Positive Youth Development Life Satisfaction and

Authors: Rachel C F Sun Daniel T L Shek

Publish Date: 2011/01/19

Volume: 105, Issue: 3, Pages: 541-559

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Abstract

The purpose of this replication study was to examine the relationships among life satisfaction positive youth development and problem behaviour The respondents were 7151 Chinese Secondary 2 Grade 8 students 3707 boys and 3014 girls recruited from 44 schools in Hong Kong Validated assessment tools measuring positive youth development life satisfaction and problem behaviour were used As predicted positive youth development was positively correlated with life satisfaction and positive youth development and life satisfaction were negatively correlated with adolescent problem behaviour Based on a series of structural equation models the present findings replicated the previous findings that adolescents with a higher level of positive youth development were more satisfied with life and had lesser problem behaviour with higher level of life satisfaction and lower level of problem behaviour mutually influencing each other These replicated findings provide a further advance in the literature on positive youth development particularly in the Chinese context Implications for future research and intervention were discussedIn contrast to the focus on adolescent pathologies and problems positive youth development emphasizes on talents strengths potentials and positive attributes of young people Child Trends 2003 Damon 2004 Although there are different views of the nature of positive youth development qualities in the literature it is commonly referred to the competencies of a selfunderstanding and cultivating discipline b working with others communicating cooperating negotiation and building relationships c coping adapting and being responsible and d making good judgments evaluating making decisions and problem solving Catalano et al 2004 pointed out that there are fifteen basic youth development constructs including bonding social competence emotional competence cognitive competence behavioural competence moral competence selfefficacy prosocial norms resilience selfdetermination spirituality clear and positive identity beliefs in the future prosocial involvement and recognition for positive behaviourThere are theoretical propositions maintaining that positive youth development influences the wellbeing and health outcomes of an individual For example in the model developed by Lent 2004 positive development attributes such as selfefficacy affect life satisfaction The social learning theory proposed by Bandura 1997 also posited that selfefficacy contributes to positive health outcomes and adjustment In the existential literature logotherapy suggests that meaning in life fills “existential vacuum” thus leaving no space for the development of psychopathology Empirically there are research findings showing that positive youth development attributes like owning bonding and social roles were closely related to adolescent life satisfaction Paxton et al 2006 Several positive youth development constructs like social and emotional competencies Ciarrochi et al 2003 academic and social selfefficacy Vecchio et al 2007 prosocial motivation and behaviour Caprara and Steca 2005 Gebauer et al 2008 spirituality and religiosity Laudet and White 2008 Zullig et al 2006 and mastery and ethnic identity Sam 1998 were found to act as significant predictors of life satisfactionAs adolescents having weak resilience poor psychosocial competencies blurred selfidentity and low selfefficacy are likely to have poor developmental outcomes there are theoretical accounts regarding the influence of positive youth development on mitigating adolescent problem behaviour Based on the concepts of protective factors in resilience literature it can be conjectured that internal resources such as psychosocial competencies and external resources such as bonding eg Jessor et al 2003 would protect individuals from life stresses thus minimizing the occurrence of problem behaviour There are researches showing that positive youth development was negatively relate to problem behaviour such as substance abuse and delinquency In North America Catalano et al 2004 showed that around 96 of the 25 wellevaluated positive youth development programs reduced problem behaviour whereas in Hong Kong Shek 2010a found that positive youth behaviour was negatively related to behavioural intention to engage in problem behaviour among Chinese adolescentsBesides positive youth development life satisfaction also has an inverse relationship with adolescent problem behaviour Studies showed that life satisfaction was negatively associated with sexual risktaking behaviours Valois et al 2002 substance abuse Desousa et al 2008 and violence and aggression MacDonald et al 2005 among adolescents Heavy substance or tobacco use in adolescence in turn contributed to lower levels of life satisfaction relationship satisfaction and physical and mental health in adulthood longitudinally Fergusson and Boden 2008 Georgiades and Boyle 2007There are several limitations in the literature pertinent to the relationships among positive youth development life satisfaction and adolescent problem behaviour First existing findings on the predictive effects of positive youth development on life satisfaction and problem behaviour are quite piecemeal and few researchers have included multiple and validated measures of positive youth development in one single study Sun and Shek 2010 Shek 2010b also pointed out that compared with other age groups such as old people there are comparatively fewer studies on the quality of life of children and adolescentsSecond in contrast to the existence of studies examining the effect of positive youth development on life satisfaction there are few studies on how life satisfaction may contribute to positive youth development In the review conducted by Diener et al 1999 it was observed that while there were many studies on the demographic correlates of life satisfaction research findings on the effect of life satisfaction on positive youth development were almost nonexistent As life satisfaction constitutes inner psychological resources eg emotional stability it is hypothesized that life satisfaction would affect positive youth development such as social relationship and prosocial involvementThird while there are different possibilities pertinent to the interrelationships among positive youth development life satisfaction and problem behaviour this is a neglected area and there are few related research studies For example in their review of research on subjective wellbeing in the past three decades Diener et al 1999 could not unearth any systematic studies on the relationships among positive youth development life satisfaction and problem behaviour The interrelationships among these variables would become more complicated when researchers treat life satisfaction as a mediator between positive youth development and adolescent problem behaviour In the existing literature many studies treated life satisfaction either as an outcome variable eg Gebauer et al 2008 or as a predictor eg Heisel and Flett 2004 while several studies examined the mediating influence of life satisfaction on problem behaviour McKnight et al 2002 Suldo and Huebner 2004 Pavot and Diener 2008 also pointed out that “investigators have only recently begun to focus on outcomes that are predicted by life satisfaction Future research needs to focus not only on the factors that contribute to the experience of life satisfaction but also on the effects life satisfaction has on future behaviour and life outcomes” p 147

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