Positive Youth DevelopmentLinda Wagener, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, Pasadena, California
Jim Furrow, PhD, Associate Professor of Marital and Family Therapy and Chair of Department of Marriage and Family, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, Pasadena, California
Pamela Ebstyne King, PhD, Research Assistant Professor of Family Studies for the Center for Research and Child and Adolescent Development, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, Pasadena, California 

This multi-year project aims to assess positive youth development and to determine ways to best implement adherence and development of positive youth development practices. Current research focuses on the positive development of attributes of character including moral and religious identity, and restraint from risk, violence and aggression. Future research is directed to the identification of value-oriented resources, psychological mediating constructs and positive developmental outcomes. 

One of the most recent projects is Dr. Wagener’s “Thriving and resilience in emerging adults of the Asia Silk road” which is aiming to examine thriving under diverse cultural conditions in order to contribute to the development of assessment tools that are culture fair and sensitive to cultural differences. Very little is known about conditions of thriving in youth outside of the North American context (Lerner & Galambos, 1998). This project will have significant implications for the development of thriving assessment tools that are globally useful.