Where You're From and Where You're At: One Community Setting as an Incubator for Healthy Communities and the Reduction of High-Risk Behaviors

Healthy adolescence is a balance of individual strengths within a network of environmental supports and opportunities. This combination of personal and environmental features contributes to the health and well-being of young people. Empowerment-based Positive Youth Development (EMPYD) is a conceptual model that specifies features of this person and environment interplay while highlighting how a sense of community and active and engaged citizenship are necessary and reinforcing features of healthy development (Travis & Leech, 2013; Gibbs & Bankhead, 2000; Lee, 2011). The present study (a) examines model parameters, (b) describes contributing features of a youth development and civic engagement program, and (c) examines the relationship between positive development and inhibited risk behaviors. Research involved new data collection and sample recruitment with a final sample of 111 participants. The one-week youth program in the summer includes middle and high school students from different regions of a southern state.

Research questions ask: (1) in what ways does the program facilitate healthy development among youth? (2) How well does EMPYD predict substance use/risky behaviors among participants at the end of the program? Results suggest that all indicators of healthy development increased, except for character. The most significant increases were in confidence, competence, sense of community and active and engaged citizenship, a community of change. Factors explained 65% of the variability in risky behavior. Findings suggest EMPYD is a promising model for understanding healthy development amidst risk, anchoring youth development and civic engagement strategies, and measuring dynamics between person and environment.