Youth participation in community-based, structured out-of-school time programs (OST) has been found to promote positive developmental outcomes by providing youth with resources to build interpersonal relationships and essential life skills. The increasing prevalence and multiplicity of youth participation in these activities leads us to expand the…

Within contemporary developmental science, models derived from relational developmental systems (RDS) metatheory emphasize that the basic process of human development involves mutually-influential relations, termed developmental regulations, between the developing individual and his or her complex and changing physical, social, and cultural…

Using data from Grades 5 to 7 of the longitudinal 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), this research assessed the structure and development of PYD. Building on Grade 5 findings, that "Five Cs" (Competence, Confidence, Connection, Character, and Caring) could be empirically defined as latent constructs converging on a second-order…

The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate a promising program model, the Joven Nobel curriculum, for Latino male adolescents that promotes positive youth development and addresses prevention of a number of risk-related sexual behaviors within a cultural context. A quasi-experimental design was used that included a pre- and posttest…

Early adolescence is a time of transition, change, and growth. At no other time after gestation and early infancy are the human body and mind undergoing such rapid developmental changes. The bodies of young adolescents are physically and sexually maturing. Cognitive changes expand thinking abilities; social and emotional changes move adolescents…

The third in a series of reports from P/PV's three-year study of the role Boys & Girls Clubs play in the lives of the youth they serve, "Making Every Day Count" examines how Club participation is related to youth's positive and healthy development in three outcome areas identified by Boys & Girls Clubs of America as central to its mission: good…

Current literature on youth development supports the theory that out-of-school programming has an effect on youth development. However, little research has been conducted on types of out-of-school programs and comparisons among involvement in various activities in relation to developmental assets. Hence, the purpose of this study was to analyze…