The definition and preliminary measurement of thriving in adolescence

Abstract

We describe ‘thriving’ as an under-utilized construct that can add value to theory, research, and application in adolescent development. We draw on developmental systems theories to suggest that thriving represents the dynamic and bi-directional interplay of a young person intrinsically animated and energized by discovering his/her specialness, and the developmental contexts (people, places) that know, affirm, celebrate, encourage, and guide its expression. We note that thriving shares some conceptual space with positive psychology and constructs such as competence, developmental assets, and flourishing, but also note how thriving differs from each of these. On both conceptual and empirical grounds, we articulate a case for the unique contribution of thriving as a valid and useful addition to our understanding of human development. We end the paper by describing the exploratory factor analysis and descriptive results of a new survey to measure adolescent thriving that has grown out of the conceptual framework presented here.

Keywords:

• thriving
• adolescent development
• positive youth development
• positive psychology
• developmental assets

Notes

Note

1. We used dichotomous scoring to judge whether young people experienced or did not experience sparks, despite describing earlier our preference for considering the broader thriving construct to be a continuous variable. We did so because, unlike the full thriving construct, the single marker of ‘sparks’ can be validly considered to be present or absent. Young people can either identify one or more interests that they care passionately about and that are important parts of their identity, or they cannot. They can either name three or more people who support those interests, or they cannot. Many of the other proposed markers of thriving writ large, however, such as spiritual development or prosocial orientation, do not seem to be either–or variables, but continua comprised of many more expressions of ‘more’ or ‘less’ than simply ‘having’ or ‘not having’ the construct.