Fostering Positive Youth Development: Associations of Developmental Assets to Growth in Juvenile Delinquency

Introduction: Proponents of Positive Youth Development (e.g., Lerner, 2000) frameworks assert that adolescents equipped with developmental assets (i.e., strengths and resources) are more likely to thrive and, additionally, less likely to engage in problem behaviors, such as delinquency. Empirical research has, in part, supported this contention. However, there is limited consensus on the positive effects of developmental assets on longer-term trajectories of problem behavior among adolescents. In addition, almost all studies in this field focused on US-samples. Thus, this longitudinal study investigates associations of developmental assets to growth in juvenile delinquency among youths in Germany after accounting for psychosocial risk factors.

Methods: Six waves of data from 722 German fifth-grade students who provided self-reports on study variables from age 10 to 15 are used for this study. Students were drawn from the control group of a longitudinal evaluation study of a universal school-based life skills program (average age= 10.54 yrs. at baseline; 56% female; 59% on college-bound school track). Delinquent behavior was assessed at waves 3-6 (8 items; α= .85-.88). Developmental assets were also assessed at waves 3-6 using two subscales: personal (13 items; α= .80-.86) and social (13 items; α= .85-.87) assets. Seven psychosocial risk factors (e.g., male gender, temperament, yielding to peer pressure) were assessed at baseline. Latent growth curve analysis with time-invariant predictors (i.e., baseline psychosocial risk factors) and a latent time-varying covariate (i.e., developmental assets) was conducted to model growth in juvenile delinquency. Analyses were performed in Mplus version 7 using robust maximum likelihood estimation, full information maximum likelihood, and type=complex.

 Results: Results revealed a nonlinear growth pattern characterized by an increase in delinquency which levelled off toward the end of the study period (MLR Χ²(3)= 2.21, p=.53, CFI=1.000, RMSEA=.000 [90% CI .000, .056], SRMR=.029 ). Male gender predicted significantly higher levels of delinquency at initial status (β=.18, p<.01). Finally, more developmental assets were significantly linked to lower levels of delinquency at all time points (β -.26 to -.37; all p<.01), even after accounting for underlying propensity of growth in delinquency over time.   

Conclusions: Results of this study highlight the role of developmental assets in the development of juvenile delinquency. Consequently, universal prevention efforts that address the needs of German students in school settings might include fostering developmental assets of youth on a broad basis to help reduce engagement in delinquent behavior.