Positive Youth Development, Social Contribution, and Pro-environmental Behaviour in a Sample of Spanish Emerging Adults

Abstract

Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a strength-based perspective that posits that healthy development emerges because of the alignment between personal strengths and contextual assets. This work is based on the 5Cs model of PYD, which comprises five thriving indicators (competence, confidence, connection, character and caring) which are expected to be associated with positive youth outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between the 5Cs of PYD and indicators of social contribution and pro-environmental behaviours. A cross-sectional study was conducted in winter and spring of 2021 with a sample of 1044 emerging adults (75.5% females; Mage = 20.47, SD = 3.08) from 11 universities in Spain, who completed online self-report measures of PYD, social contribution and proenvironmental behaviour. The results showed that overall PYD was positively associated with both social contribution (especially family contribution and advising peers) and pro-environmental behaviours. Connection and character had the strongest positive associations with social contribution, while character and caring had the strongest associations with the pro-environmental behaviours. In line with these findings, PYD promotion programs could be a valid intervention approach to foster more contribution to others and proenvironmental behaviours.