Connection in Youth Development Key to the Mental Health Continuum in Ghana: A Structural Equation Model of Thriving and Flourishing Indicators

Abstract

Practitioners from sub-Saharan Africa are working to provide evidence-based intervention programs to address the mental health of established adults in poor rural communities in Ghana. However, institutions in Ghana also pursue youth policy for training human capital that can contribute to national development as a strategy to leverage its heavy demographic makeup of adolescents and emerging adults. Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a framework for measuring indicators of thriving for such youthful populations. Studies have recently examined PYD in terms of developmental assets with mental illness, but less is known about their interaction with the continuum of mental health, which poses strength-based theoretical distinctions about the conditions of human flourishing. Investigating positive mental health in terms of well-being, along with developmental indicators from another conception of PYD with strong theoretical grounding known as the 5Cs, represents a salient cross-section of Ghana’s current trajectory along these policies and evaluations of culturally attuned well-being toward youth-focused efforts. Thus, the aim of this study was to clarify whether developmental constructs could predict positive mental health outcomes for indications of adaptive regulation processes and cultural concepts of well-being. We used structural equation modeling of the PYD domains (i.e., the 5Cs) to provide novel insights into individual differences in factors of thriving with flourishing-languishing indicators from the mental health continuum (MHC; i.e., factors of Emotional, Social, and Psychological Well-being) for 710 youth and emerging adults (M age=19.97, SD=1.93) attending a university in Ghana. The results showed supported paths for Connection, which was associated with all three MHC well-being domains (βs=0.34–0.41), and Caring, which was associated with Psychological Well-being (β=0.27), as factors to consider for youth who are expected to underwrite Ghana’s development under economically challenged conditions. These findings support evidence-based program outcomes and prior work that situates social relations as a key route to maintaining well-being, advancing research on the specificity of predictors for positive mental health factors among young people in an enterprising Ghana.

Psychometric Properties and Measurement Invariance of the Positive Youth Development Scale – Turkish Version

“…The adequacy of the models created was supported by values of χ2/sd, RMSEA, SRMR, NNFI, CFI and IFI. These findings are consistent with previous studies conducted in diverse cultural contexts, such as China (Su et al, 2017), the Philippines (Buenconsejo et al, 2022), Ghana (Kabir et al, 2021), Spain (Gomez-Baya et al, 2021), Croatia (Gomez-Baya et al, 2022), Iceland (Gestsdottir et al, 2017), Norway (Holsen et al, 2016), Portugal (Tome et al, 2019), and Slovenia (Gonzalez et al, 2017), which have all reported that the 34-item Short Form of the scale showed sufficient data fit. Similarly, the 17-item Very Short Form has been found to have adequate construct validity for use in the Philippines (Buenconsejo et al, 2022), Hong Kong (Wong et al, 2021), and Iran (Babaee et al, 2018).…”

“…According to Alpar (2006), a correlation greater than .70 is recommended for test-retest evaluation, and above .60 is recommended for Cronbach Alpha, McDonald's Omega, and Combined reliability coefficients. The Short Form exhibited adequate reliability values in this study, with similar results found in other samples such as those from China (Su et al, 2017), the Philippines (Buenconsejo et al, 2022), Ghana (Kabir et al, 2021), Spain (Gomez-Baya et al, 2021), Croatia (Gomez-Baya et al, 2022, Malaysia (Abdul Kadir and Mohd, 2021), Portugal (Tome et al, 2019), and Slovenia (Gonzalez et al, 2017). However, the results of this study indicate that the Positive Youth Development Scale Very Short Form did not provide .60 (Alpar, 2006) of competence and character dimensions.…”

“…The 34-item Short Form of the Positive Youth Development Scale has undergone external validation and has been accepted for numerous national samples based on established validity and reliability assessments, including those in China (Su et al, 2017), the Philippines (Buenconsejo et al, 2022), Ghana (Kabir et al, 2021), Spain (Gomez-Baya et al, 2021), Croatia (Gomez-Baya et al, 2022), Iceland (Gestsdottir et al, 2017), Norway (Holsen et al, 2016), Portugal (Gaspar de Matos et al, 2018; Tome et al, 2019), El Salvador (Tirrell et al, 2019), and Slovenia (Gonzalez et al, 2017). Meanwhile, the 17-item Short Form, developed in the same year as the 34-item Short Form, has also been translated and accepted in samples from the Philippines (Buenconsejo et al, 2022), Hong Kong (Wong et al, 2021), and Iran (Babaee et al, 2018).…”

The five C-S of positive youth development and life purpose among Roma and Egyptian minority adolescents in Albania

“…Such an approach is considered an important element that helps young people stay away from risk factors related to dropping out of school, using alcohol, tobacco, and narcotic substances, engaging in criminal behavior as well as developing mental health issues at an early age (Kang et al, 2021;Sharma & Yukhymenko-Lescroart, 2022;Kozina et al, 2021;Mohamad, et al, 2021). Referring to numerous types of research, the findings suggest that the 5Cs have a positive impact on the development of young people and on incrtheiring their quality of life, general well-being, and mental health (Ferrer-Wreder et al, 2021;Årdal, et al, 2018;Kabir, Doku & Wiium, 2021).…”

“…Life Purpose acts as a protective factor in relation to the components of the 5Cs and general well-being (Abdul Kadir & Mohd, 2021). In addition, it has an important role in developing the 5Cs during the process of personal growth and the transformation of young people into mentally mature adults capable of responding effectively to all life's challenges (Kabir, Doku, & Wiium, 2021;Bøhlerengen, & Wiium, 2022).…”