Positive Youth Development in Global Contexts of Social and Economic Change

Anne C. Petersen, Silvia H. Koller, Frosso Motti-Stefanidi, Suman Verma

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138670808
• eBook ISBN: 9781315307251
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Developmental Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The youth of the world are our most important assets. When youth develop positively, they have the power to benefit themselves, their families, communities, and societies. These tremendous benefits accrue for many generations, so investments in youth represent a highly cost-effective opportunity for positive change. This is the first volume to focus globally on the effects of social and economic change on youth, and on the opportunity to support youth through policy, programs, and interventions to develop positively despite challenges.

The chapters in this volume highlight research demonstrating youth assets and resilience as well as programs and interventions that increase the likelihood that youth will thrive. Many chapters also draw attention to opportunities for youth leadership, helping youth to develop their strengths as they benefit their communities. Additional chapters focus on promoting optimal youth development in the presence of adversity, risk, or challenge, taking into consideration the potential and capacity of the young person. Finally, the ecological system theory is a strong influence in many chapters that examine the inter-relationship of different social contexts such as family, peers, school, and work.

Positive Youth Development in Global Contexts of Social and Economic Change is both a vision for the future and an ideology supported by a new international vocabulary for engaging with youth development. Developed by researchers across interdisciplinary fields, the volume has enormous policy implications for lawmakers given the surge in youth population in many parts of the world.

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GLOBAL POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Framing the Issues

Anne C. Petersen, Suman Verma, Sílvia H. Koller, and Frosso Motti-Stefanidi

We have three goals for this framing chapter for the volume: (1) provide a rationale for the topic of the volume, (2) describe the origins of the volume which emanated from a conference on this topic, and (3) provide an overview of the volume contents. The concepts driving this volume – global perspective especially in developmental science, an emphasis on youth and particularly positive youth development, and the importance of youth action or interventions supporting youth in the face of social change – continue to have urgency for the world. The economic crisis, deepest in the US and minority world with shockwaves globally, was the original impetus for this effort. While the economic crisis has now abated in many regions, the context of social change with its effects especially on youth has continued to be salient globally.

Why Focus Globally?

Globalization is a reality, affecting challenges and opportunities for all. Global epidemics have been especially powerful in demonstrating that no nation can pretend to remain isolated. Terrorism is similarly ubiquitous and, like epidemics, worse in some places than others. Both of these examples leave nations with little control but with an imperative to establish as least preventive approaches such as educating the public and providing structures for response. Globalization has primarily expanded business and trade beyond national boundaries but some nations attempt to exert some control over trade. Technology has been more difficult to limit but some nations have attempted restrictions. In general, globalization has extended communication broadly, making it easy and fast to share ideas, making global thinking and behaving a reality. For the purposes of this chapter, globalization has had significant effects on youth (e.g., Silbereisen & Chen, 2010; Thompson, 2012).

In discussing global issues, we use the terms majority and minority world, following the convention established by the World Bank for the 15% of countries who are wealthier (minority world) compared with all others (World Bank, 2015.) These terms replace older terms with more pejorative meaning, such as developed/developing worlds.

Challenges of Globalization

Globalization presents major challenges to nations in terms of controlling business, trade, and communications within their boundaries. Consequently, it presents a challenge for national policies and institutional structures. In addition, globalization may threaten national identity and culture for some countries. At the individual level, globalization may be experienced as a threat because of reducing predictability for the future in terms of jobs and other social realities. The challenges of globalization have been repeatedly articulated, and have generally represented a source of fear to nations and their populations.

One challenge is that benefits of globalization are not uniform and to a large extent globalization has increased inequality between rich and poor nations, as well as between lower-skilled workers and higher-skilled within nations, contrary to expectations for “free trade” (Goldberg & Pavcnik, 2016). For example, minority world countries have moved businesses and especially manufacturing plants to majority world countries to take advantage of lower wages and less regulation. This movement of businesses or plants creates more jobs but also burdens countries with higher pollution, causing health and other problems. Further, this process has created more unemployment for lower-skilled workers in minority world countries.

Further, growth has been uneven (World Bank, 2013). For example, in the past two decades, China and India have grown faster economically than minority world nations. Similarly, the average of all countries (including failed states) in Africa is higher than minority world increases. Majority world countries, of course, are beginning from low starting levels. For example, many countries in Africa still have the highest poverty rates (World Bank, 2015).

Another way to consider progress with globalization is to examine changes in the human development index which combines income, life expectancy, and education for countries (The Economist, 2015). From 1990 to 2015, the best performers were Rwanda (remarkable since the genocide of 1994), China (which is now at the level of South Korea in 1990), Singapore, Iran, and Mozambique. These countries also made major investments in social or health institutions as well as other infrastructure. The worst performers on this index were Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Tajikistan, and Central African Republic, all with near-zero growth (The Economist, 2015).

Opportunities of Globalization

At the same time, globalization brings opportunities such as economic progress, technical development, political influence, health systems, social and natural environment awareness, and improvements. Globalization has also created new opportunities in majority world countries for new jobs, roles, and ideas, especially for individuals. It has also created an interdependence between the minority and majority world countries, with resources and technology coming from the minority world and raw material, food, and oil increasingly supplied by the majority world. The impact of globalization is also evident in areas of health and education systems, with increased exchange of information. A greater demand for higher-skill jobs has resulted in youth pursuing higher education and skill training.

There has also been slow but steady growth in economies, living standards, and life expectancies in the majority world, with improved services for health care and education for the poor. Many of these improvements received a huge boost from the UN Millennium Development Goals (UNDP, 2015). The information and communication technology (ICT) boom has had its share of impact on culture with the emergence of a global culture. Nations are slower to act and are still seeking opportunity, primarily through trade deals and alliances. The young, more than older people, are likely to be enthusiastic about new opportunities and ideas. Young people have especially embraced the internet for educational and occupational information (among other purposes such as social communications.) Unfortunately, too many in the majority world are limited in access to the internet because of unreliable power and, also in some areas, limited connectivity. Nonetheless, growth of internet resources and applications to use them effectively are expected to continue to increase exponentially (International Telecommunications Union, 2015).

Global Science

Science is already global (Suresh, 2012), especially in terms of global communication of scientific information. Global collaborations are increasingly being pursued, though not as quickly as is needed. The existence of global challenges and threats has brought a rapid increase in global science. For example, global climate change stimulated the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change established formally in 1988 (www.ipcc.ch). The United Nations and other global bodies (e.g., World Bank) have increasingly been hosting research on global topics over the last few decades, including those related to human development (e.g., Lundberg & Wuermli, 2012).

Developmental science must also become global. At this point, publications in developmental science, like related fields of behavioral or social science, are almost entirely dominated by research based on minority world populations conducted by minority world researchers (e.g., Arnett, 2008). Research conducted by majority world researchers with their populations sometimes finds markedly different results from those in the minority world, especially when the prevailing theories are grounded in specific cultures (e.g., Serpell, 2011; Tchombe, Nsamenang, & Keller, 2013). Understanding of human development requires its study with all major populations, cultures, and contexts.

Geography has played a role in the challenges of creating global science, including developmental science. In addition to geographic distance, the global south tends to have poorer populations, compounding distance. The fact that English has become the language of global science adds further challenge to minority world researchers. As developmental scientists, we must continue to find ways to create partnerships and collaborations that reduce these challenges so we can all benefit from the rich diversity of ideas and innovations from our colleagues globally.

Scientific societies have a role to play with engaging researchers globally. The International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD) is the oldest developmental science society with a global focus and a strong history of active global engagement of both scientists and students, and was established in 1972. The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) is the oldest developmental science society, formally established in the US in 1933 but engaging in activities earlier. SRCD now has a priority on global science engagement in its recent strategic plan, as do other developmental science societies. The newly formed International Consortium of Developmental Science Societies (ICDSS) is further aiming to globalize developmental science, with a particular focus on global policy.

Why Youth?

Youth are highly significant globally for many reasons, grounded in challenges and opportunities. One seldom-discussed challenge is the neglect or even resistance toward youth in many countries. Perhaps because of their energy, young people may be regarded as threats on a political level or trouble makers on a social level. This stance by elders leads to policies in many countries that ignore youth needs, including supportive pathways for them to become constructive and productive citizens. Extant research on youth demonstrates that those who are most energetic and talented will find outlets for their efforts; if positive outlets are not provided, negative ones involving criminal activity will be pursued (e.g., Catalano et al., 2004). Young people globally who navigate through these unhealthy pathways are often those who find lucrative employment using the internet to engage in theft, as well as more traditional forms of criminal activity with drugs or human trafficking. The internet is also used to appeal to youth idealism (among other motivations) by engaging in acts of terror. These negative routes represent a waste of young human capital.

Conversely, there is increasing evidence for youth as assets to any society (e.g., Diers, 2013). Minority world research has found that youth who live in contexts that support their positive academic, social, and psychological development feel better about themselves and their contexts (such as families and peers), and both the young people and their meaningful social groups benefit from these (e.g., Jelicic et al., 2007). When nurtured and supported, and sometimes even without any help, young people globally demonstrate remarkable energy, motivation, and creativity on behalf of their families and communities (e.g., Souza et al., 2011; Sharma & Verma, 2013). Further, the bravery and commitment of young people globally are demonstrated in biographies of young people such as the “lost boys” of Sudan (Baker, 2008; Loming & Tabb, 2012) as well as Malala Yousafzai (Yousafzai & Lamb, 2013), the girl who championed education in Pakistan and was recognized with a Nobel Prize.

Gender Issues

In addition to increased uncertainty about employment pathways and opportunities globally, young people in the majority world experience major disjunctions in the transitions from school to work. In addition, gendered distribution of resources at both the community and individual level offers new opportunities for young women, yet constraints persist. While communities value education and career options for girls, they do not always grant autonomy to females in taking decisions about their life choices (whether marriage, child bearing, or careers.) The pervasiveness of social norms that curtail freedoms for women and are based on undervaluation or devaluation of what women do can lead young women themselves to internalize negative self-perceptions and doubt their own abilities. There are stark gender differences in favor of males in adaptation to the changing societal demands. The combined effect of economic development, rising education among women, and declining fertility goes a long way to explain changes in work force participation rates. However, despite significant progress in female labor force participation, pervasive and persistent gender differences remain in productivity and earnings across different sectors and jobs. For instance, women are more likely than men to work in jobs that offer flexible working arrangements (such as part-time or informal jobs) so that they can combine work with child care responsibilities at home. For many, coping with high levels of stress accompany their socioeconomic and psychological adaptation to social change. In situations of economic adversity, intense competition for limited resources may result in altering education or career goals and aspirations. Individuals and groups may perceive, interpret, and respond to macro-level societal and economic changes differently. For many young people, adapting to a changing environment with multiple demands may result in failure to cope. For instance, a mismatch in employment requirements and skill deficit among the youth results in frustration thus increasing the possibilities of adopting negative pathways to earning money. In today’s globalized digital world, youth can play an active role in their own adaptation, mainly through the creation of new social and cultural environments for their activities and social interactions. To foster positive youth development, we need to build on assets in youth’s ecology that will enhance their capability to navigate through the current global economic stress that countries are experiencing.

Youth Bulge

Demographic change is another important factor to consider with youth, specifically the youth bulge. The birth rate in the global south, and more generally in the poorest regions, is predicted to drive a 4% increase in children by 2025 (You & Anthony, 2012). Further, by 2050, one-third of all children will be African. Some nations, such as China, will have decreased resources for children because of dramatically increasing old-age populations. The working-age population will increase dramatically over the same period of time, with the most dramatic increases in Africa and decreases in Europe and China (Lam & Liebbrandt, 2013).

While some have termed this a demographic disaster, we prefer Diers’ (2013 ) framing as a demographic dividend. These young people constituting the youth bulge can provide an economic boost to their countries if they are provided with education and training...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• About the Editors
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• 1 Global Positive Youth Development: Framing the Issues
• 2 Development in the Context of Social and Economic Change: The Jena Model
• 3 Socioeconomic Status, Parenting, and Positive Youth Development in Global Perspective
• Part I Positive Youth Development in Diverse Contexts during Economic Change
• Part II Interventions to Support and Promote Positive Adaptation and Development
• Part III Research, Interventions, and Policy Needs
• Index