Promoting Positive Identity Development in Troubled Youth: A Developmental Intervention Science Outreach Research Approach

Abstract

This article illustrates how developmental intervention science outreach research contributes to knowledge development on the promotion of positive identity development by describing results from the Miami Youth Development Project. The project is committed to the use of descriptive and explanatory knowledge about evidence-based individual and institutional intervention strategies for promoting developmental change in self and identity. Our efforts, described here, include a method for measuring theoretically and personally meaningful identity change, a procedure for integrating key aspects of qualitative and quantitative data through relational data analysis, and an evidence-based positive youth development intervention that fosters measurable and meaningful identity change.

Notes

¹A three-stage model is used in behavioral treatment research at the National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network, n.d.). Stage I involves the development and pilot testing of interventions based on or translated from basic behavioral, cognitive, or clinical science and theory. A Stage II clinical trial uses a control group to permit stronger conclusions about the impact of the intervention. A Stage III trial tests the intervention with larger samples and longer follow-up.