Positive Youth Development: Levels of Positivity in Youth Development

Positive youth development is a combination of Positive Episodes + Positive Associations + Positive circumstances. Youth development expert Richard Lerner theorizes that young people will thrive if they develop certain behaviours, dubbed the “five Cs,” over the course of childhood and early adolescence: competence, connection, character, confidence, and caring/compassion. According to Lerner, a youth with the five thriving behaviours is on the path to attaining a sixth C: contribution – to self, family, community, and civil society. It is the sixth C that leads to positive adulthood. “Committed— behaviourally, morally, and spiritually—to a better world beyond themselves,” he writes, “they will act to sustain for future generations a society marked by social justice, equity, and democracy and a world wherein all young people may thrive.” Richards Five C’s model Competence: enhancing participants social, academic, cognitive, and vocational competencies, Connection :building and strengthening adolescents’ relationships with other people and institutions, such as school, Confidence: Improving adolescents’ self-esteem, self-concept, self-efficacy, identity and belief in the future, Character: increasing self-control, decreasing engagement in health-compromising (problem) behaviours, developing respect for cultural or societal rules and standards, a sense of right and wrong (mortality) and spirituality, Compassion/Caring: improving youths’ empathy and identification with others. Females reported highest score in caring (89%), connection (92%), character (85%). whereas males reported highest score in competence (78%), contribution (96%), confidence (88%).