The Tufts Study of Positive Youth Development: What Does it Mean for YOU Dr. Suzanne LeMenestrel National 4-H Program Leader Youth Development Research and Evaluation (NIFA)/USDA

Findings to Date:

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 5 th Grade, the Tufts team is following following some youth through 12 th Grade  To adjust for the loss of participants and to maintain statistical power, the Tufts team has added new students in 6 th, 7 th, 8 th 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 parents from 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 PYD YD 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 Behaviors Ecological 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

29% 35% 17% 14% 4% Trajectories from Grades 5, 6, and 7

19% 14% 66% Contribution Trajectories from Grades 5, 6, and 7

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

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 10 STEM 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: hheadquarters.gov/comm/4h_ydresearch.htmhttp:// hheadquarters.gov/comm/4h_ydresearch.htm  Contact Information:  Dr. Jacqueline V. Lerner, Scientific Director,  Dr. Suzanne Le Menestrel, National Program Leader, Youth Development Research,