„Integrating Development, Education and Civic Engagement: Promoting Youth Contributions to Civil Society“

October 23, 2010 1Education and Development
Richard M. Lerner
Richard M. Lerner
Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development
Tufts University
Education and Development
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 Education should be more than just
the transmission of academic
knowledge
 Education should prepare youth to
live healthy, positive, and productive
lives in their families, work places,
and communities
 Such holistic education should occur
in families, schools, and throughout
communities
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 Development must encompass all
individual and social facets of the
person for healthy, positive, and
productive life paths to exist
 Development involves positive
functioning in all settings of
life: Families, schools, and
communities
 To develop successfully, an individual
must be supported in, and given the
opportunity to contribute to, all these
settings
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 The positive development of youth
rests on integrating development
and education within all settings of
life
 Therefore, healthy youth
development– what we will term
Positive Youth Development (PYD) –
involves supporting the
development of an individual’s
specific abilities, interests, and life
goals
 Civil society should maximize the
chances of such holistic, positive,
individual development
 PYD should, in turn, enhance civil
society
WHY LINK DEVELOPMENT, EDUCATION, AND CIVIC
ENGAGEMENT?
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 PYD needs civil society!
 Civil society needs PYD!
 We need a PYD  Civil
Society relation
WHY LINK DEVELOPMENT, EDUCATION, AND CIVIC
ENGAGEMENT?
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
1. What is positive development?
2. What are the key ideas associated with
the PYD perspective?
3. Why is it important to study the links
among PYD, education, and youth
development (YD) programs pertinent
to engaged citizenship?
4. What does research tell us about
these links?
5. What are the implications of research for
practice and policy?
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 G. Stanley Hall (1904), of Clark University,
founded the study of adolescence.
 Hall defined adolescence as a period of
universal and inevitable, biologically-
based “storm and stress.”
 Therefore, according to Hall, Anna Freud,
and Erik Erikson, adolescence was a
period of crisis and disturbance.
 These ideas resulted in the view that
adolescents were "broken" or in danger
of becoming "broken."
 For almost all of the 20th century most
research about adolescence was based
on this deficit conception of young
people.
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
As early as the 1960s, research began to show that the
deficit model was not in fact true:
 There are problems that occur during adolescence.
BUT there are problems that occur in infancy,
childhood, and adulthood as well.
 All age periods have challenges, and the fact that
there are life problems in the teenage years does
not in and of itself make it a special period.
 The adolescent years may have some age-typical
problems, but so too do all other age periods.
 Adolescents who have an especially stormy decade
also tend to have had a problematic childhood as
well.
 The stereotypes of adolescent problems evaporate
in the light of actual research.
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 Most young people do NOT have a stormy
adolescent period.
 Although adolescents spend increasingly
more time with peers than with parents,
most adolescents still value their
relationships with parents enormously.
 Most adolescents have core values (e.g.,
about the importance of education in one’s
life, about social justice, and about
spirituality) that are consistent with those
of their parents.
 Most adolescents select friends who share
these core values.
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 Into much of the 1990s most
research continued to use Hall’s
deficit model to study
adolescence.
 Literally hundreds of millions of
dollars continue to be spent each
year in the United States to
reduce the problems “caused”
by the alleged deficits of
adolescents.
 These problems include alcohol
use and abuse; unsafe sex and
teenage pregnancy; school
failure and drop out; crime and
delinquency; and depression and
self-harming behaviors.
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 In the 1990s a new vision of the teen years emerged
from biology and developmental science.
 This is the Positive Youth Development (PYD)
perspective.
The Birth of a New Phase In the
Scientific Study of Adolescence
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
1. Because of the potential to
change, all youth have strengths.
2. All contexts have strengths as
well. These strengths are
resources that may be used to
promote positive youth
development.
3. These resources are termed
“developmental assets”. They are
the “social nutrients” needed for
healthy development.
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
4. These assets are found in families,
schools, faith institutions, youth
serving organizations, and the
community more generally.
5. If the strengths of youth are combined
with ecological developmental assets,
then positive, healthy development may
occur.
6. We should be optimistic that it is in our
power to promote positive development
among ALL youth and to create more
asset-rich settings supporting such
development among ALL youth.
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
1. PYD is constituted by “Five Cs”:
The “Five Cs”
 Competence
 Confidence
 Character
 Connection
 Caring
Contribution
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
2. Across adolescence, PYD occurs when
the strengths of young people are aligned
with the resources for healthy development
(“developmental assets”) present in their
 Families,
 Schools, and
 Communities
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
3. Youth Development (YD) programs constitute key
developmental assets promoting PYD.
YD programs are marked by the presence of
the “Big 3”:
1. Sustained, positive
adult-youth relations;
2. Skill building
activities; and
3. Youth participation
and leadership.
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
The 4-H Study of
Positive Youth Development
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
Jen Agans
Mimi Arbeit
Edmond Bowers
Michelle Boyd
Paul Chase
Kristen Fay
Sonia Issac Koshy
Heidi Johnson
Megan Kiely Mueller
Selva Lewin-Bizan
Jacqueline V. Lerner
Jarrett Lerner
Richard M. Lerner
Alicia Doyle Lynch
Christopher Napolitano
Marie Pelletier Bice
Erin Phelps
Kristina Schmid
Amy E.A. Warren
Michelle Weiner
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 The 4-H Study is a cohort-
sequential longitudinal
investigation
 Beginning in 5th
Grade, we are
following some youth through
12th
Grade (and we hope for at
least one year past high school)
 To adjust for the loss of
participants and to maintain
statistical power, we have added
new students in 6th
, 7th
, 8th
grades,
etc.
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 We also are studying these new students longitudinally
 Therefore, the sample size increases across the study
 To date, we have sampled about 7,000 youth and 3,500
parents from 43 states
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
BOTH THE INITIAL AND THE MORE
RECENT FINDINGS FROM THE 4-H
STUDY HAVE CHANGED
RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
1. We can now talk about the strengths of youth by using a
scientifically-validated set of positive terms:
PYD is constituted by “Five Cs,” and PYD is linked to
youth Contribution
The “Five Cs”
 Competence
 Confidence
 Character
 Caring
 Connection
Contribution
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
2. The strengths of young people – their internal
developmental assets – can be measured by three
characteristics:
 Selection of goals
 Optimization (developing
strategies and means for
reaching one’s goals)
 Compensation (in the face
of failure or blocked goals)
This is the SOC model!
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
3. There are four (4) Ecological Assets present in the
Families, Schools, and Communities of Youth:
 Individuals
 Institutions
 Collective Action
 Access
In each setting INDIVIDUALS are always the most important
asset!
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
4. We know now what must be done to promote
PYD and Contribution:
Across adolescence, positive youth development occurs
when the strengths of young people are aligned with
the ecological resources for healthy development
present in their communities
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
5. Youth Development (YD) programs constitute key
ecological assets promoting PYD
YD programs are effective in promoting PYD
when they are marked by the presence of the
“Big 3,” that is:
1. Sustained, positive
adult-youth relations;
2. Life skill building activities; and
3. Youth participation and
leadership.
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 Behavior
 Social Relationships
 Emotions
 Cognition
Contribution DOES involve behavioral
engagement with one’s world.
But there is more. Contribution involves:
How do we study such a
conception of Contribution?
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
Vice President, Research, America's Promise Alliance
Scholar-in-Residence, Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development,
Senior Fellow, Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service,
Tufts University
America's Promise Alliance:
•The nation’s largest cross-sector partnership dedicated to improving the
lives of America’s children
•Partners include the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, State Farm
Insurance, Ford Motor Company, and America’s largest educational
associations and governmental associations
On the national, state, and local level, America's Promise
Alliance:
•Raises awareness about the most pressing needs and most effective,
positive youth development solutions for young people
•Engages in advocacy for policies and practices that support the holistic
needs and strengths of young people
•Creates opportunities for action in states and in local communities to
support young people
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
Contribution involves
Active and Engaged Citizenship (AEC)1
:
Civic duty
Civic skills
Neighborhood social connection
Civic participation
1
Based on data from the 4-H Study.
WHAT CONSTITUTES “CONTRIBUTION?”
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
“Those who share a
commitment to actively
engage in their
communities to build
stronger, healthier, and
safer communities.”
AEC, According to Jonathan M. Tisch
College of Citizenship and Public
Service at Tufts
 How to measure AEC:
 Sense of civic duty
 Confidence about and ability
(skills) to effect change
 Social connection to one’s
community
 Participation in civic behaviors
 AEC doesn’t necessarily mean
successful engagement
 Engagement is formative and
not succeeding can lead to
positive development
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
The Scholarship of Michelle J. Boyd
Graduate Research Assistant, Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development
Graduate Research Assistant & Study Coordinator, Tisch College of Citizenship and
Public Service, Tufts University
Research Interests:
Media effects
Civic socialization and development
Communication competence
Media literacy
Relationship between news media use
and civic engagement among adolescents
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
Today, the ecology of youth development includes media of
different qualities as well as greater access to such media
It may be that media is a salient contextual influence on the
development of youth
More needs to be learned about what media youth use, the
patterns of usage, the purposes for media use, and the nature
and range of the outcomes related to such media use, including
potentially positive outcomes.
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 One area of media use that warrants further exploration
with regard to positive development is adolescents’ use of
news media.
 Data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development
was used to assess the relation among 8th
graders of use of
media for information on politics and current events and
AEC (civic duty, civic skills, neighborhood social
connection, and civic participation).
 Overall news media use contributed significantly to the
prediction of both civic skills and civic participation, but
not to civic duty and neighborhood social connection.
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 Assess longitudinally the links between news media use
(e.g., involving newspapers and the Internet) and civic
engagement
 Consider how media literacy “builds an understanding of
the role of media in society as well as essential skills of
inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a
democracy” (Center for Media Literacy).
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
HOW DO WE PROMOTE AEC?
School- and Community-based YD Programs (Marked by the “Big 3”
Program Characteristics) influence PYD and Civic Behaviors
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
How Do We Use the “Big 3” to
Promote the Cs of PYD as well
as Community Contribution and
Leadership
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
THE GOOD SCHOOL
TRANSFORMING EDUCATION FOR
HAPPINESS, HEALTH, AND SUCCESS IN LIFE
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 Development is a cumulative process that begins in the womb
(with healthy prenatal care) and continues throughout life
◦ Invest early…
◦ …And keep investing throughout the first two decades of
life
 A young person develops within multiple contexts (e.g., family,
school, and community) that interactively support the positive
development of the child
◦ Provide “glue money”’ to bring together the community,
school, and family
◦ Improve the quality of each of these contexts
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 Youth have multiple attributes and skills that define
positive development (e.g., the “Five Cs” of PYD)
◦ Broaden accountability indicators beyond academic ones
◦ Focus on youth strengths
 Developmental contexts and the young person
interact: There should be a fit between the strengths
and needs of the youth and the supports (and deficit
reductions) in developmental contexts
◦ Apply components of effective youth programming
◦ Embed youth development principles into teacher and
counselor training
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
RESEARCH
PRACTICE POLICY
ENHANCING THE PYD  CIVIL
SOCIETY RELATIONSHIP
Richard M. Lerner

Richard M. Lerner
 What actions predicated on the “Big Three,” of what duration,
with what youth, in what communities, at what points in
adolescence, will result in what features of positive youth
development and youth contributions to self, family,
community, and civil society?
Or, more simply:
 How do we use civic engagement programs promoting
integration to foster mutually beneficial relations between
healthy youth and a nation marked by social justice, democracy,
and liberty?
Richard M. Lerner

„Integrating Development, Education and Civic Engagement: Promoting Youth Contributions to Civil Society“

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„Integrating Development, Education and Civic Engagement: Promoting Youth Contributions to Civil Society“