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Positive Youth Development Among Minority Youth: A Relational Developmental Systems Model

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Handbook on Positive Development of Minority Children and Youth

Abstract

We present an overview of the positive youth development (PYD) perspective and the relational developmental systems (RDS) metatheory that frames this perspective. We describe the Lerner and Lerner model of PYD, and some of the findings from the 4-H Study of PYD regarding how thriving can be promoted among America’s diverse youth. We also address limitations of this research, including the lack of a representative sample of minority youth participants in this study. We discuss how further RDS-based PYD research may be designed with the explicit goal of addressing some of the limitations of past work. We present implications for applying what we have learned from PYD research to programs that aim to promote thriving among minority youth in the U.S. and internationally.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We are grateful to Editor Frosso Motti for suggesting these key conceptual issues to us.

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Acknowledgments

The writing of this chapter was supported in part by grants from the John Templeton Foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    Richard M. Lerner, Jun Wang, Rachel M. Hershberg, Mary H. Buckingham, Elise M. Harris & Jonathan M. Tirrell

  2. Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

    Edmond P. Bowers

  3. Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Jacqueline V. Lerner

Authors
  1. Richard M. Lerner
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  2. Jun Wang
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  3. Rachel M. Hershberg
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  4. Mary H. Buckingham
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  7. Edmond P. Bowers
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  8. Jacqueline V. Lerner
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Correspondence to Richard M. Lerner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

    Natasha J. Cabrera

  2. Fakultät für Psychologie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Birgit Leyendecker

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Lerner, R.M. et al. (2017). Positive Youth Development Among Minority Youth: A Relational Developmental Systems Model. In: Cabrera, N., Leyendecker, B. (eds) Handbook on Positive Development of Minority Children and Youth. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43645-6_1

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