Positive Youth Development

Positive youth development (PYD) is an approach that defines and understands the process of youth development from the perspective of individual potential development, as represented by Stephen F. Hamilton’s tripartite conception of process-principles-practices. In terms of the developmental process, PYD holds that the process of the human organism coping with challenges or accepting support from their physical and social environment is a process of naturally displaying their inherent potential. At the same time, PYD is a positive resource construction philosophy that is committed to helping all young people realize and develop their full potential. It also represents a practical way to promote positive youth development by developing and implementing a series of targeted programs.

PYD emerged in the early 1990s as a new perspective on youth development in research and practice of developmental psychology and other disciplines. Its emergence was facilitated by both theoretical and...