Gorbachev’s “new directions” in Asia

The Gorbachev regime has made a dramatic attempt to alter the political environment for Soviet policy in Asia and to shift regional perceptions in its favor. As elsewhere, the major components, of this new approach are the downplaying of the utility of military instruments of power, an emphasis on the peaceful resolution of regional disputes, a deemphasizing of the role of ideology, and a stepped-up effort to pursue relations with regional states through traditional diplomacy. The various elements of “new thinking” as qpplied to Asia have contributed to improved Soviet relations with China, South Korea, and several non-Communist states of Southeast Asia, and created an opportunity for improved relations with Japan. Carolyn McGiffert Ekedahl is a senior analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency and co-author ofThe Soviets and the Third World Under Gorbachev, (Westview Press, forthcoming).     

War Narratives: Framing Our Understanding of the War on Terror

Unlike past American wars, the current war on terror has not been associated with a centrally proffered narrative providing some guidance and orientation for those administering government services under state-of-war conditions. War is as much a cultural endeavor as it is a military undertaking, and the absence of a clear sensemaking narrative was detected in this study of public administrators from three agencies with varying proximity to the conflict. Q-methodology was used to explore the way individuals processed the war narratives put forth by the Bush administration and reported in the media immediately following the September 11 attacks. Though no distinct state-of-war narratives were found among the public administrators in this study, there are clear indications that latent narratives reflecting local political and organizational task environments have emerged.     

Trajectories of Positive and Negative Behaviors from Early- to Middle-Adolescence

Although the positive youth development (PYD) model initially assumed inverse links between indicators of PYD and of risk/problem behaviors, empirical work in adolescence has suggested that more complex associations exist between trajectories of the two domains of functioning. To clarify the PYD model, this study assessed intraindividual change in positive and problematic indicators across Grades 5–10, and the links between these trajectories of development, among 2,516 participants from the 4-H Study of PYD (58.1% females; 64.9% European American, 7.0% African American, 12.3% Latino/a American, 2.6% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 1.8% Native American, 3.0% multiethnic-racial, and 8.4% with inconsistent race/ethnicity across waves). Results from person-centered analyses indicated that most youth clustered in the high trajectories of positive indicators and in the low trajectories of the negative ones. Consistent with past research, overlap between trajectories of positive and negative behaviors was found. These results suggest that theory and application need to accommodate to variation in the links between positive and problematic developmental trajectories.     

Why Missing Data Matter in the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Development: Using the 4-H Study to Understand the Uses of Different Missing Data Methods

The study of adolescent development rests on methodologically appropriate collection and interpretation of longitudinal data. While all longitudinal studies of adolescent development involve missing data, the methods to treat missingness that have been recommended most often focus on missing data from cross-sectional studies. The problems of missing data in longitudinal studies are not described well, there are not many statistical software programs developed for researchers to use, and there are no longitudinal empirical examples involving adolescent development that show the extent to which different missing data procedures can yield different results. Data from the first three waves of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development were used to provide such an illustration. The sample contains 2,265 participants (56.7% females) who were in Grade 5 at Wave 1, in Grade 6 at Wave 2, and in Grade 7 at Wave 3, and varied in race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, family structure, rural–urban location, and geographic region. The results showed that three missing data techniques, i.e., listwise deletion, direct maximum likelihood (DirML), and multiple imputation (MI), did not yield comparable results for research questions assessing different aspects of development (i.e., change over time or prediction effects). The results indicated also that listwise deletion should not be used. Instead, both DirML and MI methods should be used to determine if and how results change when these procedures are employed.     

Special Issue Introduction: The Meaning and Measurement of Thriving: A View of the Issues

We introduce this special issue on the foundations and functions of adolescent thriving by summarizing the developmental systems theory-based, positive youth development (PYD) perspective. The PYD perspective frames much of contemporary research about health and positive development across the adolescent period and, more specifically, frames the 4-H Study of PYD, the data set from which the empirical work in this special issue is drawn. We discuss the different ways in which the articles in this special issue elucidate different facets of the PYD perspective. In addition, we summarize the implications of this research for future scholarship and for applications aimed at improving the life chances of diverse adolescents.     

Academic Achievement in the High School Years: The Changing Role of School Engagement

School engagement is an important theoretical and practical cornerstone to the promotion of academic accomplishments. This article used a tripartite—behavioral, emotional, and cognitive—model of school engagement to assess the relationship between school engagement and academic success among high school students, and to determine whether a reciprocal relationship exists between these constructs. Data were derived from 710 youth (69 % female) who took part in Waves 6 through 8 (Grades 10 through 12) of the 4-H study of positive youth development. Longitudinal confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the invariance of the tripartite model of school engagement. Results of a structural equation model showed that the components of school engagement and academic achievement were mutually predictive and that these predictions varied from grade to grade. Future possibilities for evaluating the relationship between school engagement and academic achievement, as well as the implications for educational policy and practice, are discussed.     

Special Issue Introduction: Thriving Across the Adolescent Years: A View of the Issues

Framed within a relational developmental systems model, the 4-H Study of positive youth development (PYD) explored the bases and implications of thriving across much of the second decade of life. This special issue pertains to information derived from the recently completed eight waves of the 4-H Study of PYD, and presents findings about the relations between individual and contextual variables that are involved in the thriving process. This introduction briefly reviews the historical background and the theoretical frame for the 4-H Study and describes its general methodology. We provide an overview of the articles in this special issue and discuss the ways in which the articles elucidate different facets of the thriving process. In addition, we discuss the implications of this research for future scholarship and for applications aimed at improving the life chances of diverse adolescents.     

Important Non-parental Adults and Positive Youth Development Across Mid- to Late-Adolescence: The Moderating Effect of Parenting Profiles

Both parents and important non-parental adults have influential roles in promoting positive youth development (PYD). Little research, however, has examined the simultaneous effects of both parents and important non-parental adults for PYD. We assessed the relationships among youth-reported parenting profiles and important non-parental adult relationships in predicting the Five Cs of PYD (competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring) in four cross-sectional waves of data from the 4-H Study of PYD (Grade 9: N = 975, 61.1 % female; Grade 10: N = 1,855, 63.4 % female; Grade 11: N = 983, 67.9 % female; Grade 12: N = 703, 69.3 % female). The results indicated the existence of latent profiles of youth-reported parenting styles based on maternal warmth, parental school involvement, and parental monitoring that were consistent with previously identified profiles (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved) as well as reflecting several novel profiles (highly involved, integrative, school-focused, controlling). Parenting profile membership predicted mean differences in the Five Cs at each wave, and also moderated the relationships between the presence of an important non-parental adult and the Five Cs. In general, authoritative and highly involved parenting predicted higher levels of PYD and a higher likelihood of being connected to an important non-parental adult. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research on adult influences of youth development and for programs that involve adults in attempts to promote PYD.