We are currently engaged in the following projects. You may also find our recent and selected Publications.
This project has grown in part from our editing The Youth Development Handbook, which conveys to practitioners and policy makers current research and theory on youth development. Increasing calls for “evidence-based practice” in the field require that researchers communicate more with practitioners, not only about their findings but about the implications of research for practice and about what research practitioners need. We have given talks and workshops on this topic, two in collaboration with the NYS Office of Children and Family Services. Major challenges include the paucity of relevant research, the gap between researchers and practitioners, and the absence of a system to review research and determine what it means for practice.
Becoming an adult in the information age is a challenge around the world. The need for advanced education postpones economic independence. Those who are unable to acquire that education have fewer opportunities to make a good life for themselves and for a family. New institutions are needed to supplement families and schools as supportive contexts for the transition to adulthood. Contemporary apprenticeship in Germany and some other European countries exemplifies some of the functions and features of such institutions. They give “emerging adults” valued social roles while enabling them to gain knowledge and skills, acquire social capital, and contribute to the larger welfare. YouthBuild is another example. It is a program in the United States that provides job training, education, leadership training, and social support to low-income youth who rehabilitate housing in their communities. We are seeking other such examples in developing nations. For example, we suspect that micro-lending may create opportunities for youth entrepreneurship in some places.
Adult mentoring is a powerful factor in youth development and a successful transition to adulthood. Most mentoring relationships occur naturally between youth and adults who are in their social networks: family friends, teachers, coaches, and workplace supervisors. Mentoring programs can effectively synthesize such natural relationships, but they have proved more effective for younger children than for high-school-age youth. We have made the case that the best way to provide mentors for older youth is to engage them in goal-directed activities with caring adults, such as work and community service. We also believe it is possible and desirable for adults and youth to mobilize their communities around the goal of fostering mentoring relationships. This entails creating opportunities for joint activities and establishing community norms that encourage bonding of youth with adults outside their families, with parental knowledge and support. As a step in this direction we are conducting preliminary studies to try to learn more about how natural mentoring relationships form and what makes them thrive.
