Transcript Slide 1

Positive Youth Development:
Conceptual Issues, Empirical
Findings, and Practical
Applications
Carl E. Paternite
Don Domenici
Marc McLaughlin
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Department of Psychology
Miami University
Presentation for the Partnerships for Success Academy
September 23, 2003
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Positive Youth Development
(PYD)
An approach that
encourages the following:
1. Promoting and fostering positive aspects of young
people’s lives.
2. Promoting healthy ways of living in young people,
families,and society.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Instructional Objectives For Presentation:
 Increase awareness of the importance of schools as a
setting for promotion of positive youth development.
 Increase knowledge of critical issues and perspectives taken
on the study of positive youth development.
 Increase knowledge about application of principals of
positive youth development to problem prevention.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Themes Addressed in Presentation:
 Program development.
 Interdisciplinary collaboration and partnership.
 Health promotion and problem prevention.
 Research, training and education.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
The need for increased attention to
positive youth development is quite clear:
“
We have a burgeoning field of developmental
psychopathology but have a more diffuse body of
research on the pathways whereby children and
adolescents become motivated, directed, socially
competent, compassionate, and psychologically vigorous
adults. Corresponding to that, we have numerous
research-based programs for youth aimed at curbing drug
use, violence, suicide, teen pregnancy, and other problem
behaviors, but lack a rigorous applied psychology of how
to promote youth development.
The place for such a field is apparent to anyone who
has had contact with a cross section of American
Miami University
adolescents.” (Larson, 2000, p. 170)
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Continuum of Effective Behavior
Support
Students with
Chronic/Intense
Problem Behavior
(1 - 7%)
Tertiary Prevention
Secondary Prevention
Students At-Risk
for Problem
Behavior
(5-15%)
Students
without
Serious
Problem
Behaviors
(80 -90%)
Primary Prevention
Specialized Individual
Interventions
(Individual Student
System)
Specialized Group
Interventions
(At-Risk System)
Universal Interventions
(School-Wide System
Classroom System)
Miami University
All Students in School
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Report of President’s New Freedom
Commission on Mental Health
http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov
“…the mental health delivery system is fragmented and in
disarray…leading to unnecessary and costly disability,
homelessness, school failure and incarceration.”
Unmet needs and barriers to care include (among others):
• Fragmentation and gaps in care for children.
• Lack of national priority for mental health and suicide
prevention.
July, 2003
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Report of President’s New Freedom
Commission on Mental Health: Six Goals
for a Transformed System
• Americans understand that mental health is essential to overall health.
• Mental health care is consumer and family driven.
• Disparities in mental health services are eliminated.
• Early mental health screening, assessment, and referral to services are
common practice.
• Excellent mental health care is delivered and research is accelerated.
• Technology is used to access mental health care and information.
July, 2003
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Four Recommendations Supporting
Goal 4: Early Mental Health Screening,
Assessment, and Referral to Services are
Common Practice
1. Promote the mental health of young children.
2. Improve and expand school mental health
programs.
3. Screen for co-occurring mental and substance use
disorders and link with integrated treatment strategies.
4. Screen for mental disorders in primary health care,
across the lifespan, and connect to treatment and
supports.
July, 2003
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Expanded School-Based
Mental Health Programs
 National movement to place effective mental health
programs in schools, serving youth in general and special
ed.
 To promote the academic, behavioral, social, emotional, and
contextual/systems well-being of youth, and to reduce
“mental health” barriers to school success.
 Programs incorporate primary prevention and mental health
promotion, secondary prevention, and intensive
intervention,joining staff and resources from education and
other community systems.
 Intent is to contribute to building capacity for a
comprehensive, multifaceted, and integrated system of
support and care.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
University of Maryland
Center for School Mental Health
Assistance
Mark Weist
(http://csmha.umaryland.edu)
ESBMH
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
UCLA
Center for Mental Health Assistance
Howard Adelman & Linda Taylor
(http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu)
“Barriers to Learning”
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Potential of Schools as
Key Points of Engagement
 Opportunities to engage youth where they are.
 Unique opportunities for intensive, multifaceted
approaches and are essential contexts for
health promotion, prevention and research
activity.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Clearly, intellectual, social, and emotional
education go hand-in-hand, and all are
linked to creating safe schools, building
healthy character, and achieving
academic success:
“The proper aim of education is to promote significant learning.
Significant learning entails development. Development means
successively asking broader and deeper questions of the relationship
between oneself and the world. This is as true for first graders as it is
for graduate students, for fledgling artists as graying accountants.
A good education ought to help people become more perceptive to
and more discriminating about the world: seeing, feeling, and
understanding more, yet sorting the pertinent from the peripheral with
ever finer touch, increasingly able to integrate what they see and to
make meaning of it in ways that enhance their ability to go on growing.
To imagine otherwise, to act as though learning were simply a matter of
stacking facts on top of one another, makes as much sense as thinking
one can learn a language by memorizing a dictionary. Ideas only come
to life when they root in the mind of a learner.” (Daloz, 1999, p. 243)
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Schools: The Most
Universal Natural Setting
• Over 52 million youth attend 114,000 schools
• Over 6 million adults work in schools
• Combining students and staff, one-fifth of the
U.S. population can be found schools
From Weist, 2003
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Schools: The Most
Universal Natural Setting
 Educators are key partners in efforts to
intervene with children in need and to promote
positive youth development.
 In fact, through their day-to-day interactions
with students, educators are the linchpins of
school-based efforts to encourage healthy
psychological development of youth.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Educators as Key Members of the
PYD/Health Promotion Team
 Schools should not be held responsible for meeting
every need of every student.
 However, schools must meet the challenge when the
need directly affects learning and school success.
(Carnegie Council Task Force on Education of Young
Adolescents, 1989)
 There is clear and compelling evidence that there
are strong positive associations between mental
health and school success.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Educators as Key Members of
the PYD/Health Promotion Team
 “Children whose emotional, behavioral, or social difficulties are not
addressed have a diminished capacity to learn and benefit from the school
environment. In addition, children who develop disruptive behavior patterns
can have a negative influence on the social and academic environment for
other children.” (Rones & Hoagwood, 2000, p.236)
 Contemporary school reform—and the associated high-stakes testing
(including federal legislation signed in 2002)—has not incorporated the
Carnegie Council imperative. That is, recent reform has not adequately
incorporated a focus on addressing barriers to development, learning, and
teaching.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Educators as Key Members of the
PYD/Health Promotion Team
“Most educators, parents, students,
and the public support a broader
educational agenda that also involves
enhancing students’ social-emotional
competence, character, health, and
civic engagement.” (Greenberg, et al.,
2003, p. 466)
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
The Ohio Mental Health
Network for School Success
Mission
To help Ohio’s school districts, community-based
agencies, and families work together to achieve
improved educational and developmental
outcomes for all children — especially those at
emotional or behavioral risk and those with
mental health problems.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
The Ohio Mental Health
Network for School Success
Action Agenda
 Create awareness about the gap between children’s mental
health needs and “treatment” resources, and encourage
improved and expanded services (including new anti-stigma
campaign).
 Encourage mental health agencies and school districts to adopt
mission statements that address the importance of
partnerships.
 Conduct surveys of mental health agencies and school districts
to better define the mental health needs of children and to
gather information about promising practices.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
The Ohio Mental Health
Network for School Success
Action Agenda (continued)
 Provide technical assistance to mental health
agencies and school districts, to support adoption
of evidence-based and promising practices,
including improvement and expansion of schoolbased mental health services.
 Develop a guide for education and mental health
professionals and families, for the development of
productive partnerships.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
The Ohio Mental Health
Network for School Success
Action Agenda (continued)
 Assist in identification of sources of financial
support for school-based mental health initiatives.
 Assist university-based professional preparation
programs in psychology, social work, public
health, and education, in developing interprofessional strategies and practices for
addressing the mental health needs of school-age
children.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Ohio’s Shared Agenda Initiative:
Mental Health, Schools and
Families Working Together for All
Children and Youth
Policy Maker Partnership (PMP) at the
National Association of State Directors
of Special Education (NASDSE) and the
National Association of State Mental
Health Program Directors (NASMHPD)
Concept Paper:
Mental Health, Schools and Families Working Together
for All Children and Youth:
Toward A Shared Agenda (2002)
Purpose of the Concept Paper
“Encourage state and local family and
youth organizations, mental health
organizations, education entities and
schools across the nation to enter new
relationships to achieve positive social,
emotional and educational outcomes for
every child.”
The concept paper is available online at:
www.nasdse.org/sharedagenda.pdf
www.ideapolicy.org/sharedagenda.pdf
www.nasmhpd.org
Policy Maker Partnership (PMP) at the
National Association of State Directors of
Special Education (NASDSE) and the
National Association of State Mental
Health Program Directors (NASMHPD)
Shared Agenda Seed Grant Awards to Six States:
Missouri, Ohio, Oregon,
South Carolina, Texas, and Vermont
Additional Funding for
Ohio’s Shared Agenda
Initiative
Ohio Department of Mental Health
Ohio Department of Education
Ohio Department of Health
and
Numerous Additional State-level and Regional
Organizations
Infrastructure for Ohio’s Shared
Agenda Initiative
The Shared Agenda seed grant is being
implemented in Ohio within the
collaborative infrastructure of the Mental
Health Network
Three Phases of Ohio’s Shared
Agenda Initiative
Phase 1—Statewide forum for leaders of mental health,
education, and family policymaking organizations and childserving systems (March 3, 2003)
Phase 2—Six regional forums for policy implementers and
consumer stakeholders (April-May, 2003)
Phase 3—Legislative forum involving key leadership of relevant
house and senate committees (October 9, 2003)
Phase 1 and Phase 2
Shared Agenda Forums
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Columbus, OH — Statewide Forum, March 3, 2003
Athens, OH—Southeast
April 15, 2003
Wooster, OH—North Central
April 28, 2003
Columbus, OH—Central
April 29, 2003
Bowling Green, OH—Northwest
April 29, 2003
Cleveland, OH—Northeast
May 5, 2003
Hamilton, OH—Southwest
May 5, 2003
Strategies and Features of Various
Shared Agenda Forums
 Keynote presentations by national and state experts:
• Mark Weist, Center for School MH Assistance, U. of Maryland
• Steve Adelsheim, New Mexico School MH Initiative
• Howard Adelman & Linda Taylor, UCLA School MH Project
• Kimberly Hoagwood, Columbia University
• Howie Knoff, Project Achieve
• Joseph Johnson, Ohio Department of Education
• Eric Fingerhut, Ohio State Senator
Strategies and Features of Various
Shared Agenda Forums
 Promising work in Ohio showcased
 Youth and parent testimony
 Cross-stakeholder panel discussions
 Facilitated discussion structured to create a collective vision, build a sense of
mutual responsibility for reaching the vision, instill hope that systemic change is
possible, and problem-solve regarding implementation issues
 Appreciative Inquiry model for promotion of systems-level change and
transformation informed the process
Outcomes and Recommendations
from Phases 1 and 2 of
Ohio’s Shared Agenda Initiative
 Approximately 725 participants
 Report being compiled that will inform the Fall, 2003 Shared Agenda Legislative
Forum
 Through Legislative Forum raise public awareness and build advocacy for policy
and fiscal support for better alignment for education and mental health in the
next biennial budget process
 Website created to track and publicize Ohio’s Shared Agenda initiative
(http://www.units.muohio.edu/csbmhp/sharedagenda.html)
Ten Emerging Recommendations
from Phases 1 and 2 of Ohio’s Shared
Agenda Initiative
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1. Promote EFFECTIVE mental health and educational
practices in schools
2. Increase family and community involvement in school
mental health and educational programs
3. Actively solicit and appreciate student input in
program planning and operation
4. Reduce stigma for children who need mental health
services
Ten Emerging Recommendations
from Phases 1 and 2 of Ohio’s
Shared Agenda Initiative (cont’d)
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5. Maintain focus on all children, not just students in
special education
6. Promote a better understanding of children’s mental
health needs in schools
7. Expand cross-discipline training (preservice and
inservice) for mental health/family-serving providers,
educators and parents
Ten Emerging Recommendations
from Phases 1 and 2 of Ohio’s
Shared Agenda Initiative (cont’d)
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8. Work more effectively to reduce “turf issues” that interfere
with children’s mental health service delivery and with
mental health-education collaboration
9. Coordinate more effectively between state-level and
regional/local efforts in the area of school mental health and
in promotion of mental health and school success
10.Develop organizational structures (e.g., 501C3) that will
promote strong coalitions and facilitate funding
Creating and Maintaining Ongoing,
Empowering Partnership with Educators
 Multi-level, formal and informal dialogue with policy
makers, formulators, enforcers, and implementers—adopt an inclusive
definition of “educator”
 Programs for school board members and administrators.
 Newsletter for teachers.
 Website resources.
 Extensive “contact time” with educators in their school
buildings.
 “Joining” the school community.
 Key opinion leaders.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Creating and Maintaining Ongoing,
Empowering Partnership with Educators
 Careful, detailed, local needs assessments
from the perspective of educators, and a
commitment to be responsive to identified
needs.
 Results used in advocacy efforts and as
guideposts for ongoing work.
 Incorporate academic and school success
outcomes in youth development initiatives.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Creating and Maintaining Ongoing,
Empowering Partnership with Educators
 Capitalize on schools’ unique opportunities for PYD
and health-promoting activities.
 Many recommended strategies for drop-out
prevention and non-violence promotion can be
implemented, in partnership with educators, in
school settings.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Prioritizing Promotion of Healthy
Development and Problem Prevention
For drop-out prevention, these include:
 Early intervention.
 Mentoring and tutoring.
 Service learning.
 Conflict resolution and violence prevention
curricula and training for students/staff.
 Alternative schooling.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Model: Influences on Violent versus
Non-Violent Behavior
(From Shapiro, 1999, Applewood Centers, Inc., Cleveland, OH)
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Some of What We Know About
Youth Violence Prevention and Promotion
of Non-violence
From the Surgeon General (2001), U.S. Secret Service (2000),
CDC (2002), Mulvey & Cauffman (2001)
•
Promoting healthy relationships and environments is more effective for
reducing school violence than instituting punitive penalties.
•
The best predictor of adolescent well-being is a feeling of connection to
school. Students who feel close to others, fairly treated, and vested in
school are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.
•
A critical component of any effective school violence program is a school
environment in which ongoing activities and problems of students are
discussed, rather than tallied. Such an environment promotes ongoing risk
management, which depends on the support and involvement of those
closest to the indicators of trouble — peers and teachers.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Violence Prevention and
Promotion of Non-violence:
What Doesn’t Work
From the Surgeon General (2001) and others
 Scare tactics. (e.g., Scared Straight)
 Deterrence programs — shock incarceration, boot camps.
 Efforts focusing exclusively on providing education/information about
drugs/violence and resistance. (DARE)
 Efforts focusing solely on self-esteem enhancement.
 Vocational counseling.
 Residential treatment.
 Traditional casework and clinic-based counseling.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Promoting Nonviolence: An
Example of a Heuristic
School-Based Framework
Deutsch (1993) — Educating for a peaceful world
Four Key Components Including:
 Cooperative Learning.
 Conflict Resolution Training.
 Use of Constructive Controversy in Teaching Subject
Matters.
 Mediation in the Schools.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Prioritizing Promotion of Healthy
Development and Violence Prevention:
Best and Promising Practices
Including:
 Structured social skill development programs.
 Mentoring. (see Big Brothers/Sisters; Garbarino, 1999)
 Employment.
 Programs that foster school engagement, participation, and bonding.
 Promotion of developmental assets. (see Search Institute)
 A variety of approaches that engage parents and families (e.g., parent
training, MST, functional FT)
 Early childhood home visitation programs.
 Multi-faceted programs that combine several of the above.
 For good examples see “Blueprint Programs.”
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
What is Positive Youth
Development (PYD)?
An approach toward youth programs that
encourages the following:
1. Promoting and fostering positive aspects of young
people’s lives.
2. Promoting healthy ways of living in young people,
families,and society.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Shifts in Approaching Youth
Issues
Intervention
-Providing services in response to
established problems
Prevention
-Identifying and addressing factors that
predict problem behaviors
Promotion
- Assisting with the development of
strengths
- Focus not limited to just problem
behaviors
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Theoretical Foundations
• Humanistic psychology (Rogers, Maslow)
First emphasized the potential for human
growth and focusing on strengths.
• Positive psychology (Seligman)
A recent movement to research human
strengths rather than flaws
• Key to success involves incorporating different, but
related approaches into PYD.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Qualities of a
Promotion-Focused Program
Promotion of what?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Human Strengths (Seligman)
Psychological Wellness (Cowen)
Social Change (Tseng)
Spirituality (Garbarino)
Initiative (Larson)
Hope (Snyder)
Developmental Assets (Benson)
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Incorporating Promotion into Youth
Programs: Issues and Examples
•
Using PYD to evaluate existing programs
(e.g., Catalano’s review).
•
Feasibility: Can it be implemented?
•
Improving existing programs by incorporating
promotion-based strategies in addition to those
of intervention and prevention
•
Intervention/Prevention: Useful, but not enough
to make lasting change.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Developmental Assets
(1997 data, www.search-institute.org)
Approximately 100,000 6th-12th graders.
Youth with Different Levels of Assets.
 8% with 31 or more of 40 assets.
 30% with 21-30 assets.
 42% with 11-20 assets.
 20% with 1-10 assets.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Developmental Assets and Violence
(1997 data, www.search-institute.org)
Approximately 100,000 6th-12th graders.
Definition of violence—three or more acts of fighting,
hitting, injuring a person, carrying a weapon, or threatening
physical harm in the past 12 months (self report).

61% of youth with fewer than 11 of 40
developmental assets were violent.

6% of youth with 31 or more of 40 developmental
assets were violent.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Developmental Assets and School
Success
(1997 data, www.search-institute.org)
Approximately 100,000 6th-12th graders.
Succeeds in School—get’s mostly A’s on report card (self
report).

53% of youth with 31 or more of 40 developmental
assets.

3% of youth with fewer than 11 of 40 developmental
assets.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Strengths of the Search Institute Model
of Positive Youth Development
• Asset-focused (instead of deficit-focused)
• Distinguishes between external and internal
assets
o Communities intervene with external assets
o Adults shape or directly provide most external assets
• Grounded in relationship-oriented assets
o Multiple aspects of relationships
o Modest potential for “depth/redundancy” measurement by
gauging youths’ positive relationships with:
 Both adults and peers
 Community adults
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Moving Beyond the Search Institute Model:
Recommended Next Steps
• Refined measures of depth/redundancy of
interactions with family adults
o Clear discrimination of parent figures’ roles/identities
o Measurement of assets provided by multiple parent
figures
 Does redundancy enhance potency of asset provision?
o Immediate measures (e.g. daily log of preceding evening at home.)
• Multiple informants (e.g. students, multiple
parents)
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Moving Beyond the Search Institute Model:
Recommended Next Steps
• Refined measures of depth/redundancy of interactions
with community adults
• More refined identification of developmental and
protective function of assets (requires longitudinal
studies):
o Connections between specific assets and subsequent
competencies
o Connections between specific assets and subsequent problems
o Related assets/cumulative effects of specific competencies
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Preview of Take-Home Messages
Overall Take-Home Message
Positive Youth Development (PYD) models of
intervention that focus on relational competence
and systemic/contextual factors—i.e.
developmental/ relational/ systemic (DRS) models
of intervention—represent the optimal method for
not only preventing youth problems but, more
importantly, preparing youth to be successful
adults.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Preview of Take-Home Messages
Specific Take Home Messages
•DRS interventions can broadly enhance life satisfaction
-in all life domains, not just sexuality
•DRS interventions can enduringly enhance life satisfaction
-throughout adolescence and into adulthood
•DRS interventions “kill 3 birds with one stone:”
-concurrent problem prevention (instead of problem resolution)
-competence promotion (instead of just prevention)
-universal delivery (i.e. impacting all youth)
•DRS interventions represent the optimal delivery mechanism for
instilling feminist ideologies that promote wholeness/competence
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
A Few General Statistics on Teen HRSB
•
Pregnancy:
Each year, almost 1 million teenage women—10% of all women aged 15-19 and
19% of those who have had sexual intercourse—become pregnant.
•
78% of teen pregnancies are unplanned, accounting for about ¼ of all accidental
pregnancies annually.
•
Teen pregnancy rates are much higher in the U.S. than in many other developed
countries—twice as high as in England and Wales or Canada, and nine times as
high as in the Netherlands or Japan.
•
Steep decreases in the pregnancy rate among sexually experienced teenagers
accounted for most of the 17% drop in the overall teenage pregnancy rate from
1990-1996. It is estimated that 20% of the decline was because of decreased
sexual activity, while 80% was due to more effective contraceptive practice.
•
25% of teenage mothers have a second child within 2 years of their first.
Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute (2001, 1999)
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
A Few General Statistics on Teen HRSB
STDs:
•
Every year 3 million teens—about 1 in 4 sexually experienced teens—acquire
an STD.
•
Diseases have varying levels of contagion—and all are disturbing: In a single
act of unprotected sex with an infected partner, a teenage woman has a 1%
chance of acquiring HIV, a 30% risk of getting genital herpes, and a 50%
chance of contracting gonorrhea.
•
In some studies, up to 15% of sexually active teenage women have been
found to be infected with the human papillopmavirus, many with a strain of the
virus linked to cervical cancer. (This virus can often be highly contagious even
if condoms are used.)
Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute (1999)
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Presentation Outline
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Value of Short-term and Long-term Effects
The Three Proximal Antecedents of Pregnancy and STD Infection
The Distal Antecedents of Pregnancy and STD Infection
The Key to Long-term Intervention Effects: Broader Conceptualizations of
Antecedents and Consequences of HRSB
Distinguishing Types of Programs: Are Some HRSB-focused Programs
Actually DRS-oriented Programs? (No, not really.)
An Exemplary Advantage of DRS Programming: Incorporation of Feminist
DRS Ideology
Conclusion: DRS Programming Requires Foresight, Tenacity, and Clear Goals
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
• The Value of Short-term and Long-term
Effects
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
• The Three Proximal Antecedents of
Pregnancy and STD Infection
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
• The Distal Antecedents of Pregnancy and
STD Infection
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
• The Key to Long-term Intervention Effects:
Broader Conceptualizations of Antecedents and
Consequences of HRSB
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
However, in America, sex is less attached to
meaningful, committed relationships, than it is in
other Western, developed countries.
Miami University
Source: Darroch et al. (2001)
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
• Distinguishing Types of Programs: Are Some
HRSB-focused Programs Actually DRS-oriented
Programs? (No, not really.)
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
• An Exemplary Advantage of DRS
Programming: Incorporation of Feminist
DRS Ideology
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Feminist Issues
Egalitarian Relationships?:
•
One in eight women aged 15-19, a quarter of those who have ever had
sexual intercourse, have been forced to have sex.
•
93% of teenage women report that their first intercourse was voluntary, but
one-quarter of these women report that it was unwanted.
•
More than a quarter (29%) of sexually active 15-17-year-old women have
partners who are 3-5 years older than they are; 7% have partners who
are six or more years older than they are.
•
The fathers of babies born to teen mothers are likely to be older than their
female partners: 1 in 5 infants born to unmarried minors are fathered
by men 5 or more years older than the mother.
Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute (2001, 1999)
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Feminist Issues
Women Bear the Brunt of the Burden of Teen Pregnancy and STDs:
•
•
•
•
•
Teen mothers typically (83%) are from poor or low-income backgrounds
Teen mothers typically complete high school 70% of the time, but are less
likely to go on to college than women who delay childbearing.
Teen mothers often get inadequate prenatal care for themselves and their
child: 1/3 of pregnant teens receive inadequate care
Teen mothers more readily give birth to compromised infants: their children
are more likely to have low birth weight, to have childhood health problems,
and to be hospitalized than are those born to older mothers.
Female adolescents are much more susceptible to catching some STDs than
are their male counterparts. The consequences of some of these STDs can
result in sterility and/or lethal cancer for women (but not men).
Sporadic Contraception Use:
Teenage females are less likely than older women to practice contraception without
interruption over the course of a year, and more likely to practice contraception
sporadically or not at all.
Miami University
Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute (1999)
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
• Conclusion: DRS Programming Requires
Foresight, Tenacity, and Clear Goals
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
“For every complex
problem there is a
simple solution that
is wrong.”
H.L. Mencken
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Addressing Teen HRSB via Positive Youth
Development Approaches that Focus on
Relational Competence and
Systemic/Contextual Factors
Review of Take-Home Messages
• Positive Youth Development (PYD) models of
intervention that focus on relational competence and
systemic/contextual factors
i.e. developmental/ relational/ systemic (“DRS”)
models of intervention—represent the optimal
method of preventing youth problems and preparing
youth to be successful adults.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Addressing Teen HRSB via Positive Youth Development
Approaches that Focus on Relational Competence and
Systemic/Contextual Factors
Interventions focusing on youth relational competence and
contextual/systemic factors will broadly enhance life
satisfaction.
• DRS interventions inherently enhance multiple protective
factors
• Relational and systemic developmental assets are multipotent assets:
e.g.: respect for romantic partners -> more socially competent
partner -> relationship satisfaction
e.g.: fundamental improvements in family process ->
numerous benefits for family members over the years
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Addressing Teen HRSB via Positive Youth
Development Approaches that Focus on Relational
Competence and Systemic/Contextual Factors
Interventions focusing on youth relational competence and contextual/systemic
factors deliver more enduring protection against HRSB—throughout adolescence
and adult life. This endurance results from:
» DRS models’ focus on enhancing multiple relational competencies and
systemic factors—this increases the chance that some assets will endure
» The fact that at least a few of these relational competencies and systemic
factors are multi-potent assets (as noted above). The multi-potency of
these assets—i.e. the manifestation and impact of secondary and tertiary
assets—reveals itself over an extended period of time.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Addressing Teen HRSB via Positive Youth Development
Approaches that Focus on Relational Competence and
Systemic/Contextual Factors
 DRS models are advantageous because
they “kill three birds with one stone.”
They simultaneously
(1) prevent adolescent and adult problems (e.g. HRSB),
(2) create whole, competent adolescents and adults, and
(3) deliver the intervention to all youth.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Addressing Teen HRSB via Positive Youth Development
Approaches that Focus on Relational Competence and
Systemic/Contextual Factors
DRS models are preventative of adolescent and adult
problems by enhancing developmental assets that
protect against HRSB.
DRS models:
• Foster a broad number of assets/protective
factors that prevent adolescent and adult
engagement in HRSB.
• Prevent multiple adolescent problems, not
just HRSB and its consequences.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Addressing Teen HRSB via Positive Youth Development
Approaches that Focus on Relational Competence and
Systemic/Contextual Factors
More importantly,
DRS models create whole, competent adults. The
DRS perspective emphasizes that adulthood assets
are
(a) enduring primary assets acquired in adolescence
and
(b) secondary and tertiary assets stemming from
primary assets acquired in adolescence.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Addressing Teen HRSB via Positive Youth Development
Approaches that Focus on Relational Competence and
Systemic/Contextual Factors
Consider the different emphases/goals of the three
models:
Problem-resolution model:
Acquire medical treatment for a teen’s
STD, facilitating adoption/abortion of a
teen pregnancy, or achievement of teen
parents’ cooperation in nurturing a child
(Maybe) view problem resolution as
facilitator of fulfilling romantic relationships
and productive/fulfilling careers in
adulthood.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Addressing Teen HRSB via Positive Youth Development
Approaches that Focus on Relational Competence and
Systemic/Contextual Factors
Preventative model:
• Help at-risk teens avoid HRSB and its
consequences (e.g. STDs, pregnancy,
psychological/physical trauma)
• View problem avoidance as facilitator of
fulfilling romantic relationships and
productive/fulfilling careers in adulthood.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Addressing Teen HRSB via Positive Youth Development
Approaches that Focus on Relational Competence and
Systemic/Contextual Factors
DRS approach:
• Expose all youth to a variety of enduring relational
experiences over an extended period of time that directly
instill in them the relational competencies necessary for
fulfilling romantic relationships and fulfilling vocational
involvement in both adolescence and adulthood.
• View concurrent prevention of prevent HRSB as a sidebenefit of creating whole, competent adults
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
Addressing Teen HRSB via Positive Youth Development
Approaches that Focus on Relational Competence and
Systemic/Contextual Factors
Prime example of a DRS
approach’s ability to create
whole/competent adolescents
and adults: the capacity to
thoroughly instill
feminist ideology in youth
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
• Because DRS approaches are easily
implemented as primary interventions,
DRS approaches can impact all youth,
not just those who are at risk of engaging
in HRSB or those who have been
identified as already engaging in HRSB.
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs
This PowerPoint Presentation will be
posted on the CSBMHP website
http://www.units.muohio.edu/csbmhp
Miami University
Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs