Bullying and mental health problems are pressing concerns for adolescents. Given their burden, we need to find efficacious ways to prevent these experiences. However, existing prevention programs tend to be single-issue and may not focus on the universal capacities required to reduce these problems among youth. To this end, we evaluated the…

Too many young people cycle in and out of prison, jails, and detention centers and face probation and parole conditions that keep them locked out of opportunity. These interactions with the criminal justice system demand the need for both equitable practices and programs that support second chances and large-scale investments in decarceration.…

This evaluation report explores the evolution of the Youth Leadership Institute (YLI), an annual convening of youth leaders, youth organizers, adult allies, and educators from across New England. The report closely examines the first several years of YLI, tracking its growth and challenges through the eyes of youth, adult allies, and Nellie Mae…

On a given day, more than 43,000 youths who largely identify as students of color and are disproportionately male are held in residential placement facilities as a result of involvement with the juvenile justice system. More than two-thirds of youths living in placement facilities who participated in a national survey shared aspirations to…

It is no surprise to educators and prevention specialists that for more than two decades, the majority of evaluation studies of individual psychosocial prevention strategies not only in substance-abuse prevention but in all of social science research have failed to find sustained positive outcomes (Feldman, 1983; Kreft & Brown, 1998). Many…

Succeeding at learning, and at life, takes more than academic ability. Studies on the importance of qualities like "grit" grabbing headlines, help to foster a growing conviction that encouraging the right mindsets and social-emotional skills in students will lead to better school achievement and post-secondary success. Policymakers are…

The lack of physical activity is an epidemic problem among American youth today. In order to combat this, many schools are incorporating youth running programs as a part of their comprehensive school physical activity programs. These youth running programs are being implemented before or after school, at school during recess at the elementary…

First authorized by Congress in January 2014, P3 allows a limited number of local projects that are focused on youth to align and better coordinate federally-funded programs and services. Although focused on a particular subset of youth -- those who are disconnected or at risk of becoming disconnected from education or the workforce -- the program…

This study examined the contribution of mentor support to the following aspects of high-school dropouts' lives: the personal (self-esteem, and the process of becoming less religious [BLR]), social (societal conditional positive and negative regard) and psychological (well-being and loneliness). The study, conducted among Ultraorthodox Jewish…

Foster youth are among some of the nation's most underserved students in higher education. Of the more than 430,000 youth in the foster care system, only about 50% will graduate from high school and as little as 3% will ever earn a bachelor's degree (Pecora, 2012; Wolanin, 2005). While critically important for smoothing students' transition from…

This qualitative case study explores college and career aspirations of rural Black and Latinx middle school students in a community- and youth-based leadership program and how various forms of social capital help cultivate and sustain the aspirations of students. Data include student focus group interviews with a total of 14 rural Black and Latinx…

Increasingly, youth development advocates, educators, and communities recognize the importance of out-of-school time (OST) activities for academic achievement and youth well-being. This study situates OST work in the workforce sector the career development literature calls "care workers". Working within that framework, the authors…

Early agricultural education included youth judging activities, in which farm boys matched skills with students from neighboring schools. In 1925, students competed in a National Dairy Judging Contest in Indianapolis held specifically for vocational students. Based on the success of this contest, the Federal Board for Vocational Education…

Extension youth development professionals benefit from having theoretically based, easy-to-use tools for promoting goal-setting behaviors in youths. The Youth Goal-Setting Map provides practitioners with a mechanism for helping youth develop attributes that place them on a pathway to thriving. This article provides the Youth Goal-Setting Map tool,…

As the Latino population grows across the United States and particularly in places outside traditional gateway cities, questions arise around the challenges and opportunities for Latinos in these new areas of settlement. Situated within this context of Latino demographic change, this article examines the construction of a youth-led, grassroots…