| The new vision associated with the positive youth development (PYD) has emergedsince the early1990s. The PYD perspective has stood in contrasts to traditional deficitperspectives about human behavior and development, especially in regard to the study ofadolescent development. Youths are viewed as resources to be developed, and not asproblems to be managed for society. The perspective draw a universal attention amongresearchers and social practitioners and a lot of research has been conducted on relationbetween the content and outcomes of positive traits and developing resources. Strengths orcharacters were positively linked to outcomes like school success, pro-social behavior, andcompetence， and negatively related to behavioral and emotional problems of youthdevelopment programs reported. Moreover, positive development should lead a youth personto make multifaceted contributions-to self, family, community, and civil society. In short,PYD benefits both individual development and the welfare of social context that support thedevelopment of all individuals.For Research1, it surveyed from bottom to top the positive traits that the youths possessunder Chinese cultural background with the method of the teacher nomination and openquestionnaire. Results indicated that general Chinese adolescents have12categories ofpositive traits, namely Agreeableness, Autonomy, Leadership, Caring, Perseverance,Prudence, Optimism and self-confidence, Integrity, Interest and Curiosity, Creativity, Braveryand Love of learning. It shows that there are some similarities between the5C model and thepositive traits of youths with Chinese background, but the latter also have some specialties.For Research2, Combined with the result of Research1, it edited the questionnaire ofPYD and tested its reliability and validity index. Results indicated that the level of PYD ismeasured by8dimensions which include43subjects and has good reliability and validityindex. Therefore, the questionnaire can be an effective tool for measuring PYD.For Research3, it adopted the portrait method of research to test the relation betweenPYD and contribution. Results indicated that PYD can predict the adolescents’ contributionlevel in one year, among which the prediction on Leadership and Creativity is outstanding.The result provides the basis for the hypothesis that contribution is positive development.For Research4, it tested, from a positive point of view, how the PYD level would affectthe condition of school adjustment. Results indicated that (1) the general level of PYD couldinfluence every index of school adjustment;(2) in terms of scale and strength, Love oflearning, among other traits, has much more influence on all the index of school adjustment,followed by Integrity, Leadership, Self-adjustment and Optimism;(3) as circumstanced variables, Interest and Curiosity, Self-adjustment and Love of learning have circumstancedeffect and could have an outstanding effect on school adjustment. So it is very important tocreate an atmosphere of exploration, autonomy and love of learning in classes and schools.Based on Research4, Research5further traced the condition of school adjustmentamong adolescents and tried to study the prediction effect that PYD has on school adjustment.Results indicated that the level of PYD were able to remarkably and positively predict theschool engagement and negatively predict the loneliness in one year. The influence that thelevel of PYD has on school success is complicated. On one side, Interest and curiosity andSelf-adjustment are able to predict school success in one year directly; on the other side, PYDaffects school success via mediation of school engagement. And the predictive power ofmediation model is strong, which means the prediction of school success by PYD worksmainly through the mediation effects of school engagement. The result further verifies thehypothesis of PYD affecting the outcomes of positive development and supports thehypothesis of the mediation effects of school engagement. |
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