Cross-National Evidence of Positive Youth Development and Contribution to Society and Environment

Dear Colleagues,

We are presenting a new Special Issue entitled “Cross-National Evidence of Positive Youth Development and Contribution to Society and Environment”. During the past century, the study of adolescence and youth has been guided mainly by the perspective of deficit. This perspective has influenced social policies, research and professional practice, and has especially focused on risk behaviors and psychopathologies in young people. Over the past two decades, progress has been made in developing positive indicators of youth well-being, and strengths-based approaches have guided the design of programs that are effective in various development contexts. The concept of positive youth development underlines the importance of increasing the internal and external developmental assets in the contexts in which young people develop. Within this positive view of developmental transition to adulthood, a certain consensus has been reached regarding the differentiation in the positive youth development of the 5Cs (Lerner et al., 2005): competence, confidence, character, connection and caring.

As a result of the development of these 5Cs, a new dimension emerged—contribution—indicating that young people who develop the former 5Cs will engage in this latter C. The manifestation of this positive development during adolescence and young adulthood stems from a mutually beneficial relationship between a person and their circumstances throughout life, which in turn contributes to the well-being of the individual and their increased personal contribution to society and environment. A commitment to society and the environment encourages young people to become agents of their own healthy development and in the positive enhancement of other people and of society. Thus, contributions to society and the environment are intrinsically associated with positive youth development. The development of young people as active citizens may encourage positive environmental and social change that provides the basis for more sustainable communities. Considering environmental and social action as a context for positive youth development, young people may be conceived as contributors, letting them participate in shared decision making, critical reflection and potential enquiries, as well as providing meaningful participation, a sense of belonging and authentic care in their society and environment.

Most evidence to date concerning positive youth development and contribution has been developed in Western regions, especially the USA and Northern Europe, so that more cross-national research is needed in other contexts around the world to extend the validity of this theoretical model. This Special Issue invites researchers and practitioners from around the world in the fields of positive youth development, social contribution and environmental action of the youth to submit their manuscripts, in form of systematic reviews, research, or interventions.

Dr. Diego Gomez-Baya
Dr. Nora Wiium
Dr. Denisse Manrique-Millones
Prof. Dr. Margarida Gaspar de Matos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Youth is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.