The Tufts Study of Positive Youth Development:

What Does it Mean for YOUDr. Suzanne LeMenestrelNational 4-H Program LeaderYouth Development Research and Evaluation (NIFA)/USDA

THE- 4-H STUDY OF POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Findings to Date: 2002-2010

What We THOUGHT We Knew About Adolescence

G. Stanley Hall (1904), of Clark University, founded the study of adolescence.

Hall defined adolescence as a period of universal and inevitable, biologically-based “storm and stress.”

Therefore, according to Hall, Anna Freud, and Erik Erikson, adolescence was a period of crisis and disturbance.

These ideas resulted in the view that adolescents were "broken" or in danger of becoming "broken."

For almost all of the 20th century

most research about adolescence was based on this deficit conception of young people.

What Research TELLS Us About the Presumed “Deficits” of Teens

As early as the 1960s, research began to show that the deficit

model was not in fact true

There are problems that occur during adolescence. BUT there are problems that occur in infancy, childhood, and adulthood as well.

All age periods have challenges, and the fact that there are life problems in the teenage years does not in and of itself make it a special period.

The adolescent years may have some age-typical problems, but so too do all other age periods.

Adolescents who have an especially stormy decade also tend to have had a problematic childhood as well.

The stereotypes of adolescent problems evaporate in the light of actual research.

Research Contradicts the Stereotypes of the Teenage Years

Most young people do NOT have a stormy adolescent period.

Although adolescents spend increasingly more time with peers than with parents, most adolescents still value their relationships with parents enormously.

Most adolescents have core values (e.g., about the importance of education in one’s life, about social justice, and about spirituality) that are consistent with those of their parents.

Most adolescents select friends who share these core values.

In the 1990s a new vision of the teen years emerged from biology and developmental science.

This is the Positive Youth Development (PYD) Perspective.

The Birth of a New Phase In the Scientific Study of Adolescence

Key Principles of the PYD Perspective

1. Because of the potential to change, all youth have strengths.

2. All contexts have strengths as well. These strengths are resources that may be used to promote positive youth development.

3. These resources are termed “developmental assets”: They are the “social nutrients” needed for healthy development.

Key Principles of the PYD Perspective

4. These assets are found in families, schools, faith institutions, youth serving organizations, and the community more generally.

5. If the strengths of youth are combined with ecological developmental assets, then positive, healthy development may occur.

6. We should be optimistic that it is in our power to promote positive development among ALL youth and to create more asset-rich settings supporting such development among ALL youth.

Using the PYD Perspective to Provide New Information

About Adolescent Development and the Role of YD Programs

The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development

Design of the 4-H Study

The 4-H Study is a cohort-sequential longitudinal investigation

Beginning in 5th Grade, the Tufts team is following following some youth through 12th Grade

To adjust for the loss of participants and to maintain statistical power, the Tufts team has added new students in 6th, 7th, 8th grades, etc.

Design of the 4-H Study The Tufts team is studying these new

students longitudinally

Therefore, the sample size increases across the study

To date, the Tufts team has sampled more than 6,000 youth and more than 3,000 parentsfrom 43 states

BOTH THE INITIAL AND THE MORE RECENT FINDINGS OF THE 4-H STUDY

HAVE CHANGED RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Five Initial Discoveries of the 4-H Study

1. We can now talk about the strengths of young people by using a scientifically-validated set of positive terms:

PYD is constituted by “Five Cs,” and PYD is linked to youth Contribution

The Five Cs Competence Confidence Character Caring Connection

Contribution

Five Initial Discoveries of the 4-H Study

2. We know now what must be done to promote PYD and Contribution

Across adolescence, positive youth development occurs when the strengths

of young people are aligned with the ecological resources for healthy

development present in their communities

Five Initial Discoveries of the 4-H Study

3. The strengths of young people – their internal developmental assets – can be measured by three (3) characteristics:

Selection of goals

Optimization (developing

strategies and means for

reaching one’s goals)

Compensation (in the face

of failure or blocked goals)

Five Initial Discoveries of the 4-H Study

4. There are four (4) Ecological Assets present in the Families, Schools, and Communities

of Youth:

Individuals Institutions Collective Action Access

In each setting INDIVIDUALS are always the most important asset!

Five Initial Discoveries of the 4-H Study

5. Youth Development (YD) programs constitute key ecological assets

promoting PYDYD programs are effective in promoting PYD when they are marked by the presence of the “Big 3,” that is:

1. Sustained, positive adult-youth relations; 2. Life skill building activities; and 3. Youth participation and leadership.

Summary of Key Initial Discoveries of The 4-H Study

Competence Confidence Character Caring Connection

PYD

Contribution

Reduced Risk BehaviorsEcological

Assets

Individual Strengths

Implications of the Initial Discoveries

Practitioners can speak of overall PYD when discussing a thriving young person

A tool for measuring PYD – and Contribution as well – can be derived from the 4-H Study

The tool can be used to assess the status of adolescents on these indicators of healthy development and of program success in promoting contributions to, and leadership of, valued community programs

BUILDING ON THE INITIAL DISCOVERIES:IMPORTANT, NEW DISCOVERIES

OF THE 4-H STUDY

Contrary to prior beliefs, there is not only one pathway for PYD

The “mantra,” that the best way to prevent problems is to promote PYD, MUST be changed

The Tufts team has identified several distinct patterns of PYD, Contribution, and Risk/Problem behaviors

PYD Trajectories

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

5 6 7

Grade

PY

D S

core

29%

35%

17%

14%

4%

Trajectories from Grades 5, 6, and 7

Contribution Trajectories

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

5 6 7Grade

Co

ntr

ibu

tio

n

19%

14%

66%

Contribution Trajectories from Grades 5, 6, and 7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

5 6 7Grade

Sco

re (

bas

ed o

n 1

00)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

5 6 7Grade

Sco

re (

bas

ed o

n 1

00)

High PYD Trajectory vs. Risk Behaviors from Grades 5 to 7

1%

82%

17%

Percentage of Youth in High PYD Trajectories who are in one of Three Risk Trajectories

Increasing

None

Low, slight increase

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

5 6 7

Grade

Sco

re (

bas

ed o

n 1

00)

High PYD Trajectory vs. Depression from Grades 5 to 7

Increasing

Decreasing

Low, stable

Percentage of Youth in High PYD Trajectories who are in one of three Depression Trajectories

80%

15%

5%

IMPLICATIONS Practitioners cannot use a “cookie cutter,” or

a “one size fits all,” approach to designing or implementing their programs

Youth Development (YD) programs need to be as rich and diverse as the developing youth engaged in these programs

Practitioners need to attend to BOTH promotion and prevention: There is not a simple inverse relation between PYD and risks/problems

Practitioners should be concerned about how we can promote PYD and youth contribution among both boys and girls; their development is not the same.

Key Findings: 4-H Youth vs Youth in Other

OST (OUT OF SCHOOL TIME) activity groups

GRADE 9 4-H Youth have:

Higher Civic Identity and Engagement Higher School Engagement Higher grades Higher expectations to go to college Lower risk and problem behaviors

ACROSS GRADES 5-9 Lowest trajectory of depression Highest trajectory of PYD

Longitudinal Sample: Waves 1-6 (Grades 5-10)4-H participants vs. youth in other OST activities

4-H youth 2.5 times more likely to show higher Grade 10 Contribution

4-H youth are half as likely to use drugs 4-H youth are 1.5 times more likely to get As and Bs

at school 4-H youth are 3 times more likely to have mentors

who meet with them at least once a month 4-H youth are 1.6 times more likely to have high

civic engagement scores 4-H youth are 1.6 times more likely to be bullied

Longitudinal Sample: STEM outcomes (Science, technology, engineering and

mathematics)

4-H youth are 1.6 times more likely to participate in science programs, and 1.9 times more likely to participate in computer technology programs

4-H youth are 1.4 times more likely to plan to take computer technology courses after high school

4-H youth are 1.4 times more likely to plan to pursue a science career

Cross-sectional Sample: Wave 6 (Grade 10)4-H participants compared to youth in other out-of-school

time activities

4-H youth are 1.6 more likely to have a high PYD score and 3 times more likely to have a high Contribution score

4-H participants are half as likely to use drugs and 0.7 times less likely to use tobacco or alcohol

4-H youth are 0.8 times less likely to show depressive symptoms 4-H youth are 1.6 times more likely to get As and Bs, 1.4 times

more likely to show high academic competence, 1.5 times more likely to be engaged at school, and 1.7 times more likely to expect to attend college

4-H youth are 1.4 times more likely to have family dinners 4-H youth are 3 times more likely to have mentors who meet with

them at least once a month 4-H youth are 2.1 times more likely to have high civic engagement

scores 4-H youth are 1.7 times more likely to have a healthy lifestyle 4-H youth are 0.6 times less likely to be a bully

Cross-sectional Sample: GRADE 10STEM outcomes

4-H youth are 2.6 times more likely to participate in science and engineering programs, and 2.1 times more likely to participate in computer technology programs

4-H youth are 1.6 times more likely to perform well in science and 1.4 times more likely to perform well in engineering

4-H youth are 1.7 times more likely to plan to take science courses and 1.4 times more likely to plan to take engineering and computer technology courses after high school

4-H youth are 1.7 times more likely to plan to have a career in science, and 1.3 times more likely to plan to have a career in engineering

4-H Study Publications

Available at: http://www.national4-hheadquarters.gov/comm/4h_ydresearch.htm

Contact Information: Dr. Jacqueline V. Lerner, Scientific

Director, lernerj@bc.edu

Dr. Suzanne Le Menestrel, National Program Leader, Youth Development Research, slemenestrel@nifa.usda.gov