Does intervention change anything? New directions in promoting positive youth development

Abstract

Although a literature on interventions that promote positive development has begun to emerge, important gaps concerning these interventions continue to exist. As part of our program of research, we have made an effort to begin addressing these gaps. An overview of a research project conducted using two sets of multi-ethnic data drawn from the Miami Youth Development Project (Kurtines, Montgomery, Lewis Arango, & Kortsch, 2001 Kurtines WM Montgomery MJ Lewis Arango L Kortsch GA 2001, May Promoting positive youth development: Facilitating identity development in multi-problem adolescents Symposium presented at the Society for Research on Identity Formation, London, Ontario, Canada [Google Scholar]) is presented. Though tentative and preliminary, the findings from the project provide preliminary evidence for the success of Changing Lives Program (CLP) in promoting positive qualitative change. Specifically, the results document a relation between participation in CLP and short-term qualitative longitudinal change in life course experiences at the individual developmental level. The basic pattern of qualitative change for participants in the CLP intervention condition tended to be positive, significant, and in the hypothesized direction relative to non-intervention controls, suggesting that intervention does effect positive change.