Background: Enacting good science in pursuing the international study of positive youth development (PYD) requires using sound developmental theory to formulate questions that are tested through employing rigorous, change-sensitive measures, designs, and data analyses that are aimed at describing, explaining, or optimizing thriving among the…

Background: The more than one billion children living in poverty worldwide are often marginalized from the resources needed for health and well-being, a situation that may create feelings of hopelessness and diminish chances for thriving. Compassion International (CI), a faith-based child-sponsorship organization committed to alleviating child…

A developmental model linking professionalism and character growth is implemented at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (USMA) through its programs and policies. The current study used growth-modeling techniques to examine developmental relationships between metrics of professional development and performance outcomes at USMA and assessed…

Research about the structure of character has largely assessed purported universal attributes. However, character develops within specific social, cultural and institutional contexts. As part of the first wave of a longitudinal study (Project Arete) of character development among cadets at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point,…

This "Social Policy Report" summarizes what is currently known about our nation's military children and families and presents ideas and proposals pertinent to the formulation of new programs and the policies that would create and sustain these initiatives. We emphasize the need for future rigorous developmental research about military…

In this article, the authors present their approach to understanding resilience among military connected young people, and they discuss some of the gaps in their knowledge. They begin by defining resilience, and then present a theoretical model of how young people demonstrate resilient functioning. Next they consider some of the research on…