ABSTRACT
In the United States, the emerging fi eld of youth development, with a jump start from a fi ve million dollar study supported by the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, has experienced enormous growth in the past few years. New journals have been started (e.g. New Directions for Youth Development: Theory, Practice, and Research), books and articles are being published with regularity (e.g. Halpern 2003), and programs of study have been developed at major universities (e.g. University of Minnesota, Michigan State University). Centers and institutes are also popping up here and there, including at Harvard University, a sign that youth development has ‘arrived’. As is often the case, the practice of youth development has lagged behind these fast-paced conceptual and philosophical changes, although a number of exemplary youth development programs have been cited in the burgeoning literature (e.g. Hirsch 2005).
