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Fuller Youth Initiative
THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN
CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT (CRCAD)
 Research
highlights
Recent
or on-going research projects
Research
Initiatives
Research
team
Publications/Presentations
(years in review 2001-2003)
Posters
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Research highlights |
Positive Youth Development:
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.
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Recent or on-going
research projects |
Meaning and Identity
Predicting Prosocial
Reasoning
This project examines the
positive relationship between personal meaning and religious, moral and
spiritual self-concepts in adolescence and their prediction of prosocial
reasoning. Through hierarchical regressional analysis, the results indicate that
self-concepts partially mediate the prediction of meaning on prosocial
reasoning, suggesting that self-concepts drive the prediction. This project
establishes that meaning and self-concepts are related constructs influencing
prosocial reasoning in youth. Results suggest that contexts rich in values help
youth move from ideology to internalization of values as part of their
self-concept. Results presented at the 2003 Biennial Conference of the Society
for Research in Child Development.
Krystal
Miles White and Linda Wagener
Gambling and Conduct Problems in Youth
This study explores the
relationship between youth gambling and violence. Archival data from the Search
Institute’s: Profiles In Life (1997) was used to examine the
 relationship
between frequency of reported gambling activity and
measures of youth violence.
Results suggest that youth gambling is a significant predictor of the
self-report of youth violence
even after controlling for other violence related risk factors. Findings
suggest that gambling may be a part of the constellation of risk factors that
are highly associated with violent outcomes in youth. Results presented at the
2003 Biennial Conference of the Society for Research in Child Development.
Rex
Sheridan, Alicia Young, and Linda Wagener
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Parent-Child Values and Prosocial Behavior
This project explores the
relationship between adolescents’ value endorsement, perceptions of parental
values, and prosocial behavior. Utilizing the nomination procedure of Hart and
Fegley (1995) youth who demonstrated exemplary moral behavior (“moral
exemplars”) were nominated by school and community leaders. They and comparison
adolescents were asked to fill out values surveys. Results suggested that
prosocial value endorsement did not discriminate between exemplars and
comparison adolescents. However, and consistent with the predictions of identity
theory, exemplars differed significantly from comparisons in that they perceived
their parent’s values as being both a) more similar to their own values,
and b) more prosocial. Findings suggest that morally rich perceptions of
parental figures may contribute to both moral identity and prosocial behavior in
adolescence. Results presented at the 2003 Biennial Conference of the Society
for Research in Child Development
Ross
Mueller and James Furrow
Peru
Study
Making use of Daniel Hart,
William Damon and Susanne Fegley’s Moral Identity Interview, this project
involved the interviewing of 23 street youth in Lima, Peru. The project
involves the study of adolescents street youth using structured interviews
focusing on self-understanding and identity. The study examines a comparison of
a street youth’s actual, ideal, and despised selves. In addition, the project
will examine how self-understanding relates to growing up homeless in an
impoverished context where survival is a primary concern, and where there are
few of the traditional influences which transmit a sense of morality to youth.
Interviews will be coded using a grounded-theory approach.
Danielle
Speakman, James Furrow, and Linda Wagener
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Korean Social Capital
This study examines the role of social capital
on the lives of American and Korean Youth utilizing a three-dimensional model on
the structural, relational and cognitive aspects of social ties. The research
sought to understand social capital's influence on moral outcomes in both
cultures. The analysis was based on data gathered using a cross-sectional survey
of American and Korean high school aged youth from metropolitan areas. The
findings suggest that youth from both cultures benefit from relationship with
parents, peers, and nonparental adults especially when supportive elements such
as trust, shared vision, and social interaction are present in those
relationships. Furthermore, cross-cultural differences are evident in the
specific patterns of social capital influences. Results presented at the 2002
Biennial Conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence.
Susan Park and Pamela Ebstyne King
Nonparental Adults: Their
Impact on Adolescent Moral Outcomes
Bringing together the theory
of social capital and the literature on positive outcomes for youth who have a
significant nonparental adult in their lives, this project sought whether the
positive benefits youth experience in such a relationship would extend to moral
outcomes. The study examines results from a survey of high school youth.
Analyses reveal that the mere presence of a nonparental adult does not
significantly impact adolescent moral outcomes, however various qualities of the
relationship do contribute to adolescent moral outcomes. Specifically, amount of
interaction between adolescent and nonparental adult negatively predicts
adolescent moral behavior, while relational qualities such as trust
significantly influence adolescent moral attitudes.
Alicia
Young and Pamela Ebstyne King
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Research initiatives |
Fuller Youth Initiative
This 3-year
project is funded by award #2002-JN-K002 from the United States Department of
Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
The goal of the FYI
Research project is to increase the understanding of individual and
community factors that are associated with the promotion of well-being and the
prevention of risk among children and youth. A random telephone survey will be
conducted with parents and their youth ages 13 to 17 years old in the city of
Pasadena. The goal of this survey is to help us better understand challenges
that place youth at risk for violence and the resources that enable them to be
thriving members in the community. The results will increase our understanding
of youth in our area, as well as offer a valuable resource for the research
program, the City of Pasadena, and the adjacent communities.
The FYI Program
Evaluation project seeks to empower existing commu-nity violence
prevention programs to implement and sustain “best practices” in their programs
and to track the effects of their efforts with youth at-risk. Specifically, it
is aimed to promote evaluation of the effectiveness of existing grassroots
violence preven-tion efforts and assist with program evaluation consultations.
We also seek to identify and gather information about effective strategies as
well as barriers to implementing and sustaining effective at-risk youth
interventions. Also, we plan to educate practitioners of youth violence
prevention about the use of asset-based prevention practices as effective means
of violence prevention.
Through our public
education project, critical intervention strategies for at-risk youth will
be disseminated to local, regional and statewide practitioners and researchers
through conferences and printed materials. We also seek to educate local
community and faith-based organizations in use of “best practices” to increase
their program’s effectiveness, and to share and disseminate FYI research and
program evaluation results to the greater San Gabriel Valley area.
Click here for more details.
Linda
Wagener, Wayne Aoki, Warren Brown, David Foy, James Furrow, Winston Gooden,
Sofia Herrera Maldonado, Lisseth Rojas-Flores, Shannon McGovern, Susan Park,
Asha Ragin, Joey Sagawa, Rex Sheridan, Danielle Speakman, Jennie Thomas, and
Alicia Young.
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Thriving Indicators Project
The Thriving Indicators
Project (TIP) is a collaborative research project between the Search Institute,
Tufts University, Stanford University, and Fuller Theological Seminary that aims
to assess and promote thriving across the lives of diverse young people. TIP
will generate a new national understanding of the strengths our society expects
of and needs from our youth and will create assessment tools and practical
guides and resources to make these expectations a common organizing framework
for how families, schools, youth organizations, and whole communities guide our
young. The scientific goal is to break new ground in defining and measuring the
concept of thriving, and position thriving as a major topic of scientific
inquiry. The social goal is to ensure the effective utilization of these new
tools in thousands of communities in order to nurture thriving among America’s
youth. Faculty and students within CRCAD work on the theoretical
conceptualization and empirical study of thriving and its indicators in the
various stages of this multi-year project.
Pamela
Ebstyne King, James Furrow, Linda Wagener, Ross Mueller, Will Schultz, Krystal
Miles White
Bully Project
Dr. Wayne Aoki and his
students are working on various areas of adolescent research. Bully behaviors in
junior high schools has been a focus for the past 3 years. Support from a
Department of Justice grant and collaboration with the Pasadena Unified School
District has led to surveys in two local schools. The project this past year has
focused on bystander attitudes and behaviors and furthering previous work on
bully behaviors in a multi-ethnic school setting. Secondary analysis of this
data set of more than 1,000 students is underway. The role of mentoring
relationships in adolescent development is another research project with one
completed project looking at at-risk Asian youth and a second being developed
with a para-church Christian outreach program. A third project under development
is the evaluation of the role of spirituality as a buffer in adolescent risk
taking attitudes and behaviors, as well as a predictor of pro-social behaviors.
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Research teams |
CRCAD Research Team
Back Row
(left to right): Rex Sheridan, Susan Park, Jim Furrow (Co-Director), Pamela
Ebstyne King, Joey Sagawa, Ross Mueller; Front Row (left to right): Krystal
Miles White, Mari Clements, Linda Wagener (Co-Director), Danielle Speakman,
Jennie Thomas, Lisseth Rojas-Flores, Asha Ragin, Sofia Herrera Maldonado, Alicia
Young. (not pictured: Wayne Aoki, Sunitha Chandy, Shannon McGovern, Wil Schultz)
FYI Research
Team
(left to right): Rex
Sheridan, Alicia Young, Susan Park, Sofia Herrera Maldonado, Danielle Speakman
(left to right): Shannon
McGovern, Joey Sagawa, Lisseth Rojas-Flores, Jennie Thomas, Asha Ragin (not
pictured: Sunitha Chandy)
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