Christopher M. Napolitano

The role of adolescents’ hopeful futures in predicting positive and negative developmental trajectories: Findings from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development

Hope for ones future and intentional self-regulation skills may be important in the development of positive and problematic outcomes across adolescence. Using data from 1273 participants from Grades 7 to 9 of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), we assessed the role of a hopeful future in predicting developmental outcomes, measured by trajectories of PYD, contribution (e.g., thinking about and acting on social justice behaviors), risk behaviors, and depressive symptoms. A measure of intentional self-regulation, which involves selecting goals (S), optimizing resources to achieve goals (O), and compensating when original goals are blocked (C), was also used to predict outcomes. Higher levels of both hopeful future and selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) significantly predicted membership in the most favorable trajectories, controlling for sex and socioeconomic status (SES). Hopeful future was a stronger predictor than SOC for each of the outcomes assessed. Implications for future research about individual-context relational processes involved in PYD are discussed.

Intentional Self Regulation in Middle Adolescence: The Emerging Role of Loss-based Selection in Positive Youth Development

Intentional self regulation describes how people make choices, plan actions to reach their goals, and regulate the execution of their actions, making processes of intentional self regulation central to healthy human functioning. Prior research has confirmed the presence of three processes of intentional self regulation—elective selection (ES), optimization (O), and compensation (C)—in middle adolescence (Grades 8 through 10) and concurrent and predictive relationships with measures of Positive Youth Development (PYD). A fourth process, loss-based selection (LBS), should also develop by the end of middle adolescence. The present study used data from the 4-H Study of PYD to confirm the presence of a four-scale structure of intentional self regulation (ES, O, C, and LBS) in a sample of 2,357 racially diverse Grade 10 youth (63% female) and examine its covariation with indicators of positive and problematic development. Results supported the identification of a four-part structure of intentional self regulation, and scores covaried positively with indicators of PYD and negatively with substance use, delinquency, and depressive symptoms. Implications of the findings for the understanding of self-regulatory actions in adolescence and for future research are discussed.

Relationships With Important Nonparental Adults and Positive Youth Development: An Examination of Youth Self-Regulatory Strengths as Mediators

Youth relationships with important nonparental adults (INAs) influence adolescent development. However, prior studies have not simultaneously examined the quantity and quality of INA relationships in predicting youth outcomes, nor have prior studies considered mediators of these constructs. In a sample of tenth through twelfth graders, we modeled the relationships among quantity and quality of INA relationships, intentional self-regulation, hopeful future expectations, and the Five Cs of positive youth development. Hopeful future expectations mediated relations between quantity and youth confidence, character, and caring and between emotional closeness and youth confidence. Finally, youth intentional self-regulation predicted changes in character.

The development of intentional self-regulation in adolescence: Describing, explaining, and optimizing its link to positive youth development

Intentional self-regulation (ISR) skills are key assets promoting healthy and positive development across the life span. In this chapter, we describe the development of ISR in adolescence, offer explanations for the development of these skills and their relation to positive youth development among diverse youth in diverse contexts, and provide suggestions for future research and programs seeking to optimize youth outcomes through the promotion of ISR skills. Primarily drawing from data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, we discuss research using the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation model of Baltes, Freund and colleagues, measures of which have been linked to a variety of positive developmental outcomes in adolescence. In addition to providing a review of the literature and relevant recent research, an applied program designed to promote ISR--termed Project GPS--is also discussed.

The GPS to Success Growth Grids: Measurement Properties of a Tool to Promote Intentional Self-Regulation in Mentoring Programs

Mentoring programs may be contexts for building important intentional self-regulatory skills in adolescents. In this study, we provide data about the factor structure of new measures that assess youth intentional self-regulation (ISR) within such programs: the “GPS growth grids.” Using data from 409 mentor/youth dyads from 24 programs around the United States, we assess whether the resulting factor structure can be invariantly measured across mentor and mentee raters and three times of measurement. Results indicated that a single-factor structure best fit older and younger mentee age groups’ data. Older mentee and mentor data displayed measurement invariance across time and rater, while younger mentee and mentor data displayed invariance across time. Results also indicated differences in the factor correlations, means, and variances across rater and age group. These findings support using these measures for future longitudinal work assessing the role of youth, mentor, and program characteristics in promoting youth ISR skills.

On the Use and Usefulness of Backup Plans

In this article, we introduce the concept of backup plans as a motivational construct, defined as alternative means to an end that are intentionally developed but are not initially (or ever) used. We posit that backup plans change the way that a person pursues a goal, as well as the likelihood of achieving it, even if the backup plans are never used. In some cases, backup plans are a safety net supporting goal pursuit; however, in other cases, they constitute an unnecessary expense that can undermine motivation to persist with a first-choice plan. We propose that variations in the use and usefulness of backup plans are based on a person’s estimation and regulation of complexity value, or the additional costs and benefits that having a backup plan introduces compared with pursuing the same goal with only a single means. Although variations in the estimation and regulation of complexity value are idiosyncratic products of individual, contextual, and goal-related factors, we provide the prototypical example of age-related differences to illustrate our key points. In sum, our conceptualization of backup plans represents a new synthesis of motivation, multiple-goal, and life-span developmental research that addresses a key lacuna in the self-regulation literature.

Comparing Alternate Approaches to Calculating Reliability for Dichotomous Data: The Sample Case of Adolescent Selection, Optimization, and Compensation

Estimating reliability for scales or factors is an essential data analysis step in much of the research in developmental science. In this article, we demonstrate the importance of using the appropriate statistical method and underlying correlation matrix to estimate reliability for dichotomous data that represent a normally-distributed latent factor. We used an example case of three waves of adolescent data collected from responses to the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation questionnaire (SOC; Freund & Baltes, 2002) of intentional self-regulation to illustrate how calculating composite reliability (or ω) using tetrachoric correlations provides a more accurate estimate of reliability when compared to both raw covariance-based ω, as well as raw covariance-based and tetrachoric correlation-based Cronbachs α approaches. In addition, we describe methods for calculating each of these approaches to reliability estimation, and we offer suggestions for future researchers for estimating reliability for such dichotomous data.

The Five Cs Model of Positive Youth Development

The growing consensus among developmental scientists argues that optimizing young people’s development requires much more than simply ensuring that they avoid negative outcomes (e.g., drug use, delinquency). We must also foster strengths that help youth thrive in their diverse ecologies. In this chapter we draw on data and research from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development to discuss the benefits of promoting such strength-based perspectives in youth development programs. Our discussion focuses primarily on the Five Cs of positive youth development and on how our understanding of this model can inform social policies and enhance the experience of both practitioners and the youth they serve.

More than Just a Simple Twist of Fate: Serendipitous Relations in Developmental Science

Unexpected, non-normative events are key influences on human development across the life span. Despite this importance, little is known about how an individual may capitalize on unexpected events and transform them into opportunities for sustained positive development. In this article, to address this theoretical lacuna, I introduce the concept of serendipitous relations - mutually beneficial, adaptive developmental regulations brought about by the time-extended coaction of intentional self-regulatory actions and unexpected non-normative life events. I enumerate five specific intentional self-regulatory serendipitous actions hypothesized to lead to serendipitous relations. Using developmental theory, life examples, and examples from the literature, I hypothesize that serendipitous relations brought about by effective use of serendipitous actions may be important sources of adaptive development. I conclude by offering specific suggestions for future research on serendipitous relations across the life span.

“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.