Page 243 - Ana Kozina and Nora Wiium, eds. ▪︎ Positive Youth Development in Contexts. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2021. Digital Library, Dissertationes (Scientific Monographs), 42.
P. 243
commentary: individual and contextual thriving
Chapter 8 which expands the PYD construct of contact/connection, but in
the context of interventions aimed at reducing ethnic prejudice in schools).
While still other chapters expand our understanding of the ways that PYD
can be measured using various tools (e.g., Chapter 4) and how pre-existing,
large scale and well-established youth surveys such as the Programme for
international student assessment (PISA; OECD, 2021; see Chapter 7) can be
leveraged to study PYD.
In order for youth to thrive, actions from society are needed. Working
with interventions for youth and their contexts that would make young
people oriented toward thriving is vital, and this type of next step in the
PYD field, and such efforts can build off of the knowledge presented in
this book. PYD interventions can foster strengths and positive potentials
as the sole goal of intervention, boosting strengths for their own sake. Yet,
we see in several cases that problems and strengths can but do not always
have to intersect (Taylor, Oberle, Durlak, & Weissberg, 2017). What are the
strengths and potentials linked to both thriving and the reduction of prob-
lems? This is vital knowledge that will advance the study of adolescence
into the future (Brooks-Gunn & Roth, 2014).
Further, young people themselves are key actors in the dynamic sys-
tem of human development. Working systematically to build on and sup-
port the internal assets of youth and to create asset rich contexts is a wise
investment in the current new generation of young people who will face
substantial, future globally shared challenges (e.g., climate change, sweep-
ing changes in technology). Well informed and authentically generative so-
cial policy, context and individual oriented PYD interventions that foster
strengths as well as have the potential to reduce problems are vitally im-
portant so that there can be a successful interplay between youth and their
contexts and, above all, support young people so that many more individu-
als can thrive and act in an empowered and beneficial way that leads to the
long-term well-being of our global community, well into the future.
References
Benson, P. L., & C. Scales, P. (2009). The definition and preliminary measure-
ment of thriving in adolescence. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 85-
104. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760802399240
Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of hu-
man development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.),
243
Chapter 8 which expands the PYD construct of contact/connection, but in
the context of interventions aimed at reducing ethnic prejudice in schools).
While still other chapters expand our understanding of the ways that PYD
can be measured using various tools (e.g., Chapter 4) and how pre-existing,
large scale and well-established youth surveys such as the Programme for
international student assessment (PISA; OECD, 2021; see Chapter 7) can be
leveraged to study PYD.
In order for youth to thrive, actions from society are needed. Working
with interventions for youth and their contexts that would make young
people oriented toward thriving is vital, and this type of next step in the
PYD field, and such efforts can build off of the knowledge presented in
this book. PYD interventions can foster strengths and positive potentials
as the sole goal of intervention, boosting strengths for their own sake. Yet,
we see in several cases that problems and strengths can but do not always
have to intersect (Taylor, Oberle, Durlak, & Weissberg, 2017). What are the
strengths and potentials linked to both thriving and the reduction of prob-
lems? This is vital knowledge that will advance the study of adolescence
into the future (Brooks-Gunn & Roth, 2014).
Further, young people themselves are key actors in the dynamic sys-
tem of human development. Working systematically to build on and sup-
port the internal assets of youth and to create asset rich contexts is a wise
investment in the current new generation of young people who will face
substantial, future globally shared challenges (e.g., climate change, sweep-
ing changes in technology). Well informed and authentically generative so-
cial policy, context and individual oriented PYD interventions that foster
strengths as well as have the potential to reduce problems are vitally im-
portant so that there can be a successful interplay between youth and their
contexts and, above all, support young people so that many more individu-
als can thrive and act in an empowered and beneficial way that leads to the
long-term well-being of our global community, well into the future.
References
Benson, P. L., & C. Scales, P. (2009). The definition and preliminary measure-
ment of thriving in adolescence. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 85-
104. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760802399240
Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of hu-
man development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.),
243
