Sara K. Johnson

An Updated and Expanded Meta-Analysis of Nonresident Fathering and Child Well-Being

Since Amato and Gilbreths (1999) meta-analysis of nonresident father involvement and child well-being, nonmarital childbirths and nonresident father involvement both have increased. The unknown implications of such changes motivated the present study, a meta-analytic review of 52 studies of nonresident father involvement and child well-being. Consistent with Amato and Gilbreth, we found that positive forms of involvement were associated with benefits for children, with a small but statistically significant effect size. Amounts of father-child contact and financial provision, however, were not associated with child well-being. Going beyond Amato and Gilbreth, we analyzed the associations between different types of fathering and overall child well-being, and between overall father involvement and different types of child well-being. We found that nonresident father involvement was most strongly associated with childrens social well-being and also was associated with childrens emotional well-being, academic achievement, and behavioral adjustment. The forms of father involvement most strongly associated with child well-being were involvement in child-related activities, having positive father-child relationships, and engaging in multiple forms of involvement. Moderator analyses demonstrated variation in effect sizes based on both study characteristics and demographic variables. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy and practice.

Special Issue Introduction: Thriving Across the Adolescent Years: A View of the Issues

Framed within a relational developmental systems model, the 4-H Study of positive youth development (PYD) explored the bases and implications of thriving across much of the second decade of life. This special issue pertains to information derived from the recently completed eight waves of the 4-H Study of PYD, and presents findings about the relations between individual and contextual variables that are involved in the thriving process. This introduction briefly reviews the historical background and the theoretical frame for the 4-H Study and describes its general methodology. We provide an overview of the articles in this special issue and discuss the ways in which the articles elucidate different facets of the thriving process. In addition, we discuss the implications of this research for future scholarship and for applications aimed at improving the life chances of diverse adolescents.

Selection, optimization, and compensation: The structure, reliability, and validity of forced-choice versus Likert-type measures in a sample of late adolescents

Intentional self-regulation (ISR) undergoes significant development across the life span. However, our understanding of ISR’s development and function remains incomplete, in part because the field’s conceptualization and measurement of ISR vary greatly. A key sample case involves how Baltes and colleagues’ Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC) model of ISR, which was developed with adult populations, may be applied to understand and measure adolescent self-regulation. The tripartite structure of SOC identified in older populations has not been replicated in adolescent samples. This difference may be due to measurement issues. In this article, we addressed whether using a Likert-type format instead of a forced-choice format of the SOC Questionnaire resulted in a tripartite factor structure when used with an adolescent population. Using data from 578 late adolescents who participated in the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (70.80% female), we showed that the two versions of the measure produced a similar factor structure and were similar in terms of reliability and validity, although the traditional forced-choice version provided data with slightly lower criterion validity. We therefore conclude that both types of the measure are acceptable, but the choice of measure may depend on the sample in question and the analytical approach planned for the findings. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research.

Youth–Adult Relationships and Positive Youth Development

Resources to promote positive development in young people have been identified in many contexts such as families, schools, neighborhoods, and out-of-school time programs. The most important resources within these contexts are the relationships that young people have with committed, caring adults. In this chapter, we provide an overview of research, based on findings from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD) and other scholarly work, on the essential role of adults in promoting PYD. We provide examples of organizations that have applied this research to their programming and practices to impact the well-being of young people. Finally, we provide priorities for practice and policy based on these findings. Specifically, we recommend that programs promote positive parenting behaviors, build cultural competence among their staff, engage parents more fully in programs, train staff and the youth in relationship-building skills, and thoughtfully consider how they create mentoring matches. Policy makers should invest in creating supportive youth systems in which youth voices are heard, such as family support programs and comprehensive community initiatives, to promote youth thriving.

The Study of the Development of Civic Engagement Within Contemporary Developmental Science: Theory, Method, and Application

Within contemporary developmental science, models derived from relational developmental systems metatheory emphasize that the basic process involved in the ontogeny of civic engagement involves mutually-influential and beneficial relations between the developing individual and his or her complex and changing social, cultural, and physical contexts (represented as individual ← → context relations). The authors suggest that research on the development of civic engagement should be theoretically predicated, use change-sensitive, longitudinal methods, and be comparative across time and place. Using these facets of scholarship as a lens, we discuss the contributions to this special issue. We conclude that the present set of studies provides a useful basis for future research and applications aimed at understanding and promoting individuals’ civic contributions, and their support of social organizations promoting individual thriving and freedom, liberty, and social justice.

Promoting Contribution Among Youth: Implications from Positive Youth Development Research for Youth Development Programs

Contribution to civil society is a key outcome of positive youth development (PYD), as evidenced by findings from the 4-H Study of PYD. In this chapter, we focus on conceptualizations and measurement of contribution within PYD research. We first discuss conceptualizations of contribution as active and engaged citizenship (AEC) and the relations among AEC and other constructs, such as school engaged and risk behaviors, within the 4-H Study sample. We then describe research on contribution among youth of color, including recent research on social justice youth development and critical consciousness. Throughout the chapter, we review strategies that practitioners can use to develop and promote meaningful contributions among diverse young people. Given associations between contribution and positive outcomes among America’s diverse youth, we emphasize that policies and programs should provide more opportunities for youth contributions to society, including community service, social activism, and/or participation in local politics.

Adolescents’ Character Role Models: Exploring Who Young People Look Up to as Examples of How to Be a Good Person

Research has explored young people’s role models in general, but little is known about role models whom youth look up to in relation to their character. The authors asked 220 adolescents (M age = 13.4, 45% White, 15% Hispanic, 11% Black) from Massachusetts and Connecticut to nominate a character role model, someone they knew personally and looked up to as an example of how to be a good person; 142 (64.5%) listed a character role model, with family members nominated most frequently, followed by friends and other adults (e.g., teachers). Youth cited how their character role model treated them as well as other people as reasons for selecting their character role models. Participants also rated the quality of the relationship, role-modeling behaviors, and socialization practices. There were similar positive characteristics associated with the three character role model types, but there were also differences (e.g., family character role models were rated most positively on relationship quality as well as role-modeling behaviors, whereas friend character role models rarely provided character socialization). Findings suggested that youth understand the relational nature of character and also point to the potentially powerful role of character role models in promoting character development.

Promoting Healthy Lifestyles Through Youth Activity Participation: Lessons from Research

Most young people in the U.S. participate in some form of structured movement activity, such as sports or dance, and these activities have the potential to support positive youth development and continued engagement in healthy activity. In this chapter, we discuss the potential benefits and risks associated with youth participation in movement activities, potential barriers and facilitators to activity participation across diverse contexts, and ways to promote sustained participation. This chapter emphasizes that development takes place within an integrated system involving youth, their social relationships, and the multiple activities in which they participate. We examine how three key elements (positive sustained youth-adult relationships, life skill development, and opportunities for leadership) can be used to help movement-based programs promote positive youth development. In particular, we recommend that programs and policy makers should work collaboratively to provide developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant activities for young people that incorporate these three key elements, in order to better support positive youth development and healthy lifestyles.

Modeling Pathways of Character Development across the First Three Decades of Life: An Application of Integrative Data Analysis Techniques to Understanding the Development of Hopeful Future Expectations

There were two purposes of the present research: first, to add to scholarship about a key character virtue, hopeful future expectations; and second, to demonstrate a recent innovation in longitudinal methodology that may be especially useful in enhancing the understanding of the developmental course of hopeful future expectations and other character virtues that have been the focus of recent scholarship in youth development. Burgeoning interest in character development has led to a proliferation of short-term, longitudinal studies on character. These data sets are sometimes limited in their ability to model character development trajectories due to low power or relatively brief time spans assessed. However, the integrative data analysis approach allows researchers to pool raw data across studies in order to fit one model to an aggregated data set. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the promises and challenges of this new tool for modeling character development. We used data from four studies evaluating youth character strengths in different settings to fit latent growth curve models of hopeful future expectations from participants aged 7 through 26 years. We describe the analytic strategy for pooling the data and modeling the growth curves. Implications for future research are discussed in regard to the advantages of integrative data analysis. Finally, we discuss issues researchers should consider when applying these techniques in their own work.

Perceptions of Character Development at a Trade College: Triangulating Student, Alumni, Administrator, and Teacher Perspectives

Higher education may be a setting wherein character is revealed or developed. The purpose of this study was to investigate stakeholders’ perspectives about the processes involved in character development at a postsecondary institution with a trade and character education focus: Williamson College. The authors analyzed qualitative data from administrators, teachers, students, and alumni regarding their perceptions of the character development process at Williamson College and to ascertain which features of the context each group viewed as essential for character development. The authors then triangulated across sources to examine alignment in stakeholders’ perceptions. Each stakeholder group identified two essential facets of Williamson College: (1) structure and discipline and (2) interpersonal relationships. The groups varied, however, on which aspects of these themes they highlighted. We discuss the implications of these findings for the Williamson College context as well as for the development, implementation, and evaluation of character-based models of higher education.