Nuances in Early Adolescent Developmental Trajectories of Positive and Problematic/Risk Behaviors: Findings from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development

Special Issue Introduction: The Meaning and Measurement of Thriving: A View of the Issues

“…Results from person-centered analyses indicated that most youth clustered in the high trajectories of positive indicators and in the low trajectories of the negative ones. However, consistent with the findings of Phelps et al (2007), which pertained only to youth in Grades 5-7, the Lewin-Bizan et al findings indicated that positive and problematic trajectories may covary positively, i.e., youth in highly positive PYD trajectories may be the same youth in high problematic trajectories. These results, which extend across the early-through-middle period of adolescence, suggest that, once again, the initial hypothesis of the PYD perspective needs to accommodate to the presence of empirical variations in the links between positive and problematic developmental trajectories among adolescents.…”

“…For example, in an assessment of fifth through seventh graders participating in the 4-H Study, Phelps et al (2007) found that PYD and risk/problem behaviors follow different trajectories over time; that is, the patterns of change associated with these outcomes differ among individuals. Whereas some youth show inverse relations between trajectories of PYD and risk/problem behaviors, other youth show increases in both dimensions and still others show decreases in both.…”

“…The empirical findings from this work have impacted both the nature of the developmental systems theoretical, or structural, model framing the PYD perspective (e.g., Phelps et al 2007) and the measurement model used to operationalize the structural model (e.g., Gestsdóttir and Lerner 2007b;Phelps et al 2009). In fact, past research pertinent to the PYD perspective has underscored the mutual dependencies between theory and method in developmental science (Lerner 2002).…”

Longitudinal Analysis of a Very Short Measure of Positive Youth Development

“…That is, as evidence for positive behavior increases, the PYD perspective hypothesizes that there will be fewer indications of problematic behaviors (e.g., Benson, Mannes, Pittman, & Ferber, 2004;Pittman, Irby, & Ferber, 2001). Although recent research supports a general inverse relation between PYD and risk/problem behaviors, these findings also indicate that a more complex pattern of positive and negative developmental trajectories; these pathways are not simply inversely related (LewinBizan et al, 2010;Phelps et al, 2007). Nevertheless, PYD is associated across development with positive indicators such as contribution, school engagement, successful intentional selfregulation, and hope.…”

Days of Future Passed: On the Prescient Relational Developmental Systems Vision of Fred W. Vondracek

“…For example, Schmid and Lopez (2011) found hopeful future orientation to be a stronger predictor of PYD, Contribution, risk behaviors, and depressive symptoms compared to ISR skills. In turn, Li and Lerner (2011) That is, some trajectories of high, positive civic engagement were coupled with trajectories involving increasingly higher levels of risk/problem behaviors for youth across different portions of adolescence Phelps et al, 2007).…”