Positive Youth Development : Evaluation & Future Directions in a Chinese Context

With the growing adolescent developmental problems such as substance abuse, mental health problems and school violence, many primary prevention programs targeting specific adolescent developmental problems and positive youth development programs have been designed in the West. In contrast, there are very few systematic and multi-year positive youth development programs in Hong Kong. To promote holistic development among adolescents the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust approved a grant to launch a project entitled "P.A.T.H.S. to Adulthood: A Jockey Club Youth Enhancement Scheme" and invited academics of five universities to form a Research Team with the Chinese University of Hong Kong as the lead institution to develop a multi-year universal positive youth development program to promote holistic adolescent development in Hong Kong. Besides from developing the program, the Research Team also provides training for teachers and social workers who implement the program and carry out longitudinal evaluation of the project. This book highlights some of the latest research in the area of positive youth development.