Youth Development as a Process of Adolescent Development

Broadly speaking, 'youth development' refers to the developmental process associated with adolescence; the period one enters as a child and emerges as an adult, ideally able to avoid the choices and behaviours that limit future potential and more or less equipped with the skills, attitudes, competencies and values needed to successfully navigate adult life.¹ (See Appendix 1 for further discussion of adolescent development.)

What constitutes 'necessary skills, attitudes, competencies and values' is the focus of a great dealt of attention in the literature and is conceptualised in a multitude of ways.² Typically, according to Roth, successful adolescent development is conceptualised in relation to skills and competence across the physical, intellectual, psychological, emotional and social arenas.³

One of the most commonly cited and straightforward categorisations depicted in the literature involves the '5-C's' of positive youth development, which deliberately seeks to broaden the conceptualisation of successful development beyond the skill and competence domains:⁴

• competence in cognitive, academic, social and vocational areas
• confidence encompassing self esteem, self concept, self efficacy, identity and belief in the future
• connections to family, peers and community
• character encompassing areas like positive values, integrity and moral commitment
• caring and compassion.⁵

A sixth 'C' of 'contribution' has more recently been added to this list.⁶

Other theorists talk in terms of 'necessary developmental outcomes'. For example, Connell et al list the developmental outcomes most likely to lead to adult success as follows:

• learning to be productive - to do well in school, develop positive outside interests, and acquire basic life skills
• learning to connect in positive and supportive ways - to adults in their families and community, to their peers, and to something larger than themselves, be it religious or civic
• learning to navigate - to chart and follow a safe course. This task takes multiple forms:
  • navigating amongst changing conditions in their multiple worlds
  • navigating the developmental transitions from being taken care of to taking care of others, and from learning about the world to assuming responsibility for their role in it
  • navigating around the lures of unhealthy and dangerous behaviours.⁷

Another approach involves the identification of assets considered necessary for adolescent development and successful adulthood. Of the various asset models located in the literature, Eccles and Gootman's seems the most rigorously arrived at (see Figure 1).⁸ It was derived from a blend of developmental theory, practical wisdom and empirical research, and incorporates many of other models or conceptualisations of core skills, attitudes, competencies and values evident in the literature, such as the Search Institute's 40 developmental assets index⁹ and the '5' or '6 C's' of youth development. For these reasons, it is described here in detail.

Eccles and Gootman identify 28 assets associated with adolescent wellbeing and successful transitions to 'positive' or 'pro-social' adulthood. (See Appendix 2 for discussion of the methodology and application of Eccles and Gootman's model.) The 28 assets are organised into 1. personal assets, subsequently grouped into the three domains of physical, intellectual, and psychological and emotional development, and 2. social assets.

Figure 1. Personal and Social Assets for Positive Youth Development

The basic idea underpinning their model is that individuals need to develop assets within these four domains. While they do not need the entire range of 28 assets to thrive, (different combinations of assets across the four domains reflect equally positive youth development), overall it is better to possess more assets than few and life is generally easier when an individual possesses assets in all four domains. Strong assets in one domain can offset weak assets in another.

Regardless of how they are conceptualised, young people acquire and develop these skills/competencies/assets etc through repeated exposure to 'positive' (pro-social) people and experiences which, in turn, provide them with the opportunity to gain and refine these skills etc.¹⁰ There are four settings or environments in which young people naturally exist and where they can potentially access helpful people and have positive developmental experiences. These are:

• the family and whanau
• the community
• the school, university, training institution or workplace
• peers.^{11 12}

Each of these environments exerts a different amount of influence over individual young people, with family being the most powerful at all stages of adolescent development. Negative experiences in one (or more) of these environments can be counteracted by other stronger/more positive environments.¹³

More broadly, young people's development is also influenced by the wider economic, social and cultural contexts within which they grow up.¹⁴ While young people at the start of the 21st century are the healthiest and longest-living of any generation in human history, they will also be the first people to grow up in a world characterised by instantaneous global communication, the threat of AIDS and the use of terrorism as a political weapon; the first to fully compete in a global economy; and where a majority will spend at least part of childhood in a single-parent household.^{15 16 17} This is a vastly different world that today's young people need to be prepared for compared with previous generations.

Footnotes

¹ McLaren, 2002, op cit

² For the sake of brevity, the expression 'skills, attitudes, competencies and values' is subsequently referred to as 'skills etc'

³ Roth, J (2004), Youth development programs, The Prevention Researcher, 11(2), p3-7

⁴ Perkins, D. F (1997), cited in Patterson, J (2001), The concept of youth development: A review of literature from the United States of America. Adelaide: Ausyouth

⁵ Roth, J. L and Brooks-Gunn, J (2003), Youth development programs: Risk, prevention and policy, Journal of Adolescent Health, 32, p170-182

⁶ Lerner, R. M (2004), cited in Zarrett, N. and Lerner, R. M (2008), Ways to promote positive the positive development of children and youth, Child Trends, www.childtrends.org, retrieved April 2009

⁷ Connell, J. P., Gambone, M. A. and Smith, T. J (2000), Youth development in community settings: Challenges to our field and our approach, p279-300, In Public/Private Ventures, op cit

⁸ Eccles and Gootman, 2002, op cit

⁹ See http://www.search-institute.org/assets, retrieved March 2009

¹⁰ Eccles and Gootman, 2002, op cit

¹¹ Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa, 2002, op cit

¹² Beatty, A. and Chalk, R [Eds] (2006), A study of interactions: Emerging issues in the science of adolescence, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press

¹³ Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa, 2002, op cit

¹⁴ Ministry of Youth Development, 2002, op cit

¹⁵ Beatty and Chalk, 2006, op cit

¹⁶ Catalano, R. F., Berglund, M. L., Ryan, J. A. M., Lonczak, H. S., and Hawkins, J. D (2004), Positive youth development in the United States: Research findings on Evaluations of positive youth development programmes, The Annals of the American Academy, January, p591-124

¹⁷ Rumbaut, R. G (2005), Turning Points in the Transition to Adulthood, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28, (6), p1041-1086