Promoting Positive Youth Development: Implications For Future Directions In Developmental Theory, Methods, And Research

The efforts of the Miami Youth Development Project reported in this special issue illustrate how Developmental Intervention Science (DIS; a fusion of the developmental and intervention science) extended to include outreach research contributes to the development of community-supported positive youth development programs. In the process, the articles further illustrate the general utility of Developmental Intervention Science outreach research in facilitating the use of descriptive and explanatory knowledge about changes within human systems that occur across the lifespan in the development of evidence-based individual and institutional change intervention strategies for promoting long-term developmental change. Additionally, the articles illustrate the considerable implications that the application of DIS outreach research has for future directions in knowledge of human development at all levels (practical as well as methodological, theoretical, and metatheoretical). © 2008 Sage Publications