INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO PROMOTION OF POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH OF COLOR:  EXAMPLES AND ISSUES

Abstract

Youth of color across many countries develop within an ecology of considerable threats to healthy development.  Yet, empirical findings are showing that a majority of these youth, even in relatively dire circumstances develop into effective, caring, connected, and contributing adults.  This symposium will bring together four presentations based on longstanding programs of research about theories and methods for aiding positive youth development of youth of color.  Each presentation focuses on a setting or transition during childhood or adolescence and applies an innovative approach to understanding how to improve youth support, opportunity, or resilience.  As such, each presentation will provide insight about opportunities for preventing problems and enabling healthy development but also point to practical considerations that affect how useful empirically tested programs and approaches can be for broader implementation. For example, one presentation focuses on transition to elementary school and the utility of an objective evaluation tool for aiding teachers in seeking additional help for struggling students.  A second, focused on elementary schools, describes the innovations in methods, health education, and sustaintability gained from a large group randomized trial (45 schools) of “21^st century health skills).  A third focuses on how peer networks can be mobilized to encourage health behaviors among early adolescents.  The fourth presentation examines a family intervention found to reduce risk of African-American youth, and how experiences of discrimination relate to impact. Implications for approaching child and adolescent health and clinical interventions will be emphasized.

Patrick H. Tolan is Charles S. Robb Professor at the University of Virginia in the Curry School of Education and in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences. From 2009-2017 he was the founding director of Youth-Nex:  The UVA Center to Promote Effective Youth Development, a trans-disciplinary center focusing on advancing scientific knowledge, practices, and policies related to positive youth development.  Prior to joining the UVA faculty, he was Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health at the University of Illinois and for ten years was Director of the Institute for Juvenile Research, a multidisciplinary center focused on child mental health and mental illness. He is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois. Over the past 35 years he has organized and lead multiple longitudinal and randomized control studies focused on prevention of academic and behavior problems and promoting resilience among youth in high risk communities and/or at critical developmental transitions. He also contributes policy and practice guiding summaries of the knowledge about interventions to promote positive development and reduce risk and morbidity for child health, and on the interface of methods and substantive theory in developmental interventions.  His studies provide insights and innovation about how multiple systems affect developmental course and provide opportunities for promoting positive outcome, reducing multiple forms of violence and their interrelation, how families can manage stress, what schools can do to improve child social and emotional development, and how robust scientific methods can be integrated into community based efforts and collaborations.