Civic Engagement as an Expression of Positive Youth Development

Abstract

In the preceding chapter Peter Benson described the positive youth development (PYD) model of applied research and its implications for action. The PYD has two central ideas: (1) development is promoted by developmental assets, both internal and external; and (2) individuals, communities, and societies vary in the qualities that promote the development of these assets. This approach offers direct guidance for both research and action. One goal of research is to identify individual, community, and society assets, and one goal of policy then is to promote the development of community and society resources that promote the development of assets. Research indicates that the more internal and external assets that youth possess, the healthier and more successful is their development into adulthood (Scales, Benson, Leffert, & Blyth, 2000). Yet research also indicates that young people have only 16.5–21.6 assets on average of 40 identified, and youth in New York have only 5% of the optimal number of assets (Benson, Leffert, Scales, & Blyth, 2000). The PYD approach is valuable because it (1) allows an assessment of youth’s well-being and of the conditions that contribute to it and (2) provides a tool for monitoring the success of our young people and the extent to which the contexts in which they grow up promote their development, thereby serving as an important social indicator. This information then becomes critical for designing youth policies in countries across the globe. This PYD approach is also attractive for several theoretical reasons. First, its focus on positive development instead of risks or deficiencies is its overarching contribution. This view reasons that all young people have needs; youth differ not in individual qualities such as resiliency but in the extent to which their needs are met by the resources in their environment. The research and policy focus is shifted from solely focusing on individual qualities and from preventing negative behaviors to focusing on deficiencies in the environment and to promoting positive outcomes. It also tends toward universal policies, as the target is all youth, not just “those at risk.” Second, this approach focuses on the whole individual, viewing socioemotional