Rainer K. Silbereisen & Richard M. Lerner 
Approaches to Positive Youth Development 

Scientific research and science-guided practice based on the promotion of an individual′s strengths constitutes a radical shift in a new and growing area of study within the field of human development. Its trademark term is `positive youth development′. This approach to human development is based on the idea that, in addition to preventing problems, science and practice should promote the development of competencies, skills, and motivation in order to enhance individuals′ developmental pathways.

Approaches to Positive Youth Development , is based on this concept and brings together authors from across Europe and America who are leaders in their respective fields. The main focus of the book, beyond a clarification of the paradigmatic foundations, concerns the major contexts of adolescents and young adults, namely, neighbourhoods and leisure locales, school and family, and the major themes of healthy psychosocial development, namely, competences and knowledge, prosocial behaviour, transcending problems of delinquency, civic engagement, identity, agency, and spirituality.

Table of Content

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

PART TWO: MODELS OF POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN ADOLESCENCE AND YOUNG ADULTHOOD – Rainer K Silbereisen and Richard M Lerner

Developmental Assets – Peter Benson

An Overview of Theory, Research and Practice

Civic Engagement as an Expression of Positive Youth Development – Lonnie Sherrod

Empathy-related Responding – Nancy Eisenberg

Its Role in Positive Development and Socialization Correlates

Soci(et)al Scaffolding of Individual Growth Across the Life Span – Jutta Heckhausen

PART THREE: MULTIPLE CONTEXTS OF POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Perceived Social Inequity and Responses to Conflict among Diverse Youth of Color – Davido Dupree et al

The Effects of Social and Physical Context on Youth Behavior and Attitudes

Not You! Not Here! Not Now! – Jacquelynne S Eccles and Corinne Alfeld

Life Chances and Opportunities in Times of Social Change – Ingrid Schoon

Evidence from Two British Birth Cohorts

Social Control and Adolescent Development – John H Laub et al

A View from Life-Course Criminology

Social Support and Positive Development – Karen S Mooney et al

Looking on the Bright Side of Adolescent Close Relationships

The Long Way to Entrepreneurship – Eva Schmitt-Rodermund

Personality, Parenting, Early Interests and Competencies as Precursors for Entrepreneurial Activity among the `Termites′

PART FOUR: INTERVENTIONS AND SOCIAL POLICY

Adolescent Spirituality and Positive Youth Development – Pamela Ebstyne King

A Look at Religion, Social Capital and Moral Functioning

Youth Political Activism – Constance Flanagan et al

Sources of Public Hope in the Context of Globalization

Macrosocial Worries as a Source of Positive Youth Development – Klaus Boehnke et al

Results of a 20-Year Longitudinal Study and Policy Implications

From `I′ to `We′ – Reed Larson

Development of the Capacity for Teamwork in Youth Programs

Prevention Against Substance Use – Karina Weichold

Life-skills and Positive Youth Development

Building Resources in the Context of Socio-Economic Disadvantage – Cigdem Kagitcibasi

Lessons from Research for Social Policies

About the author

Richard M. Lerner is the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and the Director of the Applied Developmental Science Institute in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. A developmental psychologist, Lerner received a Ph.D. in 1971 from the City University of New York. He has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Association, and American Psychological Society. Prior to joining Tufts University, he held administrative posts at Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, and Boston College, where he was the Anita L. Brennan Professor of Education and the Director of the Center for Child, Family, and Community Partnerships. In 1994-95, he held the Tyner Eminent Scholar Chair in the Human Sciences at Florida State University. He is author or editor of 55 books and more than 360 scholarly articles and chapters. He edited Volume 1 (Theoretical Models of Human Development) for the fifth edition of the Handbook of Child Psychology. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and Applied Developmental Science. He is known for his theory of, and research about, relations between life-span human development and contextual or ecological change. Lerner has done foundational studies of adolescents’ relations with their peer, family, school, and community contexts and is a leader in the study of public policies and community-based programs aimed at the promotion of positive youth development. With Sage, he authored America’s Youth in Crisis: Challenges and Options for Programs and Policies (1995), co-edited the four-volume Handbook of Applied Developmental Science, and is co-editing the two-volume Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science.