Page 21 - Ana Kozina and Nora Wiium, eds. ▪︎ Positive Youth Development in Contexts. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2021. Digital Library, Dissertationes (Scientific Monographs), 42.
P. 21
positive youth development and thriving in norwegian youth
Research on PYD in Norway is limited. The current study therefore
provides an opportunity for the PYD perspective to be studied in a new
context. The aim of our study is to examine the association between devel-
opmental assets and thriving indicators among Norwegian youth attend-
ing high school. In line with earlier studies, we hypothesise that the more
developmental assets Norwegian youth experience, the more thriving indi-
cators they will also report. Demographic factors like gender, age and par-
ents’ educational background have been found to influence youth thriving
outcomes where parents’ educational background can have a positive influ-
ence, while females as well as younger youth tend to report possessing more
developmental assets (Davis-Kean, 2005; Drescher et al., 2012; Erola et al.,
2016). Accordingly, these demographics were also considered in this study.
It is expected that the presence of developmental assets, and a positive as-
sociation with thriving, will inform programmes and policies about those
assets that must be further nurtured and those that need to be maintained
at healthy levels.
Method
Participants
The data used in the present study were collected from 591 Norwegian
youth attending a public high school in Vestland County Council. While
the school was selected through convenience sampling, students on all lev-
els (levels 1–3) were eligible to participate in the study. The participants’ age
varied from 15–19 years, with an average of 16.70 years (SD = .90). Among
the 586 young people who provided information on their gender, 326 were
girls (55%). More than half the participants reported that the highest ed-
ucation of their parents was college or university, with 56.3% having a fa-
ther with a higher education and 67.3% a mother with a similar education-
al level.
Materials
Developmental assets. The “Developmental Assets Profile” (DAP; Search
Institute, 2016) was used to measure the number of assets experienced in
various youth contexts. Participants indicated the extent to which they had
experienced Benson’s 40 developmental assets, which reflected four catego-
ries of internal assets and four categories of external assets. Sample items
of the four categories of internal assets (commitment to learning, positive
21
Research on PYD in Norway is limited. The current study therefore
provides an opportunity for the PYD perspective to be studied in a new
context. The aim of our study is to examine the association between devel-
opmental assets and thriving indicators among Norwegian youth attend-
ing high school. In line with earlier studies, we hypothesise that the more
developmental assets Norwegian youth experience, the more thriving indi-
cators they will also report. Demographic factors like gender, age and par-
ents’ educational background have been found to influence youth thriving
outcomes where parents’ educational background can have a positive influ-
ence, while females as well as younger youth tend to report possessing more
developmental assets (Davis-Kean, 2005; Drescher et al., 2012; Erola et al.,
2016). Accordingly, these demographics were also considered in this study.
It is expected that the presence of developmental assets, and a positive as-
sociation with thriving, will inform programmes and policies about those
assets that must be further nurtured and those that need to be maintained
at healthy levels.
Method
Participants
The data used in the present study were collected from 591 Norwegian
youth attending a public high school in Vestland County Council. While
the school was selected through convenience sampling, students on all lev-
els (levels 1–3) were eligible to participate in the study. The participants’ age
varied from 15–19 years, with an average of 16.70 years (SD = .90). Among
the 586 young people who provided information on their gender, 326 were
girls (55%). More than half the participants reported that the highest ed-
ucation of their parents was college or university, with 56.3% having a fa-
ther with a higher education and 67.3% a mother with a similar education-
al level.
Materials
Developmental assets. The “Developmental Assets Profile” (DAP; Search
Institute, 2016) was used to measure the number of assets experienced in
various youth contexts. Participants indicated the extent to which they had
experienced Benson’s 40 developmental assets, which reflected four catego-
ries of internal assets and four categories of external assets. Sample items
of the four categories of internal assets (commitment to learning, positive
21
