The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), a longitudinal investigation of a diverse sample of 1,700 fifth graders and 1,117 of their parents, tests developmental contextual ideas linking PYD, youth contributions, and participation in community youth development (YD) programs, representing a key ecological asset. Using data from Wave 1 of the study, structural equation modeling procedures provided evidence for five first-order latent factors representing the "Five Cs" of PYD (competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring), and for their convergence on a second-order, PYD latent construct. A theoretical construct, youth "contribution," was also created and examined. Both PYD and YD program participation independently related to contribution. The importance of longitudinal analyses for extending the present results is discussed. 2The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a longitudinal investigation that seeks to identify the individual and ecological bases of healthy, positive development among diverse adolescents. Framed by an instance of developmental systems theory, developmental contextualism (Lerner, 2002(Lerner, , 2004, the 4-H Study is designed to follow youth across the second decade of life and to examine their developmental trajectories. This article describes the theoretical and methodological components of the study, and reports some key findings derived from the first wave of data collection (which occurred in 2002-2003).While we present the theoretical and empirical literature that legitimates the structural model and the design of the study, and in turn provide details about all features of the measurement model, we do not present analyses pertinent to all research questions, particularly since key facets of this model are optimally tested with change-sensitive data that will be available only through subsequent, longitudinal waves of the study. Instead, we present findings pertinent to the presence and structure of the several characteristics presently focused on in the literature as composing PYD (i.e., the Five "C"s of competence, confidence, character, connection, and caring) (e.g., Eccles & Gootman, 2002). We also propose a theoretical measure of youth contribution appropriate for early adolescents and examine unitemporal patterns of covariation with the 5Cs.Simply, before we could test with longitudinal data our developmental contextual conception of the process through which PYD occurs, we needed to establish that the concept of PYD as it had been discussed in the literature had empirical reality, both in its purposed structure and its covariation with other key individual and ecological variables 2 . Accordingly, we address the question of whether in the present data set there is evidence for the theoretical expectations that PYD is positively related to contribution and negatively related to adolescent risk and 3 problem behaviors and, as well, whether there is an association between PYD and youth participation in community-based, youth development (Y...

The positive youth development (PYD) perspective is a strength-based conception of adolescence. Derived from developmental systems theory, the perspective stressed that PYD emerges when the potential plasticity of human development is aligned with developmental assets. The research reported in this special issue, which is derived from collaborations among multiple university and community-based laboratories, reflects and extends past theory and research by documenting empirically (a) the usefulness of applying this strength-based view of adolescent development within diverse youth and communities; (b) the adequacy of conceptualizing PYD through Five Cs (competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring) ; (c) the individual and ecological developmental assets associated with PYD; and (d) implications for community programs and social policies pertinent to youth.A new, positive, and strength-based vision and vocabulary for discussing America's young people has been gaining momentum and is beginning to replace long-held beliefs of the inevitable so-called storm and stress of adolescence and the predictable engagement by youth in risky or destructive behaviors. When problems occur, they are viewed as only one instance of a theoretically larger array of outcomes that include the possibility of positive developments. From this perspective, youth are not broken, in need of

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Using longitudinal data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, the authors assessed 1,977 adolescents across Grades 5 to 8 to determine if there were distinctive developmental paths for behavioral and emotional school engagement; if these paths varied in relation to sex, race/ethnicity, and family socioeconomic status (SES); and whether links existed between trajectories of school engagement and grades, depression, substance use, and delinquency. Four trajectories for behavioral school engagement and four trajectories of emotional engagement were identified using a semiparametric mixture model. These trajectories were distinct with regard to initial levels of and changes in engagement, as well as to their shapes. Trajectories varied in regard to sex, SES, and race/ethnicity. Different trajectories of behavioral and emotional engagement were linked to grades, depression, delinquency, and substance use. Directions for future research and application are discussed.

Interests in the strengths of youth, the plasticity of human development, and the concept of resilience coalesced in the 1990s to foster the development of the concept of positive youth development ( PYD ). As discussed by Hamilton (1999), the concept of PYD was understood in at least three interrelated but nevertheless different ways: (1) as a developmental process; (2) as a philosophy or approach to youth programming; and (3) as instances of youth programs and organizations focused on fostering the healthy or positive development of youth. We use concepts drawn from relational developmental systems theories and the tripartite conception of PYD suggested by Hamilton as frames to review the literature on (a) the different theoretical models of the PYD developmental process; (b) philosophical ideas about, or conceptual approaches to, the nature of youth programming with a special emphasis on the model of PYD with the most extensive empirical support, the Five Cs Model of PYD ; and (c) key instances of programs aimed at promoting PYD. We also discuss the conceptual and practical problems in integrating these three facets of PYD scholarship, and conclude by explaining why understanding complex development requires multimethod integration as well as an integration of ideographic and nomothetic perspectives.