Community Programs to Promote Youth Development (2002) / Chapter Skim
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4 Features of Positive Developmental Settings
4 Features of Positive Developmental Settings
Pages 86-118
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From page 86... ...
Having described assets of positive development in Chapter 3, this chapter summarizes what is known about the daily settings and experiences that promote this development in young people. Before starting, we need to recognize that even with the best staff and best funding, no single program is going to succeed in helping every participant.
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From page 87... ...
This chapter employs this wider base of knowledge from developmental science to generate a list of features of adolescents' daily settings and experiences that are known to promote positive youth development. We suggest that these eight features should be seen as a provisional listsubject to further study of the processes or "active ingredients" that community programs could use in designing programs likely to facilitate positive youth development.
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From page 88... ...
This list is based partly on theories of positive developmental processes and partly on empirical research on the many types of settings that youth experiencefamilies, schools, neighborhoods, and community programs. We have also drawn on lists of features created by other scholars and practitioners (e.g., American Youth Policy Forum, 1997; Benson, 1997; Connell et al., 2000; Dryfoos, 1990; Gambone and Arbreton, 1997; Lipsitz, 1980; McLaughlin, 2000; Merry, 2000; Roth and Brooks-Gunn, 2000; Zeldin et al., 19951.
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From page 89... ...
Starting with the physical side, positive settings must be free from violence and unsafe health conditions because of their direct impact on physical health and survival. Childhood sexual abuse appears again and again as a causal factor in numerous adult psychological disorders (Finkelhor, 1990; Briere and Runtz, 1991~; it is a profound breach to the trusting relationships that attachment and object relations theorists see as critical to positive development.
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From page 90... ...
Positive Rules of behavior; expectations; Normlessness; anomie; Social Norms injunctions; ways of doing things; laissez-faire practices; values and morals; and obligations antisocial and amoral for service. norms; norms that encourage violence; reckless behavior; consumerism; poor health practices; and conformity.
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From page 91... ...
Efforts react with retributive violence, and gang formation or membership is often not far behind (Prothrow-Stith and Weissman, 1991~. A high prevalence of violence changes the social norms of a community.
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From page 92... ...
On one hand, research on families shows that firm parenting and clear behavioral expectations, when coupled with warmth and emotional support, are associated with more positive developmental outcomes than lax parenting (Steinberg et al., 1992; Steinberg, 2000~. Evidence is also emerging that the best adolescent outcomes are associated with parents gradually reducing their control over their adolescents and providing them with increasing opportunities to help establish family rules and participate in family decision making.
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From page 93... ...
For example, in India, a more hierarchical culture than that of the United States, Cub Scout troops define obedience to leaders as a fundamental obligation; in contrast, in the United States, the Cub Scout pledge focuses on "obeying the law of the Pack." Much evidence indicates that appropriate structure is a necessary condition to positive development. Without stability and order, adolescents cannot engage in physical, cognitive, emotional, or social growth,
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From page 94... ...
. On the surface these appear to be objective qualities, but research suggests that these qualities reside less in the adult than in the adolescent's perception of the adult and in the adolescent's experience of interactions with the adult (Clark, 1983; Eccles et al., 1992; Noller and Callan, 1986~.
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From page 95... ...
Longitudinal studies consistently show that parental support is associated with positive school motivation (Clark, 1983; Eccles et al., 1992; Epstein and Dauber, 1991; Eccles and Harold, 1996; Henderson and Beria, 1994; Booth and Dunn, 1996; Marjoribanks, 1979) , better mental health, and lower rates of drinking, drug use, delinquency, and school misconduct (Furstenberg et al., 1999; Grotevant, 1998; Steinberg, 2000~.
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From page 96... ...
Families that provide multiple opportunities for the children to be actively involved in family decision making and activities have adolescents who are less antisocial and who exhibit better self-regulation and social responsibility (Grotevant, 19981. Similarly, teachers who provide opportunities for all students to participate and fee!
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From page 97... ...
Beyond the issue of interpersonal comfort, we also discuss here the constructive role that community programs can play in helping adolescents address underlying developmental issues related to sociocultural belonging. Whether one is a member of a minority group, the dominant culture, or has not decided, there are important issues to be faced about how one fits into the diverse and sometimes conflicting marketplace of cultural messages and identities.
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From page 98... ...
Another study found that community programs that were sensitive to the special needs of youth with disabilities had positive benefits for the youth, their families, and other participants (Fink, 19971. Other good evidence comes from programs designed to be welcoming to adolescents from multiple cultural groups.
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From page 99... ...
For example, research suggests that issues of ethnic identity become more salient with age (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000b) , and thus younger adolescents may have different concerns from older ones.
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From page 100... ...
The group "culture" includes not only the formal organizational culture but also the informal habits and expectations that arise from daily interactions; these informal norms may diverge from the official organizational norms and expectations. Research across multiple settings suggests that adolescents' perceptions of these kinds of social norms have immediate and lasting effects on their behavior.
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From page 101... ...
On the positive side, health education programs that incorporate mass media intervention as a way of changing perceived social norms are more effective at reducing adolescent smoking than health education programs without media (Elster and Kuznets, 1994~. In addition to their effect on perceived social norms, the media must be recognized as an important competing influence on adolescents' internalization of the prosocial norms advocated by schools, families, and other traditional socializing institutions, such as faith-based institutions.
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From page 102... ...
Leaders of community programs need to be sensitive to how congruent the norms of their organization are with norms of the culture of their participants. Such cultural variations also make it difficult to identify a single set of positive social norms that should be supported in all community programs for youth.
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From page 103... ...
. The experience of positive social norms is therefore important to the development of good habits in all areas of positive development.
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From page 104... ...
Mastery-oriented classrooms that focus on self-improvement rather than social comparison foster higher motivation and perceptions of oneself as more capable; in contrast, overly controlling classrooms that do not provide opportunities for autonomy undermine motivation, self-concepts, expectations, and direction and induce learned helplessness in response to difficult tasks (National Research Council, 1999; Eccles et al., 1998; Jackson and Davis, 2000; Machr and Midgley, 1996; Newmann and Associates, 1966; Eccles et al., 1996b;
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From page 105... ...
Participation in decision making is correlated with positive developmental outcomes, such as a sense of sharing and respect for others (Dryfoos, 1990; Gambone and Arbreton, 1997; Lipsitz, 1980; Merry, 2000; McLaughlin, 20001. In school settings, the opportunity to participate in making and enforcing school rules leads to an increase in students' willingness to follow the rules and in their attachment to the school (Darling-Hammond, 1997~.
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From page 106... ...
Of course, some community programs specialize in promoting the development of specific skills, such as athletic or artistic abilities. But good programs encourage learning in other areas as well.
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From page 107... ...
Some studies show that sports programs develop athletic skills and music programs develop music skills. More important is newer research showing that programs that teach basic life skills, such as coping, assertiveness, and problem solving, predict improved emotional wellbeing, better school performance, and reduced risk behaviors (Compaq, 1993; LaFromboise and Howard-Pitney, 1994~.
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From page 108... ...
The feedback needs to focus on progress and on new learning needs, rather than one's current performance level compared with others in the class or learning group; · Abundant opportunities to rethink one's work and understanding; · Ongoing reflective practices by teachers and instructors that involve a careful examination of "what kinds of knowledge, skills, habits of mind, and attitudes are prerequisites for successful final performance, then deciding what instructional activities will give all students the chance to be successful, while engaging their interest and allowing for exploration" (Wiggins and McTighe, 1998: 124~; · Differentiated instruction that recognizes the individual differences in levels of current knowledge, interests, and learning styles
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From page 109... ...
. Perhaps the most striking research findings concern ways in which athletic community programs can fall short in establishing skills and habits that would seem to follow naturally from physical activity.
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From page 110... ...
Programs need to be explicitly designed to teach these habits as well as other critical life skills. Integration of Family, School, and Community Efforts In Bronfenbrenner's and various other models, adolescent development Is facilitated when there Is meaningful communication and synergy among the different settings of adolescents' lives and among the adults who oversee these settings.
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From page 111... ...
found similar results in a study of six communities in the San Francisco Bay area: they found that positive development was clearer in communities that had strong shared prosocial norms. We also see it in the links between schools and communities.
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From page 112... ...
Perspective of the Program The evidence, although incomplete, suggests that the more of the eight positive features described in this chapter that a community program has, the greater the contribution it will make to the positive development of youth (Dryfoos, 1991, 2001; Merry, 2000; McLaughlin, 2000~. Although each feature is related to positive processes of development, they also work together in important ways.
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From page 113... ...
Positive social norms and messages about relations between diverse groups (belonging) are going to exist in all youth environments; the question is whether they will promote positive behavior and group relationships.
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From page 114... ...
Research suggests that adolescents with more developmental assets have greater positive development (Benson, 1997~. This finding suggests that the more settings adolescents experience that have more of the eight features, the better off they will be.
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From page 115... ...
Across adolescents' daily settings community programs are unique in consistently providing the experience of engaging challenges (Larson, 2000~. They often entail connection to a group that can provide opportunities to address underlying issues of ethnic identity and intergroup relationships (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000b)
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From page 116... ...
What has not been researched systematically is how community programs fit into this picture of community supports and whether they can actually cause changes in the prevalence of both positive and risky youth outcomes. The associations undercovered by Benson and his colleagues at the Search Institute could result from characteristics of the communities that were unmeasured and influenced both the communities' ability to generate and support multiple supports for their youth and the resilience of the youth themselves.
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From page 117... ...
Research on the settings of the family, schools, and the community supports the conclusion that daily settings are more likely to promote positive developmental assets if they provide: · Structure and limits that are developmentally appropriate and that recognize adolescents' increasing social maturity and expertise; · Physical and psychological safety and security; · Opportunities to experience supportive relationships and to have good emotional and moral support; · Opportunities to fee! a sense of belonging; · Opportunities to be exposed to positive morals, values, and posi.
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From page 118... ...
It is also possible that new research will find features that we have not included. Finally, there is evidence that adolescents in communities that are rich in developmental opportunities for them experience reduced risk and show higher rates of positive development.
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