Contemporary Development Theory Research Articles

The Five Cs of Positive Youth Development: Configurations of Thriving in Four U.S. Adolescent Samples.

Positive youth development (PYD) models are widespread, but the empirical evidence for them is primarily nomothetic (i.e., investigations of universal patterns). Contemporary developmental theory suggests that concepts and processes within PYD models should also be explored with respect to specificity. This study demonstrates how the Five Cs Model, a predominant PYD model, can be advanced using group-differential methods. Secondary data from four studies of adolescents were used to test: (1) Whether there were subgroups who varied in their patterns of scores across the Five Cs, and (2) Whether subgroups also varied in Contribution behaviors. Unexpectedly, the four data sets used could not be combined, yielding an opportunity to discuss consistencies and inconsistencies in findings across the four data sets through contextual and sample differences. Findings demonstrate how understanding specificity in theorized concepts and processes in PYD models can complement studies of universal patterns, which are both necessary to advance PYD research and practice.

Conceptual Commitments of Constructivism in an Age when Truth Matters

The purpose of this special issue is to critically examine the constructivist moorings of contemporary developmental theory and practice, including the practice of research methods. This introduction to the special issue is intended to foreshadow the papers presented here by charting the terrain of several conceptual commitments that we consider paradigmatic cornerstones to constructivist approaches. Although constructivism has deep roots across disciplines in the sciences and humanities, generating a wealth of scholarship focused on its various assumptions and theoretical principles, here we target three: the active subject, normativity, and historicity. These principles are theoretically axiomatic of constructivist approaches, strongly interconnected, and highly relevant to some of the most pressing debates and challenges affecting contemporary science and society, not the least because they question fundamental notions that we often take for granted – notions as vital as the meanings of truth, fact, and objectivity. After presenting a primer on the meaning and significance of these three principles, we review their status as critical signposts for the work of scholars contributing to this special issue.

Reconstructive surgery outreach to low- and middle-income countries: An interdisciplinary analysis of 131 non-governmental organizations.

BackgroundA significant portion of surgical aid to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is provided by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in concert with surgeons, but little is known about the overall scope of this work or how it corresponds to indicators typically used to guide developmental aid distribution. The objective of this study was to characterize and investigate the collective efforts of NGOs providing reconstructive surgical aid to LMICs.MethodsAn interdisciplinary approach was taken drawing from political science to examine this issue in reconstructive surgery. NGOs providing reconstructive surgical aid were identified, and then catalogued with respect to the LMICs they serve. LMICs were characterized using 28 variables in 6 domains based on contemporary developmental theory. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed.ResultsA total of 131 reconstructive surgery NGOs were identified serving 718 sites in 136 LMICs. Univariate analysis found that LMICs that were more frequent recipients of aid were more populous (P < 0.001), had lower ‘Hospital Beds Density’ (P = 0.001), and had higher rates of ‘Mortality by Injury’ (P = 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis identified population as the sole predictor among all indicators analyzed (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.154 to 1.469; P = 0.001).ConclusionsThe distribution of reconstructive surgical aid by NGOs is guided most by population, but not other characteristics traditionally used to guide aid distribution. Greater coordination and data-sharing among NGOs is recommended to optimize outreach efforts.

Process and context: Longitudinal effects of the interactions between parental involvement, parental warmth, and SES on academic achievement

Parents' involvement in their children's education and parental warmth have been linked to many positive child outcomes. In addition to these positive associations, contemporary developmental theory stresses the interaction between different parenting variables and the interaction between parenting and broad contextual factors such as family socioeconomic status (SES). Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine main and interaction effects of parent home-based involvement and parental warmth on achievement outcomes. Additionally, we evaluated whether these variables also interacted with SES to predict students' achievement growth. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Cohort of 2010–11 (N = 2352), growth of academic outcomes was modeled from kindergarten to the fourth grade. We then used latent variable interaction (Maslowsky, Jager, & Hemken, 2015) procedures to examine interaction effects of our primary study variables. Few significant effects were noted for children's reading and mathematics scores, but more substantial main (home-based involvement) and interaction (parental warmth and SES) effects emerged for science achievement. At high SES levels, warmth negatively predicted growth in science, whereas at lower SES levels, warmth positively predicted growth. Findings are discussed in relation to importance of parent involvement, differential effects across SES contexts, and curricular emphasis in contemporary schools.

The Relationship between Donors’ Developmental Meaning-Making and Philanthropic Activity

More than 500 empirical research studies spanning more than 10 academic disciplines have been conducted to investigate variation in philanthropic giving practices; however, despite the breadth of this research, contemporary theoretical models from developmental psychology–a field which investigates change across lifespan–have not yet been utilized by nonprofit sector researchers. This four-phased, mixed-methods study used contemporary developmental theory to empirically assess donors’ developmental levels and, then, compare those data with data about giving practices. The contributions of the study are twofold. First, the study’s findings suggest that donors’ development levels are related to their thinking processes about charitable giving and the rationales they employ to make decisions about their philanthropic activity; this information has implications for nonprofit organizations’ fundraising and donor engagement efforts. Second, this study makes a methodological contribution by demonstrating a novel...

Shadows of a Sunbelt City: The Environment, Racism, and the Knowledge Economy in Austin by Eliot M. Tretter

Reviewed by: Shadows of a Sunbelt City: The Environment, Racism, and the Knowledge Economy in Austin by Eliot M. Tretter Michan Connor Shadows of a Sunbelt City: The Environment, Racism, and the Knowledge Economy in Austin. By Eliot M. Tretter. Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation. ( Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016. Pp. x, 179. Paper, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-8203-4489-8; cloth, $74.95, ISBN 978-0-8203-4488-1.) Contemporary development theory and practice presume, following Richard Florida, that thriving cities attract a diverse, creative, and educated workforce through cultural eclecticism and environmental sustainability. Austin, Texas, celebrated as "weird," tops many lists of such cities. Eliot M. Tretter contends that Austin's culture was less important to its development than were decisions made beginning in the 1950s by a coalition of local, state, and federal entities, particularly University of Texas (UT) officials, to remake the city's institutions [End Page 751] and physical spaces to attract investment in the electronics industry. This coalition and its successors razed working-class and minority neighborhoods and prioritized the needs of research professionals and investors, showing that the creative-class city is a "system of asymmetrical power relations that has engendered both uneven development among neighborhoods and inequalities among peoples" (p. 142). Tretter divides his book into two parts. The first, stretching from the 1950s to the 1990s, describes the rise of UT's growth coalition, while the second critically evaluates the selective incorporation of environmentalism into growth politics after 1990. Readers familiar with recent studies of urban renewal will recognize in the first part a description of local leaders empowered by the Housing Act of 1949 to declare land blighted, seize it, and redevelop it. Tretter enhances this history by arguing that UT, spurred by a 1957 commission to generate more lucrative intellectual property, adroitly linked its need for research facilities to the property value goals of the Austin Urban Renewal Agency. Later, UT leveraged the university's bond power to subsidize the costs of private production facilities through university-industry partnerships. The second part addresses contemporary development politics. Municipal officials, drawn evenly from developer and conservationist constituencies, beganin theearly1990stoembracea "sustainability fix" for a political impasse that allowed Austin's suburbs to capture development (p. 7). Intensifying land use in central Austin accommodated state support for suburban sprawl, mollified influential water quality activists, and attracted professionals to redeveloped neighborhoods, enhancing land value, while pushing burdens of pollution and displacement onto politically marginalized communities of color. Tretter effectively critiques both "creative class" and "smart growth" analyses by highlighting the elite politics that created them and the skewed distribution of their costs and benefits (pp. 146, 147). A knowledge economy did not spring spontaneously from brainpower gathered at UT; it was nurtured by public commitment to physical and institutional infrastructure that ignored working-class and minority constituencies and by UT's turn toward entrepreneurial pursuits. And "smart growth" policies reconciled the concerns of affluent and liberal environmentalists with growth by supporting redevelopment and gentrification in central and eastside Austin neighborhoods. As a disciplinary matter, some historians may find Shadows of a Sunbelt City: The Environment, Racism, and the Knowledge Economy in Austin less a history of UT's and Austin's intertwined development than a set of essays that use history to (again, effectively) debunk influential development pieties. The organization of the book does not always present recurrent themes to best advantage; for example, a discussion of enduring at-large council elections (which diluted the power of students, minorities, and the poor) would have lent a useful structure to following chapters had it been presented in the introduction of the book rather than in chapter 6. While Tretter's writing is concise, the book is slim, offering a chronology of plans, ideas, and decisions without extensive engagement with the voices of either the elites driving policy changes or the disadvantaged affected by them. That said, historians writing studies of the knowledge-economy cities Austin exemplifies should find in this [End Page 752] book a number of provocative ideas to evaluate through future archival research. Michan Connor Dallas, Texas Copyright © 2017 The Southern Historical Association

On the Practical Interpretability of Cross-Lagged PanelModels: Rethinking a Developmental Workhorse.

Reciprocal feedback processes between experience and development are central to contemporary developmental theory. Autoregressive cross-lagged panel (ARCL) models represent a common analytic approach intended to test such dynamics. The authors demonstrate that-despite the ARCL model's intuitive appeal-it typically (a) fails to align with the theoretical processes that it is intended to test and (b) yields estimates that are difficult to interpret meaningfully. Specifically, using a Monte Carlo simulation and two empirical examples concerning the reciprocal relation between spanking and child aggression, it is shown that the cross-lagged estimates derived from the ARCL model reflect a weighted-and typically uninterpretable-amalgam of between- and within-person associations. The authors highlight one readily implemented respecification that better addresses these multiple levels of inference.

Resilience in the Context of Ambiguous Loss: A Commentary

AbstractThis commentary compares the concept of resilience as conceptualized and studied in ambiguous loss and in the broader domain of developmental resilience science. The discussion highlights common roots, similarities and differences in the definitions of resilience and protective processes, and implications for interventions. Resilience concepts in ambiguous loss theory are congruent with contemporary developmental resilience theory in multiple ways. Future research and practice would benefit from further integration of these compatible perspectives on resilience.

The Promotion of Character through Youth Development Programs: A View of the Issues

Contemporary developmental theories suggest that out-of-school-time (OST) youth development programs may be an important context for character development and education because of the positive, mutually influential relations between youth and adult leaders found in exemplary instantiations of such programs. Although still in its early stages, research about this role of OST programs, including evaluations of specific programs, is beginning to burgeon in relation to increased interest in person-context models of human development, the fact that each of tens of millions of American youth participate in several OST programs each year, and heightened emphasis among scientists, educators, and policy makers about the importance of promoting character among the diverse youth of the nation. Both to reflect the state-of-the art and in the hope of promoting further research progress, the articles in this special section describe how the attributes of young people and the features of the OST programs youth development in which they participate may link together in promotion of character development.

Devolution Plan 2000: dictatorship, democracy, and the politics of institutional change in Pakistan

Contemporary development theory and policy research puts an overarching emphasis on institution building as a key driver of change in developing countries. Over the past few decades, decentralisation reforms have played out as the linchpin of such institution building efforts, advocated by international development agencies and favoured by national governments. This article examines decentralisation reforms implemented in Pakistan under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers initiative through a case study of the implementation and outcomes of Devolution Plan (DP) in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province. Promulgated by General Musharaf in 2000, the DP aimed to restructure and rebuild political and administrative structures, to redress key issues of governance, resource distribution, and service delivery. The Local Government System (LGS) was a key reform element within the DP, but it lost traction and was abolished in 2008/09. This article demonstrates two important factors, regime legitimisation and the preservation of clientelistic politics, that have profoundly shaped implementation of the DP. The findings demonstrate how the implementation of this large-scale internationally supported attempt at institution building ultimately succumbed to a range of particularistic interests.

Stories from Below: Subject-generated Comics

This article discusses the efficacy of grassroots comics as a practical and affordable method of realizing localized subject-generated development communication goals that focus explicitly on the interests and capacities of the subject community. The Khwe San, living in Platfontein in South Africa's Northern Cape Province, constitute the subject community. The study is informed by contemporary shifts in development theory, particularly that of participatory communication, which values individuals who live in a community as active participants in the research process. The use of grassroots comics is based on theoretical concepts in current literature regarding the field of development communication that are critical of older, top-down theories of development. My analysis and findings are presented in terms of possible implications that they might have for broader discussions regarding contemporary development theory or visual methodologies with respect to participatory communication practices.

The role of distancing in Werner and Kaplan’s account of symbol formation and beyond

The concept of distancing or polarization plays a central role in Werner and Kaplan’s account of symbol formation. It refers to the process of progressive differentiation and hierarchic integration of the four components constitutive of symbolic activity: addressor, addressee, symbolic vehicle and referent. Specifically, Werner and Kaplan suggest that distancing takes place between person and referent, between person and symbolic vehicle, between symbolic vehicle and referent and between addressor and addressee. We describe the theoretical context and different aspects of the distancing process. Furthermore, we argue that the distancing process identifies central prerequisites of symbolic activity that are largely ignored by contemporary developmental theories. We demonstrate the different aspects of the distancing process in several domains of symbolic development, including words, gestural development and pretend play. Finally, we compare Werner and Kaplan’s concept of distancing to ideas of distancing developed in recent developmental theories.

When the Lullaby is Missing: Healing from an Infancy in Foster Care

Infant-Parent Mental Health research and contemporary trauma-informed developmental theory have highlighted the critical co-regulatory functions of the early attachment process. It is well known that shared gaze awakens this process; however, what has been less explored is the role of the human voice in calming the body and informing optimal development. The ancient energetic practice of Qigong Sound Healing offers an important model for regulating emotional functioning. The discussion of its use in treatment with an adolescent, who was emotionally triggered by an infancy on the streets and in neglectful foster care, offers a potential model for the benefits of integrating traditional Chinese medicine's view of emotions and sound healing into psychotherapy.

Theoretical foundations of organizing student excursions

Once the cornerstone of sciences, student excursions have become adventurous social events, the value of which should be reconsidered. Since recommendations for organization of student excursions are mostly based on research findings and practitioners? experiences, we have attempted to base them on the assumptions of contemporary theories of development, learning and motivation. Potential recommendations for organization of quality student excursions are derived from the constructivist theory of cognitive development, experiential learning theory and self-determination theory. The main recommendations refer to: establishing the link between excursions and the curriculum; a student-centred approach; students? autonomy in planning and organizing excursions; promoting research activities in students; promoting joint activities of students and teachers, as well as joint activities of students, and authentic experiences in the out-of-school context. Recommendations are grouped into five categories: integrating excursions in the curriculum; motivating students; structure and authenticity of activities; encouraging students to think; social interaction during excursions. Research findings indicate that there is a gap between theory and practice of organizing students excursions. This situation is mostly explained by logistic and system shortcomings. We therefore suggest a more serious discussion of the place of excursions in the curriculum, financial support to their organization and reinforcing teachers to implement this form of teaching.

Applying Contemporary Developmental and Movement Science Theories and Evidence to Early Intervention Practice

Changes in early childhood science, theory, and best practices for improving outcomes of children with motor delay or dysfunction and their families have evolved rapidly since EI began. Changes in daily early intervention (EI) practice have been more elusive. Closing the gap between knowledge and practice requires EI providers to piece together information from a variety of knowledge streams including early childhood special education, pediatric rehabilitation, and cognitive psychology. The purpose of this article is to create a body of shared, evidence-based knowledge among providers responsible for addressing the needs of children with movement disorders and their families to effect changes in practice. This article discusses the evolution of EI practice models for children with motor concerns; examines related theories, interventions, and outcomes; and presents an alternative model based on contemporary evidence and grounded in dynamic systems theory. Researchers describe existing barriers to implementation of family-centered, support-based practices. Recommendations highlight the need for EI providers to collaborate with families to develop meaningful goals and to recognize and create opportunities for children to engage in high volumes of task-specific activity in a meaningful context. Continued research is required to verify effectiveness of this integrated model for improving child and family outcomes.

Why the nature/nurture and the affective/cognitive dichotomy won’t go away: The case of empathy

The goal of this paper is to reveal why the affective/cognitive and the nature/ nurture dichotomy are still present in the literature on empathy and why most of the theoreticians find them appealing. In the first part of the paper I will provide a short overview of the psychological theories of empathy, while in the second part I will turn to the reasons that keep the affective/cognitive and the nature/nurture dichotomies alive in these theories. I will argue that such reasons could be found in the underlying Cartesian picture of mind, emotions and the nature of communication, that most of the contemporary developmental theories implicitly accept. As a result of these assumptions, the phenomenon of empathy within these theories is closely tied to the Cartesian epistemological problem of other minds. My goal is to show that the aforementioned dichotomies are part of the solution of this particular Cartesian problem and if we abandon the problem we will be in a position to abandon these dichotomies. Finally, at the end of the paper I will explore what it would mean to step outside of the Cartesian boundaries and what kind of implications that would have for our understanding of empathy.

“MXing it up”: How African adolescents may affect social change through mobile phone use

This chapter outlines mobile phone use among African (particularly South African) adolescents. With an estimated 350 million active mobile phone subscriptions, improving network infrastructure, low-cost Internet-ready handsets, innovative programs and applications, mobiles in Africa, and their increasingly younger, increasingly poorer, and increasingly savvy users have the potential to act as conduits for local and regional socially just change. This broad-based connectedness not only provides access to information, but also, and crucially, connects individuals and their social, intellectual, and financial capital. It may represent a powerful, transformative shift in a region where access to similar technologies was historically limited to a privileged few. In order to best leverage these developments and opportunities to promote socially just change, I argue that future mobile-based programs or initiatives in the region should be based in both contemporary developmental systems theory as well as current, popular mobile applications and services.

Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Norms of Participation in Tanzania: Working against the Grain

Abstract:The “institutional turn” in contemporary development theory has emphasized the importance of facilitating the emergence of institutions that will improve citizens' abilities to make choices. More important, it has suggested that the effectiveness of these institutions depends upon their ability to “work with the grain” of the local sociocultural environment. This article argues that community-based organizations (CBOs), as one prominent embodiment of institutional blueprints guiding relationships between state and nonstate actors in development efforts, are a poor fit in the context of contemporary urban Tanzania. This is because they are not consonant with the norms that have long governed popular participation in either the development process or associational life. Although the specific conclusions are limited to Dar es Salaam, the study calls for a method of interrogation that is not only historically and sociologically grounded, but also broadly applicable to other development issues.

Rethinking the Global Production of Uneven Development

This paper argues that reconceptualising the relationship between production and uneven development is an important step towards overcoming what the editors of this volume term ‘anachronistic approaches’ in contemporary development theory. Notwithstanding the centrality of production within global capitalism, its status within critical development studies is at a low ebb. This is partly a consequence of the mainstream ascendancy of neoclassical economics, but also because alternative approaches offer too narrow a perspective to fill the void. One common weakness is the way in which labour—both as a social practice and as embodied productive potential—is neglected. This neglect is problematic because it is impossible to conceptualise adequately questions of identity, power, (re)distribution, and socio-economic change without considering both the material and social dimensions of labour and production. To overcome this labour blindness, it is useful to focus upon the interplay between locally embedded production relations and the abstraction of these economic activities in the form of market price and inter-firm competition. The dynamic relationship between these two processes—embedding and abstraction—provides a unifying conceptual basis on which we can examine how workers and their communities both produce and contest social reproduction across different geographic locales and social contexts. Este documento sostiene que replantear la relación entre la producción y el desarrollo desigual es un paso importante para superar el término de ‘métodos anacrónicos,’ así usado por los editores de este volumen, en la teoría de desarrollo contemporánea. No obstante la importancia de la producción dentro del capitalismo global, su condición dentro de los estudios críticos de desarrollo está en decadencia. Esto se debe en parte a la consecuencia del dominio convencional de la economía neoclásica, pero también porque los métodos alternativos ofrecen una perspectiva demasiado estrecha para llenar el vacío. Una debilidad común es la manera como la fuerza del trabajo—tanto como una práctica social, como una producción potencial suministrada por humanos—se descuida. Este descuido es problemático porque es imposible conceptualizar adecuadamente los asuntos de identidad, poder, (re)distribución y cambio socio-económico, sin considerar las dimensiones tanto materiales como sociales de la fuerza de trabajo y la producción. Para superar esta ceguera laboral, es conveniente enfocarse en la interacción entre las relaciones integradas de producción locales y la abstracción de estas actividades económicas en la forma del precio del mercado y la competencia entre firmas. La relación dinámica entre estos dos procesos—integración y abstracción—provee una base conceptual unificadora, sobre la cual podemos examinar cómo los trabajadores y sus comunidades, producen y enfrentan la reproducción social a través de diferentes lugares geográficos y contextos sociales.

Beyond the Grave—Adolescent Parental Loss: Letting Go and Holding On

The author considers a relational perspective of mourning and suggests an elaboration and extension of Freud's theory of mourning with a sharper focus on the dialectic of holding on and letting go of the formative lost object relationship. Sussillo argues that Freud's early (1917) theoretical tilt toward the relinquishment of affective ties with the dead, later expanded and culminated in a deeper relational sensibility, was shaped by his developing theories and personal losses. Her position is that the analyst can help facilitate the adult patient's affective experience of felt continuity with the absent object, lost in adolescence, that ultimately allows the separation and the transformation of the primitive bond. Sussillo's perspective represents a synthesis of relational theories in a broad sense—also informed by attachment theory, contemporary bereavement research, infant research, and developmental theory. This thesis is illustrated by a clinical example that highlights the therapeutic action.