Promoting Positive Youth Development: Theoretical and Empirical Bases. White paper prepared for

The purpose of this chapter is to present the theoretical and empirical foundations of a relatively recently emerged conception of youth. Termed the “positive youth development ” (PYD) perspective, the orientation to young people has arisen because of interest among developmental scientists in using developmental systems, or dynamic, models of human behavior and development for understanding the plasticity of human development and, as well, the importance of relations between individuals and their real-world ecological settings as the bases of variation in the course of human development. The PYD perspective has arisen as well through the development and, in some cases, the evaluation of interventions designed and delivered within community-based, youth serving programs that have worked to counter what have been seen as steady states across the past five to six decades of substantial incidences of risk behaviors among adolescents. Accordingly, this chapter presents the conceptual foundations of the PYD perspective by reviewing the history of theories about adolescent development and by specifying the key theoretical ideas defining the PYD perspective. In turn, I will discuss the burgeoning empirical work being done to define the bases and features of the positive development of diverse youth. I will consider the implications of extant research both for future scholarship and for applications of developmental science aimed at improving the life chances of adolescents through the provision of policies and programs predicated on the use of a positive development perspective for understanding and enhancing the lives of adolescents