Positive Youth Development So Far: Core Hypotheses and Their Implications for Policy and Practice
POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT (PYD) first emerged as an approach among practitioners working with youth, when they saw the benefits of using strength-based models with children and adolescents. As often happens, this work in the practitioner arena proceeded with little attention from the academic world until relatively recently. The long history of the application of developmental psychology and sociology had been pervaded by a focus almost exclusively on the negative: disadvantaged family backgrounds, risky behaviors, the effects of poverty, rapid social change, and substance use. “Normal” development was thought not to provide much interest or scope for study, compared with development that was maladjusted or downright aberrant. The pendulum swing away from abnormal development began with the study of resilience—the amazing ability of some adolescents to succeed, even thrive, despite challenges, obstacles, and deficits that led many of their peers to make disastrous choices.

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