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3-121 - Positive Youth Development (PYD) in Low Income Countries

Sat, March 23, 12:45 to 2:15pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 3, Room 325

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

In 2008, when Lonnie Sherrod began his post as SRCD’s Executive Director, he wrote about the need for the internationalization of research in child development since so much of what we know about children was based on research from high income countries (Cynkar, 2007). Recently, there has been an increase in research on child development representing a global perspective (see Arnett-Jensen, 2017; Petersen et al., 2017). However, concerns remain that our knowledge continues to be “built on studies of 5% of the world’s children” (Sherrod, 2017; p. xv). In this symposium, we focus our attention on youth who live in low-income countries. In addition to being countries of extreme poverty, they have all experienced civil conflict within the past three decades and have children who continue to struggle in the aftermath of war. Attempts have been made to help youth overcome these harsh conditions. We present three different youth programs that have been implemented in three different low-income countries. In the first study, a sport-for-development and peace program serving Liberian early adolescents is evaluated to determine its effectively in fostering social responsibility, close personal relationships, and purpose. In the second study, a mindfulness/socio-emotional program is implemented among northern Ugandan youth to determine its effectiveness in improving youths’ well-being. In the final study, participation in a church-based program is one variable used to develop different strength profiles of Salvadorian youths. These types are then associated with specific PYD outcomes. A well-published cross-cultural developmental psychologist will be our discussant.

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