May 8th, 2020 
In this course, you learned about development across childhood and adolescence, and gathered research articles related to topics of interest; last week, you crafted an annotated outline on a research topic that crosses childhood and adolescence that you are interested in. This week, you expand your annotated outline and write a research paper.
Your Signature Assignment requires you to complete the following:
Provide an overview of the topic selected; this must be a topic that spans both childhood and adolescence.
Review the theories that help individuals understand this topic across childhood and adolescence.
Explain how the three domains of development interact with one another in this topic across childhood and adolescent.
Provide examples of research recent, in the last 10 years, on this topic.
Conclude by considering the role that Positive Youth Development could play in understanding/addressing the topic you have chosen.
Length: 9-12 pages, not including title and reference pages
References: Include a minimum of 10 scholarly resources.
Your paper should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.
In our final week of the course, we are going to explore a cutting edge paradigm to approaching development in childhood and adolescence. Stemming from ecological and dynamic systems perspectives, Positive Youth Development (PYD) approaches adolescence from a positive place and works to understand how best to promote positive development for adolescents. Not a theory of adolescent development, per say, PYD is an approach to be used in practical settings from policy making to direct interaction with young people. It is very different from traditional models of engaging with teens in most Western cultures, which have adhered to Storm and Stress frameworks of adolescence. In the Storm and Stress framework, adolescence is viewed as a time of great upheaval, conflict, and risk, for the individual. A PYD approach, however, focuses on positive outcomes and strengths-based approaches for working with adolescents. Within the PYD framework, five characteristics are highlighted: caring, confidence, connection, character, and competence. Can you identify an organization in your area that works from PYD framework?
Programs that work from a PYD framework foster resilience, self-determination, and positive development. As you work through the resources of this course, think about how you could implement PYD into your personal and professional endeavors
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