Peter L Benson
Biographic Data
| ID | 298474 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter L Benson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter L |
| FAMILY NAME | Benson |
| SIGNATURE | BENSON P L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Search Institute |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 291 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
The dimensions of successful young adult development: A conceptual and measurement framework
In this article, we draw on the theoretical and empirical literature to name what appear to be core dimensions of successful young adult development. We also describe some possible indicators and measures of those dimensions and sketch the kinds of developmental relationships and opportunities young people need in adolescence to effectively transition to a successful young adulthood, as well as the developmental relationships and opportunities yo…
Building Developmental Assets to Empower Adolescent Girls in Rural Bangladesh: Evaluation of Project Kishoree Kontha
Kishoree Kontha (“Adolescent Girls' Voices”) was implemented in Bangladeshi villages to build the developmental assets (e.g., support from others, social competencies) of rural girls through peer education in social skills, literacy, and school learning. The Developmental Assets Profile ( DAP ) measured the project's impact on ecological and individual assets. Analysis of two cohorts involving more than 600 intervention and 400 control adolescent…
Developmental Assets and Asset-Building Communities: Implications for Research, Policy, and Practice
Beyond the “Village” Rhetoric: Creating Healthy Communities for Children and Adolescents
The role of community in child and adolescent development is emerging as a significant area of theoretical inquiry, research, and application. This article describes the development and utilization of a comprehensive community change effort designed to increase the attention of all community members toward strengthening core developmental processes for children and adolescents. It describes the development of 2 theoretical constructs, that of dev…
Spiritual Identity: Contextual Perspectives
The contribution of the developmental assets framework to positive youth development theory and practice
Adolescent Thriving: The Role of Sparks, Relationships, and Empowerment
The definition and preliminary measurement of thriving in adolescence
We describe ‘thriving’ as an under-utilized construct that can add value to theory, research, and application in adolescent development. We draw on developmental systems theories to suggest that thriving represents the dynamic and bi-directional interplay of a young person intrinsically animated and energized by discovering his/her specialness, and the developmental contexts (people, places) that know, affirm, celebrate, encourage, and guide its …
Positive Youth Development and the Prevention of Youth Aggression and Violence
Both individual and ecological influences are implicated as factors linked to youth violence. In this paper, we conduct analyses on several databases of 6th -12th grade students in the United States, to explore the linkage of positive relationships
Promoting Equal Developmental Opportunity and Outcomes Among America’s Children and Youth: Results from the National Promises Study
The contribution to adolescent well‐being made by nonfamily adults: An examination of developmental assets as contexts and processes
The contribution of nonfamily adults to young people's well‐being was explored using both a cross‐sectional national sample of 614 12‐ to 17‐yearolds and a longitudinal sample of 370 students followed from 6th–8th grades through 10th–12th grades. Both variable‐ and person‐centered analyses were employed. Young people's involvement in volunteering, youth programs, and religious organizations was hypothesized to increase the frequency as well as th…
Conceptualizing and Modeling Individual and Ecological Asset Components of Thriving in Early Adolescence
Using two randomly selected separate subsamples of 50,000 middle or high school students drawn from the 1999 to 2000 Search Institute Profiles of Student Life Attitudes and Behavior survey, firstand second-order factors of items assessing internal and external assets were identified. In both samples, first-order exploratory factor analyses produced 14 scales with conceptual integrity and adequate reliability, although differences were found betwe…
Thriving in Adolescence: The Voices of Youth-Serving Practitioners, Parents, and Early and Late Adolescents
This study assesses if correspondence existed between concepts scholars use to discuss positive youth development (PYD) and terms used by practitioners, parents, and youth to discuss exemplary PYD, or thriving. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of 173 interviews about the meaning of thriving found no significant commonality between the terms used in the scholarly literature and the specific words or phrases used by the adult and youth partici…
Emerging Themes in Research on Adolescent Spiritual and Religious Development
The articles in this issue each contribute uniquely to the growing field of adolescent religious and spiritual development. Together, they also illustrate important themes in the field, including the multidimensionality of the domain of religious and spiritual development and a growing emphasis on themes consistent with developmental systems theory, such as a focus on developmental processes, ecological perspectives, and strength-based emphases. …
The Role of Parental Status and Child Age in the Engagement of Children and Youth with Adults Outside their Families
The authors report on a telephone poll with a nationally representative sample of 1,425 U.S. adults in which they investigated how parental status and age of child might affect patterns of adult engagement with children and youth outside their own families. Compared to nonparents, parents considered 12 of 20 ways of being involved with young people to be significantly more important for all adults to do. This result suggests that fears of negativ…
Developmental Assets and Asset-Building Community: Conceptual and Empirical Foundations
Other People’s Kids: Social Expectations and American Adults? Involvement with Children and Adolescents
Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence: Toward a Field of Inquiry
Sustained attention to spiritual development during childhood and adolescence in the social and developmental sciences has the potential to significantly enrich and strengthen the understanding of the core processes and dimensions of human development. This article seeks to set the stage for such an inquiry by exploring 6 themes for building a multifaceted agenda. It argues that spiritual development is (a) understudied; (b) a complex, multifacet…
The role of neighborhood and community in building developmental assets for children and youth: A national study of social norms among American adults
Unrelated adults play potentially important roles in the positive socialization of children and youth, but studies of adolescents suggest the majority of adults do not engage positively with young people on an intentional, frequent, and deep basis. As a result, only a minority of young people report experiencing key developmental assets that have been associated with reduced risk‐taking behaviors and increased thriving. Social norms theory sugges…
Contribution of Developmental Assets to the Prediction of Thriving Among Adolescents
This article investigated the contribution of developmental assets to the prediction of thriving behaviors among adolescents. The study was based on a sample of 6,000 youth in Grades 6-12 evenly distributed across 6 ethnic groups. Investigated were the effects of gender, grade, and levels of youth assets on 7 thriving indicators: school success, leadership, valuing diversity, physical health, helping others, delay of gratification, and overcoming…
Developmental Assets: Measurement and Prediction of Risk Behaviors Among Adolescents
(1998). Developmental Assets: Measurement and Prediction of Risk Behaviors Among Adolescents. Applied Developmental Science: Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 209-230
Beyond the 'Village' Rhetoric: Creating Healthy Communities for Children and Adolescents
The role of community in child and adolescent development is emerging as a significant area of theoretical inquiry, research, and application. This article describes the development and utilization of a comprehensive community change effort designed to increase the attention of all community members toward strengthening core developmental processes for children and adolescents. It describes the development of 2 theoretical constructs, that of dev…
The emotional and behavioral adjustment of United states adopted adolescents: Part II. Age at adoption
The emotional and behavioral adjustment of United States adopted adolescents: Part I. An overview
Religion and the Well‐Being of Adolescents
A literature review of the relation between religiousness and adolescent well‐being is presented, along with new analyses from a large adolescent data base. It is found that the average level of religiousness of U.S. adolescents has not declined recently, although it does appear to decrease on average across the years of adolescence. African Americans are more religious than whites, and girls are more religious than boys. Religiousness is positiv…
Religion and the Well‐Being of Adolescents
A literature review of the relation between religiousness and adolescent well‐being is presented, along with new analyses from a large adolescent data base. It is found that the average level of religiousness of U.S. adolescents has not declined recently, although it does appear to decrease on average across the years of adolescence. African Americans are more religious than whites, and girls are more religious than boys. Religiousness is positiv…
Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence: Toward a Field of Inquiry
Sustained attention to spiritual development during childhood and adolescence in the social and developmental sciences has the potential to significantly enrich and strengthen the understanding of the core processes and dimensions of human development. This article seeks to set the stage for such an inquiry by exploring 6 themes for building a multifaceted agenda. It argues that spiritual development is (a) understudied; (b) a complex, multifacet…
Conceptualizing and Modeling Individual and Ecological Asset Components of Thriving in Early Adolescence
Using two randomly selected separate subsamples of 50,000 middle or high school students drawn from the 1999 to 2000 Search Institute Profiles of Student Life Attitudes and Behavior survey, firstand second-order factors of items assessing internal and external assets were identified. In both samples, first-order exploratory factor analyses produced 14 scales with conceptual integrity and adequate reliability, although differences were found betwe…
Pretty pleases: The effects of physical attractiveness, race, and sex on receiving help
Thriving in Adolescence: The Voices of Youth-Serving Practitioners, Parents, and Early and Late Adolescents
This study assesses if correspondence existed between concepts scholars use to discuss positive youth development (PYD) and terms used by practitioners, parents, and youth to discuss exemplary PYD, or thriving. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of 173 interviews about the meaning of thriving found no significant commonality between the terms used in the scholarly literature and the specific words or phrases used by the adult and youth partici…
The contribution to adolescent well‐being made by nonfamily adults: An examination of developmental assets as contexts and processes
The contribution of nonfamily adults to young people's well‐being was explored using both a cross‐sectional national sample of 614 12‐ to 17‐yearolds and a longitudinal sample of 370 students followed from 6th–8th grades through 10th–12th grades. Both variable‐ and person‐centered analyses were employed. Young people's involvement in volunteering, youth programs, and religious organizations was hypothesized to increase the frequency as well as th…
Development and Validation of the Sexist Attitudes Toward Women Scale (SATWS)
Although sexism is now defined as a major social problem, there have been very few empirical studies investigating its correlates and determinants. One primary reason for this is that there are no published sexism scales, and hence it is difficult to assess individual differences in sexism. This article describes the development and validation of a 40–item Sexist Attitudes Toward Women Scale (SATWS). On rational-intuitive grounds, it is hypothesi…
The role of neighborhood and community in building developmental assets for children and youth: A national study of social norms among American adults
Unrelated adults play potentially important roles in the positive socialization of children and youth, but studies of adolescents suggest the majority of adults do not engage positively with young people on an intentional, frequent, and deep basis. As a result, only a minority of young people report experiencing key developmental assets that have been associated with reduced risk‐taking behaviors and increased thriving. Social norms theory sugges…
Adolescent Thriving: The Role of Sparks, Relationships, and Empowerment
The emotional and behavioral adjustment of United States adopted adolescents: Part I. An overview
The emotional and behavioral adjustment of United states adopted adolescents: Part II. Age at adoption
Ten-Year Trends in At-Risk Behaviors: A National Study of Black Adolescents
This study investigated at-risk behaviors among Black and White adolescents using data from a nationally representative sample of United States high school seniors that permits examination of cohort, gender, and race effects. Designed both to describe trends in at-risk behaviors and to examine the strength and stability of a 10-variable regression model, this study found that (a) Black high school seniors reportedfewer at-risk behaviors than did …
Building Developmental Assets to Empower Adolescent Girls in Rural Bangladesh: Evaluation of Project Kishoree Kontha
Kishoree Kontha (“Adolescent Girls' Voices”) was implemented in Bangladeshi villages to build the developmental assets (e.g., support from others, social competencies) of rural girls through peer education in social skills, literacy, and school learning. The Developmental Assets Profile ( DAP ) measured the project's impact on ecological and individual assets. Analysis of two cohorts involving more than 600 intervention and 400 control adolescent…
The Role of Parental Status and Child Age in the Engagement of Children and Youth with Adults Outside their Families
The authors report on a telephone poll with a nationally representative sample of 1,425 U.S. adults in which they investigated how parental status and age of child might affect patterns of adult engagement with children and youth outside their own families. Compared to nonparents, parents considered 12 of 20 ways of being involved with young people to be significantly more important for all adults to do. This result suggests that fears of negativ…
Pretty pleases: The effects of physical attractiveness, race, and sex on receiving help
The Social Costs of Obesity: A Non-Reactive Field Study
The major purposes of this study were to investigate whether devaluation of obese persons, a phenomenon demonstrated exclusively in laboratory settings using reactive measures, generalizes to a nonreactive field setting. Seventy public health administrators were asked, via the mail, to help a college junior assess her chances of getting into graduate school and finding employment in this field. Subjects received a cover letter, a standard résumé∼…
Development and Validation of the Sexist Attitudes Toward Women Scale (SATWS)
Although sexism is now defined as a major social problem, there have been very few empirical studies investigating its correlates and determinants. One primary reason for this is that there are no published sexism scales, and hence it is difficult to assess individual differences in sexism. This article describes the development and validation of a 40–item Sexist Attitudes Toward Women Scale (SATWS). On rational-intuitive grounds, it is hypothesi…
Early Adolescents and Their Parents: Description of an On-Going National Study
Religion on Capitol Hill: Myths and Realities
Religion on Capitol Hill, through its pointed illustration of the influence of the religious factor in the policy-making process, has earned a well-deserved reputation among political scientists as a classic. It demonstrates the fallibility of the popular myths surrounding the place of religion in Congress and sheds light on their correlation with political affiliation and voting records. Proven an excellent supplement for courses in religion and…
American Religion and Politics: A Review Essay
t was a small but significant event.Following the assassination of Mar- tin Luther King, Jr., an ecumenical memorial service was held in St. Charles Borromeo church in Harlem.Standing outside the church a TV reporter solemnly observed: &dquo;It was a religious service, and fitting that it should be, for, after all, Dr. King was the son of a minister&dquo; (Neuhaus 1985: 97-8).To Richard John Neuhaus, confidant of King's and au- thor of The Naked …
Religion On Capitol Hill: Myths and Realities
Religion on Capitol Hill: Myths and Realities
Ten-Year Trends in At-Risk Behaviors: A National Study of Black Adolescents
This study investigated at-risk behaviors among Black and White adolescents using data from a nationally representative sample of United States high school seniors that permits examination of cohort, gender, and race effects. Designed both to describe trends in at-risk behaviors and to examine the strength and stability of a 10-variable regression model, this study found that (a) Black high school seniors reportedfewer at-risk behaviors than did …
The 3M alcohol and other drug prevention program: Description and evaluation
Religion and the Well‐Being of Adolescents
A literature review of the relation between religiousness and adolescent well‐being is presented, along with new analyses from a large adolescent data base. It is found that the average level of religiousness of U.S. adolescents has not declined recently, although it does appear to decrease on average across the years of adolescence. African Americans are more religious than whites, and girls are more religious than boys. Religiousness is positiv…
The emotional and behavioral adjustment of United states adopted adolescents: Part II. Age at adoption
The emotional and behavioral adjustment of United States adopted adolescents: Part I. An overview
Developmental Assets: Measurement and Prediction of Risk Behaviors Among Adolescents
(1998). Developmental Assets: Measurement and Prediction of Risk Behaviors Among Adolescents. Applied Developmental Science: Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 209-230
Beyond the 'Village' Rhetoric: Creating Healthy Communities for Children and Adolescents
The role of community in child and adolescent development is emerging as a significant area of theoretical inquiry, research, and application. This article describes the development and utilization of a comprehensive community change effort designed to increase the attention of all community members toward strengthening core developmental processes for children and adolescents. It describes the development of 2 theoretical constructs, that of dev…
Contribution of Developmental Assets to the Prediction of Thriving Among Adolescents
This article investigated the contribution of developmental assets to the prediction of thriving behaviors among adolescents. The study was based on a sample of 6,000 youth in Grades 6-12 evenly distributed across 6 ethnic groups. Investigated were the effects of gender, grade, and levels of youth assets on 7 thriving indicators: school success, leadership, valuing diversity, physical health, helping others, delay of gratification, and overcoming…
The role of neighborhood and community in building developmental assets for children and youth: A national study of social norms among American adults
Unrelated adults play potentially important roles in the positive socialization of children and youth, but studies of adolescents suggest the majority of adults do not engage positively with young people on an intentional, frequent, and deep basis. As a result, only a minority of young people report experiencing key developmental assets that have been associated with reduced risk‐taking behaviors and increased thriving. Social norms theory sugges…
Developmental Assets and Asset-Building Community: Conceptual and Empirical Foundations
Other People’s Kids: Social Expectations and American Adults? Involvement with Children and Adolescents
Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence: Toward a Field of Inquiry
Sustained attention to spiritual development during childhood and adolescence in the social and developmental sciences has the potential to significantly enrich and strengthen the understanding of the core processes and dimensions of human development. This article seeks to set the stage for such an inquiry by exploring 6 themes for building a multifaceted agenda. It argues that spiritual development is (a) understudied; (b) a complex, multifacet…
Emerging Themes in Research on Adolescent Spiritual and Religious Development
The articles in this issue each contribute uniquely to the growing field of adolescent religious and spiritual development. Together, they also illustrate important themes in the field, including the multidimensionality of the domain of religious and spiritual development and a growing emphasis on themes consistent with developmental systems theory, such as a focus on developmental processes, ecological perspectives, and strength-based emphases. …
The Role of Parental Status and Child Age in the Engagement of Children and Youth with Adults Outside their Families
The authors report on a telephone poll with a nationally representative sample of 1,425 U.S. adults in which they investigated how parental status and age of child might affect patterns of adult engagement with children and youth outside their own families. Compared to nonparents, parents considered 12 of 20 ways of being involved with young people to be significantly more important for all adults to do. This result suggests that fears of negativ…
Conceptualizing and Modeling Individual and Ecological Asset Components of Thriving in Early Adolescence
Using two randomly selected separate subsamples of 50,000 middle or high school students drawn from the 1999 to 2000 Search Institute Profiles of Student Life Attitudes and Behavior survey, firstand second-order factors of items assessing internal and external assets were identified. In both samples, first-order exploratory factor analyses produced 14 scales with conceptual integrity and adequate reliability, although differences were found betwe…
Thriving in Adolescence: The Voices of Youth-Serving Practitioners, Parents, and Early and Late Adolescents
This study assesses if correspondence existed between concepts scholars use to discuss positive youth development (PYD) and terms used by practitioners, parents, and youth to discuss exemplary PYD, or thriving. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of 173 interviews about the meaning of thriving found no significant commonality between the terms used in the scholarly literature and the specific words or phrases used by the adult and youth partici…
The contribution to adolescent well‐being made by nonfamily adults: An examination of developmental assets as contexts and processes
The contribution of nonfamily adults to young people's well‐being was explored using both a cross‐sectional national sample of 614 12‐ to 17‐yearolds and a longitudinal sample of 370 students followed from 6th–8th grades through 10th–12th grades. Both variable‐ and person‐centered analyses were employed. Young people's involvement in volunteering, youth programs, and religious organizations was hypothesized to increase the frequency as well as th…
Psychology (28 works) · Developmental psychology (24 works) · Youth Development and Social Support (19 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (14 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Thriving (8 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Positive Youth Development (6 works)