5 C's of Positive Youth Development

Positive Youth Development (PYD) is comprised of Five Cs. 

Competence

Confidence

Connection

Character

Caring

These five Cs were linked to the positive outcomes of youth development programs reported by Roth and Brooks-Gunn (2003a). In addition, these “Cs” are prominent terms used by practitioners, adolescents involved in youth development programs, and the parents of these adolescents in describing the characteristics of a “thriving youth” (King, et al., 2005).

Contribution is the “6th C.” 

...when a young person manifests the Cs across time (when the 32 youth is thriving), he or she will be on a life trajectory towards an “idealized adulthood” (Csikszentmihalyi & Rathunde, 1998; Rathunde & Csikszentmihalyi, 2006). Theoretically, an ideal adult life is marked by integrated and mutually reinforcing contributions to self (e.g., maintaining one’s health and one’s ability therefore to remain an active agent in one’s own development) and to family, community, and the institutions of civil society (Lerner, 2004). An adult engaging in such integrated contributions is a person manifesting adaptive developmental regulations (Brandtstädter, 1998, 1999, 2006).

Lerner, Richard M.(2009). Promoting Positive Youth Development: Theoretical and Empirical Bases1  [White paper]. Retrieved March 18, 2015, from Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, Tufts University: http://ase.tufts.edu/iaryd/documents/pubpromotingpositive.pdf

Ret. 3-18-15

For comparison

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The PowerPoint below on the Illinois Mentoring Partnership website was the impetus for more research on the 5 Cs. Thank you, Dr. DuBois!

http://ilmentoring.org/presentations/100714_dubois-youth-thriving.pdf

Ret. 3-17-15