Session: It Takes a Village: Identifying Ways to Support Educational and Career Outcomes for Youth (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

There is increasing recognition among those who work with youth that “problem-free is not fully prepared” (Pittman, Irby, & Ferber, 2000) and with this recognition increasing interest in identifying the conditions and behaviors that promote positive youth development.  Many different models highlighting both the internal and external “assets” that contribute to successful development have been proposed (e.g., Lerner & Benson, 2003; Scales & Leffert, 2004).  While positive youth development and risk behavior frameworks have been seen to represent opposite ends of the spectrum (see Catalano et al., 2002), youth who engage in risk behaviors are also less likely to possess developmental assets.  Studies have shown that adolescents who are engaged in risk-behaviors are are more likely to associate with deviant peers (Duncan et al., 2000).  These youth are also less likely to report achieving high grades (Sullivan et al., 2010), believe they are less likely to achieve higher levels of educational attainment (Mun et al., 2008), and have lower perceived chances for success in life (Griffin et al., 2004). 

This proposed symposium would present research that extends the above findings to examine ways to support educational and career outcomes for youth in various contexts (e.g., peer, school, and neighborhood).  Each paper in this symposium addresses a different period of adolescence and has a different methodological strength.  The first paper longitudinally examines norms of peer behaviors as predictors of early adolescent academic adjustment.  The second paper uses a multi-level approach to look at school climate as a predictor of high school students’ future aspirations.  The final paper presents data from in-depth interviews with urban adolescents transitioning into adulthood.  Taking an ecological approach, all three papers will emphasize ways contexts can support adolescents as they plan for their future.  The authors will also discuss evidence for the interconnection between adolescent involvement in risk behavior and their actions towards and hopes for the future.  A discussant with experience in both understanding contextual predictors of youth success and evaluating efforts to support the positive development of youth will highlight key findings and unique strengths of the three papers.  This will facilitate a discussion of the needed future directions in research as well as implications for preventative interventions to support adolescents as they transition into adulthood.