The Promotion of Character through Youth Development Programs: A View of the Issues

Andrea Vest Ettekal, Kristina Schmid Callina, Richard M. Lerner

Abstract


Contemporary developmental theories suggest that out-of-school-time (OST) youth development programs may be an important context for character development and education because of the positive, mutually influential relations between youth and adult leaders found in exemplary instantiations of such programs. Although still in its early stages, research about this role of OST programs, including evaluations of specific programs, is beginning to burgeon in relation to increased interest in person-context models of human development, the fact that each of tens of millions of American youth participate in several OST programs each year, and heightened emphasis among scientists, educators, and policy makers about the importance of promoting character among the diverse youth of the nation. Both to reflect the state-of-the art and in the hope of promoting further research progress, the articles in this special section describe how the attributes of young people and the features of the OST programs youth development in which they participate may link together in promotion of character development.

Full Text:

PDF

References


Berkowitz, M.W. (2011). What works in values education. International Journal of Educational Research, 50(3), 153-158.

Berkowitz, M.W. (2012). Moral and character education. In K.R. Harris, S. Graham, T. Urdan, S. Graham, J.M. Royer, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Individual differences and contextual factors. Volume 2 of APA Educational Psychology Handbook (pp. 247-264). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Bornstein, M.H. (2006). Parenting science and practice. In K.A. Renninger, I.E. Sigel (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. 4: Child psychology in practice (6th ed.). (pp. 893-949). Editors-in-Chief: W. Damon, & R.M. Lerner. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Brandtstädter, J. (1998). Action perspectives on human development. In R.M. Lerner (Ed.), Theoretical Models of Human Development. Volume 1 of Handbook of Child Psychology (5th ed.). (pp. 807-866). Editors-in-chief: W. Damon & R.M. Lerner. New York: Wiley.

Hannah, S.T., Campbell, D.J., & Matthews, M.D. (2010). Advancing a research agenda for leadership in dangerous contexts. Military Psychology, 22(S1), S157-S189.

Hilliard, L.J., Hershberg, R.M., Wang, J., Bowers, E.P., Chase, P.A., Champine, R.B., Buckingham, M.H., Warren, D.P.A., Ferris, K.A., & Lerner R.M. (2014). Program innovations and character in cub scouts: Findings from Year 1 of a mixed-methods, longitudinal study. Journal of Youth Development,

(4), 4-30.

Lerner, R.M. (2015). Preface. Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science (7th ed.). Editor-in-chief: R.M. Lerner. (pp. xv-xxi). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Lerner, R.M., & Callina, K.S. (2014). The study of character development: Towards tests of a relational developmental systems model. Human Development, 57(6), 322-346.

Lerner, R.M., Lerner, J.V., Bowers, E., & Geldhof, G.J. (2015) Positive youth development and relational developmental systems. In W.F. Overton & P.C. Molenaar (Eds.), Theory and Method. Volume 1 of the Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science (7th ed.). Editor-in-chief: R.M. Lerner. (pp. 607-651). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Nucci, L.P. (2001). Education in the moral domain. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Overton, W.F. (2015). Process and relational developmental systems. In W.F. Overton & P.C. Molenaar (Eds.), Theory and Method. Volume 1 of the Handbook of Child Psychology and

Developmental Science (7th ed.). (pp. 9-62). Editor-in-chief: R.M. Lerner. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Vandell, D.L., Larson, R.W., Mahoney, J.L., & Watts, T.R. (2015). Children’s activities. In M.H. Bornstein and T. Leventhal (Eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science (7th

ed.), Volume 4: Ecological Settings and Processes. (pp. 305-344). Editor-in-chief: Richard M. Lerner. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Wang, J., Ferris, K.A., Hershberg, R.M., & Lerner, R.M. (2015). Developmental Trajectories of Youth Character: A Five-Wave Longitudinal Study of Cub Scouts and Non-Scout Boys. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1-15. doi:10.1007/s10964-015-0340-y.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2015.4

Copyright (c) 2016 Journal of Youth Development

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.