2014 BOARD RETREAT
To Serve More Youth
with a Quality program
1
Positive Youth Development
in Scouting
Brian Burkhard
Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development
Tufts University
What is the Positive
Youth Development
(PYD) Perspective?
The PYD Perspective: Six Core Concepts
1.
Because of the potential to change, all
youth have strengths.
2.
All contexts have strengths as well. These
strengths are resources that may be used
to promote positive youth development.
3.
These resources are termed
“developmental assets”. They are the
“social nutrients” needed for healthy
development.
The PYD Perspective: Six Core Concepts
4.
These assets are found in families, schools,
faith institutions, youth serving organizations,
and the community more generally.
5.
If the strengths of youth are combined with
ecological developmental assets, then positive,
healthy development may occur.
6.
We should be optimistic that it is in our power
to promote positive development among ALL
youth and to create more asset-rich settings
supporting such development among ALL
youth.
The “Big Three” of Youth Development Programs
What features of youth development programs promote PYD?
Youth Development Programs which are marked by “the Big
Three:”
1.
2.
3.
Positive and sustained adult-youth relations;
Life-skill building curricula; and
Opportunities for youth participation in and leadership
of valued family, school, and community activities
are key ecological assets linked to the development of PYD and
youth Contribution and to lower levels of risk/problems
behaviors
How Do We Promote PYD AND CONTRIBUTION?
Youth Development Programs Marked by the “Big 3” Program Characteristics influence PYD
and Civic Behaviors
Youth
leadership
Sustained
youth-adult
partnerships
Skill-building
activities
PYD
CommunityBased Youth
Development
Programs
Civic
Contributions
Competence
Individual
Strengths
Community
Contribution
Confidence
Connection
PYD
Ecological
Assets
(Delivered by
Youth
Development
Programs)
Caring
Character
TIME
Reduced
Risk
Behavior
Scouting The Five C’s
1. Which of the 5 C’s is Orange County
Council best at delivering on?
Competence
Confidence
Connection
2. Which of them is Orange County
Council weakest at delivering on?
3. What is a way that we can use our
strength to improve upon a weakness?
PYD
Caring
Character
Grit in Scouting
• What is grit?
–“A passionate commitment to a single mission and an unswerving dedication to
achieve that mission”
–A perseverance and passion for long-term goals
–What can grit predict?
• West Point
• Spelling Bee
• Graduate Program Success Rate
• “How Children Succeed” concepts in Scouting
–“A safe place to fail”
–Building life skills for future success
• Goal-setting
• Overcoming obstacles and failure
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
• 11% experienced emotional abuse.
• 28% experienced physical abuse.
• 21% experienced sexual abuse.
• 15% experienced emotional neglect.
• 10% experienced physical neglect.
• 13% witnessed their mothers being treated violently.
• 27% grew up with someone in the household using alcohol and/or drugs.
• 19% grew up with a mentally-ill person in the household.
• 23% lost a parent due to separation or divorce.
• 5% grew up with a household member in jail or prison.
The Big Questions being addressed by BSA include:
• What makes Scouting “Scouting?”: Methods, Values, and Outcomes
Methods
Values
Outcomes
• Ideals
• Patrols
• Uniforms
• Advancement
• Adult Association
• Personal Growth
• Leadership Development
• Outdoors
Scout Oath & Law
Duty to God
Character Development
Citizenship
Physical Fitness
Leadership
Competence
Individual
Strengths
Community
Contribution
Confidence
Connection
PYD
Ecological
Assets
(Delivered by
Youth
Development
Programs)
Caring
Character
TIME
Reduced
Risk
Behavior
Application in
Orange County Council
Alignment with the Strategic Plan
• Optimizing Scouting’s Impact
• Enhance Talent Management & Leadership
• Robust Use of Our Council Facilities
• Build a Sustainable Funding Model
• Study and Research
Measuring Outcomes
of BSA Programs
Character And Merit Project
•
Youth development (YD) programs seek to impact the
character of youth in a manner that enhances their
individual health and achievement (e.g., in school) and
enables them to contribute positively to, and to be
leaders of, their communities and the nation.
•
Accordingly, the Big Question addressed in this research
is whether a YD program directed to the enhancement of
character in youth can, in fact, promote character
development among America’s diverse young people.
•
Does Boy Scouts of America (BSA) constitute such a
program?
Character And Merit Project
• Determine if Boy Scouts
promotes character in youth
• If so, examine how Boy
Scouts promotes character
in youth using data from
Scouts, parents, and leaders
Measuring Character among BSA Participants:
Research with the BSA Participants
Based on the results of pilot research with youth from the
Minuteman Council, we used measures of seven characterrelated attributes associated with the Boy Scouts Oath and
one attribute associated with the positive youth
development model to create a new measure of character
Scouting constructs: Trustworthiness, helpfulness, kindness,
obedience, cheerfulness, thrift, and reverence
PYD construct: Future-mindedness
Measuring Character among BSA Participants:
Research with Cub Scouts
Youth Questionnaire: Sample Items for Kindness
Measuring Character among BSA Participants:
Research with the BSA Participants
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Kindness
Obedience
Reverence
Cheerfulness
Thriftiness
Trustworthiness
Helpfulness
• Academic
Competence
• Future-Mindedness
• Goal-setting
• Scouting
Engagement
Measuring Outcomes
•
Use the character measure (kindness, obedience, reverence,
cheerfulness, thriftiness, trustworthiness, helpfulness, future
mindedness) online
•
Use the measure of the Cs of PYD and of Contribution
developed by IARYD online
•
Monitor growth of Character, Contribution, etc. through
repeated use of surveys
•
Compare growth across different BSA locations, programs,
“dosage levels,” and in relation to non-Scout groups
Thank You!
Research for the BSA’s Character and Merit
Project was made possible by support from the
John Templeton Foundation.