Kendall Cotton Bronk
Biographic Data
| ID | 3470016 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kendall Cotton Bronk |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kendall Cotton |
| FAMILY NAME | Bronk |
| SIGNATURE | BRONK K C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Claremont Graduate University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2619-8073 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 155 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 24 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Trajectories of positive youth development, predictors, and mental health outcomes among Chinese adolescents
Massive parental labor migration in China has created distinct developmental experiences for adolescents varied in rural or urban residency and parental migration status, yet limited research has examined heterogeneity in positive development across these diverse groups. This study investigated developmental trajectories of positive youth development (PYD), their key predictors, and associated mental health outcomes among 3331 Chinese adolescents…
The role of patience, religiosity, and spirituality in the search for purpose among young adults
How to navigate life
How to Navigate Life: The New Science of Finding Your Way in School, Career, and Beyond offers a compelling, empirically grounded framework for cultivating purpose among young adults and those guiding them. Divided into two parts, the book first outlines five principles of purpose, introducing the “purpose mindset” as an antidote to the performance and passion mindsets that dominate youth culture. The second half presents actionable strategies fo…
Exploring conceptions of patience among a sample of Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, and nonreligious young adults
A model of positive Liberian youth development
Promoting positive development among left‐behind youth in rural China
Integrating both the positive youth development and resilience science frameworks, this study developed and validated an instrument for assessing the individual strengths and environmental supports that promote positive development for rural, left-behind youth (LBY) in China. Following an exploratory sequential design, we first conducted 22 in-depth interviews (13 teachers and nine LBY) to inform the creation of survey items. We then conducted ex…
Understanding how a cancer diagnosis can shape young people’s views of the future and their purpose in life
Purpose formation often coincides with identity development, but what happens when these processes are disrupted by a cancer diagnosis, as is the case for more than 70,000 US young people each year? How does a cancer diagnosis shape adolescents’ and young adults’ views of their future and their purposes in life? To explore these questions, we conducted interviews with adolescent and young adult cancer survivors (AYA; N = 40). Findings suggest tha…
Factors that promote positive Chinese youth development
How can we help Chinese youth thrive? To begin to address this question, the present study explored the promotive factors (i.e., the individual strengths and environmental assets) that enhance Chinese youths’ healthy development. Interviews were conducted with Chinese adolescents (n = 12), their teachers (n = 12), and their parents (n = 20). Findings highlight six individual strengths, including goal setting, sparks, self-reliance, goal-oriented …
Clarifying the Content of Intellectual Humility
Scientific and Ethical Mandates in the Study of Purpose
We appreciate the letter by Hill and Pfund about our commentary and the opportunity to respond to it. It is exactly this type of interchange that advances understanding and clarity of communication in the scholarly community. The object of our commentary (Bronk & Damon, 2021, “What makes a purpose ‘worth having’) was a thoughtful Human Development article by Burrow et al. (2021) entitled “Are all purposes worth having?” It should be clear from th…
What Makes a Purpose “Worth Having”
Purpose Among Youth From Low-Income Backgrounds
Theoretical and empirical research lead to conflicting perspectives on whether youth from low-income backgrounds are likely to have access to lives of purpose. To explore this issue, this study used data collected during the 2016–2017 academic year from a sample of Southern California youth. Findings suggest (a) youth from low-income communities are as likely as youth from middle-income communities to report leading lives of purpose; (b) purpose …
Peace and development indicators in Liberia youth through sport for development programming
Claremont Purpose Scale
The 12-item Claremont Purpose Scale (CPS) was designed for use with adolescents, and it gauges all three dimensions of the purpose construct, including goal-directedness, personal meaning, and a beyond-the-self orientation. Repeated administration reveals promising psychometric properties. For instance, the CPS demonstrates excellent internal consistency (α = .916‒.935) and convergent validity. In exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, ite…
Persevering with Positivity and Purpose
Youth Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is critical to job creation and economic growth in the United States and abroad; however, interest in pursuing entrepreneurial careers is on the decline among young people today. As a means of designing programs that effectively encourage and prepare young people to pursue entrepreneurial careers, this essay calls for increased focus on how entrepreneurs develop. An understanding of the experiences, opportunities, and interests t…
Fostering Youth Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship offers a viable and proven pathway to economic growth and personal fulfillment. However, the number of individuals engaged in entrepreneurial behaviors remains low. This discrepancy between entrepreneurial attitudes and action underscores the need for programs that foster the development of entrepreneurship in today's youth. We argue that a relational developmental systems approach can help researchers understand and facilitate t…
An Introduction to Exemplar Research
The exemplar methodology represents a useful yet underutilized approach to studying developmental constructs. It features an approach to research whereby individuals, entities, or programs that exemplify the construct of interest in a particularly intense or highly developed manner compose the study sample. Accordingly, it reveals what the upper ends of development look like in practice. Utilizing the exemplar methodology allows researchers to gl…
Conducting Confirmatory Latent Class Analysis Using M plus
Latent class analysis (LCA) is an increasingly popular tool that researchers can use to identify latent groups in the population underlying a sample of responses to categorical observed variables. LCA is most commonly used in an exploratory fashion whereby no parameters are specified a priori. Although this exploratory approach is reasonable when very little prior research has been conducted in the area under study, it can be very limiting when m…
A Grounded Theory of the Development of Noble Youth Purpose
Having a noble purpose in life is an important component of positive youth development; however, little is known about how noble purposes develop over time. Therefore, using three waves of interviews over a 5-year period with 9 adolescents ( N = 9) who demonstrated intense commitments to various noble purposes, the present study developed a grounded theory of the development of noble purpose, including a focus on how commitment was initiated, sus…
Adolescent Characteristics by Type of Long-Term Aim in Life
Surveys were administered to adolescents (N = 144) to determine if young people varied based on the type of long-term aims they held. Using cluster analysis, four groups emerged from the data: youth without clear long-term aims, youth with self-oriented long-term aims, youth with other-oriented long-term aims, and youth with both self- and other-oriented long-term aims. The latter two clusters represent potentially purposeful youth and the self-o…
Purpose, hope, and life satisfaction in three age groups
Using the Revised Youth Purpose Survey (Bundick et al., 2006 Bundick, M, Andrews, M, Jones, A, Mariano, JM, Bronk, KC and Damon, W. 2006. Revised youth purpose survey, Stanford, CA: Unpublished instrument, Stanford Center on Adolescence. [Google Scholar]), the Trait Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991 Snyder, CR. 2003. March). Measuring hope in children. Paper presented at the Child Trends Indicators of Positive Development Conference. 2003, Washingt…
Passion & mastery in balance
Whether or not people belong to a true 'profession' as sociologists de1⁄2ne the term, they usually consider profes-sionalism to be a quality worth striving for.To call someone a pro implies that the person knows what to do and does it well.Professionals don't act naively, make stupid mistakes, or get easily flustered.Professionals have staying power and can be counted on: they 'go on with the show' no matter how they're feeling.It is this attitud…
The Development of Purpose During Adolescence
The field of psychology has been slow to recognize the importance of purpose for positive youth development. Until recently, purpose was understood, if at all, as a means of adapting to threatening conditions rather than as a motivator of good deeds and galvanizer of character growth. Moreover, in most psychological studies, purpose has been conflated with personal meaning, a broader and more internally oriented construct. This article offers a n…
The Development of Purpose During Adolescence
The field of psychology has been slow to recognize the importance of purpose for positive youth development. Until recently, purpose was understood, if at all, as a means of adapting to threatening conditions rather than as a motivator of good deeds and galvanizer of character growth. Moreover, in most psychological studies, purpose has been conflated with personal meaning, a broader and more internally oriented construct. This article offers a n…
A Grounded Theory of the Development of Noble Youth Purpose
Having a noble purpose in life is an important component of positive youth development; however, little is known about how noble purposes develop over time. Therefore, using three waves of interviews over a 5-year period with 9 adolescents ( N = 9) who demonstrated intense commitments to various noble purposes, the present study developed a grounded theory of the development of noble purpose, including a focus on how commitment was initiated, sus…
Fostering Youth Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship offers a viable and proven pathway to economic growth and personal fulfillment. However, the number of individuals engaged in entrepreneurial behaviors remains low. This discrepancy between entrepreneurial attitudes and action underscores the need for programs that foster the development of entrepreneurship in today's youth. We argue that a relational developmental systems approach can help researchers understand and facilitate t…
Peace and development indicators in Liberia youth through sport for development programming
Passion & mastery in balance
Whether or not people belong to a true 'profession' as sociologists de1⁄2ne the term, they usually consider profes-sionalism to be a quality worth striving for.To call someone a pro implies that the person knows what to do and does it well.Professionals don't act naively, make stupid mistakes, or get easily flustered.Professionals have staying power and can be counted on: they 'go on with the show' no matter how they're feeling.It is this attitud…
The Development of Purpose During Adolescence
The field of psychology has been slow to recognize the importance of purpose for positive youth development. Until recently, purpose was understood, if at all, as a means of adapting to threatening conditions rather than as a motivator of good deeds and galvanizer of character growth. Moreover, in most psychological studies, purpose has been conflated with personal meaning, a broader and more internally oriented construct. This article offers a n…
Passion & mastery in balance
Whether or not people belong to a true 'profession' as sociologists de1⁄2ne the term, they usually consider profes-sionalism to be a quality worth striving for.To call someone a pro implies that the person knows what to do and does it well.Professionals don't act naively, make stupid mistakes, or get easily flustered.Professionals have staying power and can be counted on: they 'go on with the show' no matter how they're feeling.It is this attitud…
Purpose, hope, and life satisfaction in three age groups
Using the Revised Youth Purpose Survey (Bundick et al., 2006 Bundick, M, Andrews, M, Jones, A, Mariano, JM, Bronk, KC and Damon, W. 2006. Revised youth purpose survey, Stanford, CA: Unpublished instrument, Stanford Center on Adolescence. [Google Scholar]), the Trait Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991 Snyder, CR. 2003. March). Measuring hope in children. Paper presented at the Child Trends Indicators of Positive Development Conference. 2003, Washingt…
Adolescent Characteristics by Type of Long-Term Aim in Life
Surveys were administered to adolescents (N = 144) to determine if young people varied based on the type of long-term aims they held. Using cluster analysis, four groups emerged from the data: youth without clear long-term aims, youth with self-oriented long-term aims, youth with other-oriented long-term aims, and youth with both self- and other-oriented long-term aims. The latter two clusters represent potentially purposeful youth and the self-o…
Conducting Confirmatory Latent Class Analysis Using M plus
Latent class analysis (LCA) is an increasingly popular tool that researchers can use to identify latent groups in the population underlying a sample of responses to categorical observed variables. LCA is most commonly used in an exploratory fashion whereby no parameters are specified a priori. Although this exploratory approach is reasonable when very little prior research has been conducted in the area under study, it can be very limiting when m…
A Grounded Theory of the Development of Noble Youth Purpose
Having a noble purpose in life is an important component of positive youth development; however, little is known about how noble purposes develop over time. Therefore, using three waves of interviews over a 5-year period with 9 adolescents ( N = 9) who demonstrated intense commitments to various noble purposes, the present study developed a grounded theory of the development of noble purpose, including a focus on how commitment was initiated, sus…
An Introduction to Exemplar Research
The exemplar methodology represents a useful yet underutilized approach to studying developmental constructs. It features an approach to research whereby individuals, entities, or programs that exemplify the construct of interest in a particularly intense or highly developed manner compose the study sample. Accordingly, it reveals what the upper ends of development look like in practice. Utilizing the exemplar methodology allows researchers to gl…
Fostering Youth Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship offers a viable and proven pathway to economic growth and personal fulfillment. However, the number of individuals engaged in entrepreneurial behaviors remains low. This discrepancy between entrepreneurial attitudes and action underscores the need for programs that foster the development of entrepreneurship in today's youth. We argue that a relational developmental systems approach can help researchers understand and facilitate t…
Youth Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is critical to job creation and economic growth in the United States and abroad; however, interest in pursuing entrepreneurial careers is on the decline among young people today. As a means of designing programs that effectively encourage and prepare young people to pursue entrepreneurial careers, this essay calls for increased focus on how entrepreneurs develop. An understanding of the experiences, opportunities, and interests t…
Persevering with Positivity and Purpose
Claremont Purpose Scale
The 12-item Claremont Purpose Scale (CPS) was designed for use with adolescents, and it gauges all three dimensions of the purpose construct, including goal-directedness, personal meaning, and a beyond-the-self orientation. Repeated administration reveals promising psychometric properties. For instance, the CPS demonstrates excellent internal consistency (α = .916‒.935) and convergent validity. In exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, ite…
Purpose Among Youth From Low-Income Backgrounds
Theoretical and empirical research lead to conflicting perspectives on whether youth from low-income backgrounds are likely to have access to lives of purpose. To explore this issue, this study used data collected during the 2016–2017 academic year from a sample of Southern California youth. Findings suggest (a) youth from low-income communities are as likely as youth from middle-income communities to report leading lives of purpose; (b) purpose …
Peace and development indicators in Liberia youth through sport for development programming
What Makes a Purpose “Worth Having”
Clarifying the Content of Intellectual Humility
Scientific and Ethical Mandates in the Study of Purpose
We appreciate the letter by Hill and Pfund about our commentary and the opportunity to respond to it. It is exactly this type of interchange that advances understanding and clarity of communication in the scholarly community. The object of our commentary (Bronk & Damon, 2021, “What makes a purpose ‘worth having’) was a thoughtful Human Development article by Burrow et al. (2021) entitled “Are all purposes worth having?” It should be clear from th…
Understanding how a cancer diagnosis can shape young people’s views of the future and their purpose in life
Purpose formation often coincides with identity development, but what happens when these processes are disrupted by a cancer diagnosis, as is the case for more than 70,000 US young people each year? How does a cancer diagnosis shape adolescents’ and young adults’ views of their future and their purposes in life? To explore these questions, we conducted interviews with adolescent and young adult cancer survivors (AYA; N = 40). Findings suggest tha…
Factors that promote positive Chinese youth development
How can we help Chinese youth thrive? To begin to address this question, the present study explored the promotive factors (i.e., the individual strengths and environmental assets) that enhance Chinese youths’ healthy development. Interviews were conducted with Chinese adolescents (n = 12), their teachers (n = 12), and their parents (n = 20). Findings highlight six individual strengths, including goal setting, sparks, self-reliance, goal-oriented …
How to navigate life
How to Navigate Life: The New Science of Finding Your Way in School, Career, and Beyond offers a compelling, empirically grounded framework for cultivating purpose among young adults and those guiding them. Divided into two parts, the book first outlines five principles of purpose, introducing the “purpose mindset” as an antidote to the performance and passion mindsets that dominate youth culture. The second half presents actionable strategies fo…
Exploring conceptions of patience among a sample of Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, and nonreligious young adults
A model of positive Liberian youth development
Promoting positive development among left‐behind youth in rural China
Integrating both the positive youth development and resilience science frameworks, this study developed and validated an instrument for assessing the individual strengths and environmental supports that promote positive development for rural, left-behind youth (LBY) in China. Following an exploratory sequential design, we first conducted 22 in-depth interviews (13 teachers and nine LBY) to inform the creation of survey items. We then conducted ex…
Trajectories of positive youth development, predictors, and mental health outcomes among Chinese adolescents
Massive parental labor migration in China has created distinct developmental experiences for adolescents varied in rural or urban residency and parental migration status, yet limited research has examined heterogeneity in positive development across these diverse groups. This study investigated developmental trajectories of positive youth development (PYD), their key predictors, and associated mental health outcomes among 3331 Chinese adolescents…
The role of patience, religiosity, and spirituality in the search for purpose among young adults
Psychology (16 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Youth Development and Social Support (8 works) · Developmental psychology (7 works) · Positive Youth Development (6 works) · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (6 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (4 works)