Human Development and Family Studies, Oregon State University, USA.
Health Promotion and Development, University of Bergen, Norway.
J Adolesc. 2019 Feb;71:1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2018.11.008. Epub 2018 Dec 21.
Research on positive youth development typically takes a more-is-better approach in which higher scores on measures of positive youth development indicate better outcomes. We question the validity of this assumption and describe how an imbalance among the Five Cs of Positive Youth Development can lead to a situation where "more" is actually "less." We then provide an empirical illustration using cross-sectional data.
We examined conditional associations between indicators of thriving and the C of caring using survey data obtained from a sample of 2,386 students in Norway (mean age 16.60 years [SD = 1.98]; 44.8% girls). Multilevel models assessed whether associations between caring and the thriving indicators (here defined as greater mental well-being and lower anxiety and depressive symptoms) differed when versus when not controlling for overall positive youth development.
When positive youth development was not included as a covariate, caring was positively associated with mental well being and anxiety but not significantly associated with depressive symptoms. After adding positive youth development to the model, caring became less strongly associated with mental well-being, more strongly associated with anxiety, and significantly (positively) associated with depressive symptoms.
Our results indicate that, after controlling for a set level of positive youth development, caring does not predict adaptive outcomes in a monotonic more-is-better way. These findings illustrate an instance where developmental regulations benefit the context at the cost of the individual and therefore speak to a growing acknowledgement in the literature-young people may suffer if they "care too much."
积极青年发展的研究通常采用越多越好的方法，即积极青年发展衡量指标上的高分表明更好的结果。我们质疑这种假设的有效性，并描述了五个积极青年发展要素之间的不平衡如何导致“更多”实际上是“更少”的情况。然后，我们使用横截面数据提供了一个实证例证。
我们使用从挪威 2386 名学生（平均年龄 16.60 岁[标准差=1.98]；44.8%为女孩）的样本中获得的调查数据，检验了茁壮成长指标与关怀要素之间的条件关联。多层次模型评估了在不控制总体积极青年发展的情况下，关怀与茁壮成长指标（这里定义为更高的心理健康和更低的焦虑和抑郁症状）之间的关联是否存在差异。
当不将积极青年发展作为协变量时，关怀与心理健康和焦虑呈正相关，但与抑郁症状无显著关联。在将积极青年发展纳入模型后，关怀与心理健康的关联减弱，与焦虑的关联增强，与抑郁症状的关联显著（呈正相关）。
我们的结果表明，在控制一定水平的积极青年发展后，关怀不会以单调递增的方式更好地预测适应性结果。这些发现说明了一种情况，即发展规律以牺牲个体为代价使环境受益，因此反映了文献中日益增长的认识——如果年轻人“过于关心”，他们可能会受苦。
