According to a study of more than one thousand of our country’s youth, confidence, competence, and compassion, among other characteristics, are key ingredients to positive, healthy development from adolescence to adulthood.

These are among the findings from the ongoing 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, which will follow a group of youngsters through adolescence. For the study, 1,700 fifth graders in 13 states were asked about their level of confidence, caring and compassion, and the types of contributions they are making to society.

“Traditionally, when we want to assess the state of the country’s youth, we have looked at factors such as teen pregnancy, incarceration rates, school dropout rates, and drug abuse,” lead study author Dr. Richard M. Lerner, of Tufts University in Massachusetts said in a statement.

“What we’re doing is changing the way Americans look at teenagers, and focusing on the strengths and successes of this population,” he said, adding, “we’re finding that our children are progressing well, regardless of race and ethnicity.”

The study participants rarely reported substance use or delinquency and they were not at risk for depression, Lerner and his team report in this month’s Journal of Early Adolescence.

Overall, the data show that competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring - the Five Cs previously postulated to be related to positive development - are key to ensuring a happy, healthy adolescence and transition to adulthood.

Girls had higher scores in confidence, caring, compassion, connection and positive youth development than boys. Also, European American and Latin youth had higher scores in confidence than did their peers. Youngsters from wealthier homes scored higher than those from lower-income families on nearly all measures studied.

In other findings, youngsters who displayed positive youth development - as measured by their responses to questions about their level of the Five Cs - and those who participated in the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, 4-H, or other youth development program also tended to score high in what some refer to as the “sixth C,” contribution. That is, these youngsters were more likely to volunteer in their community, participate in school government or otherwise take part in activities in which they contribute to the world around them.

“Positive youth development had been a theory up until now,” co-author Dr. Jacqueline V. Lerner, of Boston College said in a statement. “But we have found evidence for the existence of the key characteristics of positive youth development,” she added, citing the Five Cs.

The on-going study is funded by the National 4-H Council. This year the research is expected to expand in order to include sixth and seventh graders in 20 states.

SOURCE: Journal of Early Adolescence, February 2005.