence,…

This study evaluated effects of "Positive Action," a school-based social-emotional and character development intervention, on indicators of positive youth development (PYD) among a sample of low-income, ethnic minority youth attending 14 urban schools. The study used a matched-pair, cluster-randomized controlled design at the school…

We investigate whether the intervention designed by Kuhn and Udell (2003) to develop argument skills could be implemented productively among adolescent males in a residential juvenile detention facility--boys who were educationally disengaged and severely disadvantaged academically as well as socially. Compared to a control group from the same…