Positive youth development in Portugal: Interactions with psychosocial variables

Objectives: Positive Youth Development - PYD perspective has highlighted the need to strengthen internal/external developmental assets in youth's contexts. Literature suggests the importance for several psychosocial variables for the improvement of positive outcomes in youths, crucial for later in adulthood. The present study examined the associations of PYD and its dimensions with psychosocial variables. Methods: Through an online survey, 2700 Portuguese youths (73.3% females), with a mean age of 21.3±2.79 years old were included. Results: The results showed that, generally, there is a tendency for psychosocial variables, such as Resilience, Selfregulation, Anxiety, Perceived School Performance, Goals and Aspirations, and Life Events Scale, to have a significant impact on PYD Total score and its five dimensions: Confidence, Competence, Connection, Caring and Character (with exceptions in specific sub-dimension of scales). Conclusion: Such findings reinforce the relevance of studying positive indicators for youth development and draws addition to potential protective factors, such as the dynamic interdependence between psychosocial variables. More knowledge in this area can help health/education professionals and policy-makers to better plan interventions/ policies, aiming an integral healthy perspective for youths, based on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work. Thus, different contexts are suggested to be taken into account and services would benefit from reinforcements in the environments where youths spend their time, namely family, school and community settings.