Interpersonal curiosity as a tool to foster safe relational spaces: a narrative literature review.

Interpersonal curiosity (IPC), or the desire for information about others, is a core component of human connection, belonging, security, survival, and flourishing. Current research on leveraging IPC is scarce, making it an overlooked mechanism for building safer relational spaces. This narrative literature review attempts to answer the following questions: how can IPC facilitate safe relational spaces? How can this knowledge be made accessible and actionable for readers working in relational fields or public health? Results from the analysis of 23 articles indicate that IPC can manifest as either a trait or a state. At best, IPC can be a powerful tool for connection. At worst, IPC can lead to non-prosocial behaviors and relational disruptions. Suggestions are provided to harness the potential of IPC to foster quality connection and safer relational spaces.

Safer spaces in youth development programs and health in Canadian youth.

Engagement in youth programs is a potential means to promote health and well-being across populations of young people. Safer spaces in these youth programs are likely critical in fostering positive health outcomes, but current research on the links between safer spaces and health is limited. In this exploratory study, we examined links between program safety in youth development programs and minoritized status, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and psychosomatic health complaints. Participants (N = 282; Mean age = 16.97 years; SD = 2.97) self-identified across various minority status groups, including LGBTQ (30%) and a range of perceived income levels. We tested a statistical model in which safer spaces, LGBTQ status and perceived income predicted HRQoL and health complaints in youth development program participants. LGBTQ status and lower perceived income were related to lower HRQoL and more health complaints, and safer space in youth development programs was related to better HRQoL. We also found an interaction effect, such that safer spaces in youth programs appeared to be especially beneficial for HRQoL for youth with higher incomes. Findings reinforce past research on LGBTQ status and income as factors for youth wellness and mental health. Findings also suggest that perceived safer spaces in youth development programs support better HRQoL and lower health complaints, across populations of participating youth.

Trajectories of Youth's Helping From Adolescence into Adulthood: The Importance of Social Relations and Values.

Helping behaviors (e.g., helping a sick friend, volunteering) are important forms of community involvement and likely change with age and life context. Yet, trajectories of community helping from adolescence through early adulthood have rarely been examined. It is also unclear how the roles of family, friends, and social attitudes might foster the development of helping behaviors across these years. We report on a study of community helping in a Canadian youth sample, across five intervals over a 15-year span, beginning at age 17 (N = 416). Helping displayed a quadratic trend, decreasing into the mid-20s, and then rebounding somewhat by 32. Social responsibility and salience of friends' prosocial moral values positively predicted age 17 community helping, whereas parents' moral values predicted less decrease in helping over this timeline. These findings add to an understanding of moral influences and social responsibility, in the potential shaping of youths' community helping behaviors.

Some Believe, Not All Achieve: The Role of Active Learning Practices in Anxiety and Academic Self-Efficacy in First-Generation College Students.

First-generation college students face a variety of barriers in higher education compared with their continuing-generation peers. Active learning practices in STEM classrooms can potentially narrow the achievement gap by increasing academic self-efficacy, or confidence in academic abilities. However, these practices can also provoke anxiety in students. Given that anxiety can impair cognitive performance, we sought to understand how first-generation students perceive active learning practices and whether these perceptions affect the anticipated benefits of active learning. As part of a larger study on pedagogical practices in anatomy and physiology courses at the community college level, we asked students to rate various active learning techniques on how much each provoked anxiety and how much each contributed to their learning. All students (N = 186) rated some techniques as more anxiety-provoking than others (e.g., cold calling); however, compared to continuing-generation students, first-generation students' ratings tended to be higher. First-generation students anticipated doing more poorly in a course and attained lower final grades. Notably, the use of active learning practices did not improve first-generation students' academic self-efficacy: by the end of term, academic self-efficacy decreased in non-white first-generation students whereas other students showed little change. When introducing active learning strategies, instructors may need to proactively address underrepresented minority students' emotional reactions and ensure that all students experience success with these practices early in a course as a way to bolster academic self-efficacy.

The Young Canadians Roundtable on Health: promising practices for youth and adults working in partnership.

SETTING: Canadian youth (aged 15-29 years) are more diverse, educated, connected and socially engaged than ever before. However, many face health-related challenges, including mental health problems (10-20%), substance use concerns (14%) and obesity (45%). INTERVENTION: The Young Canadians Roundtable on Health (YCRH) was created in 2013 to be Canada's youth voice on health. Supported by the Sandbox Project, this youth-led advisory works primarily virtually, leading advocacy projects and wide-ranging health initiatives. OUTCOMES: Youth and adult allies engaged in a participatory research evaluation of the YCRH, which was identified as a living laboratory, where youth could experiment with ideas and provide new perspectives on health issues. Adult allies reported learning new skills from youth, and youth gained advocacy and leadership skills. Collaborative projects resulted in a sense of shared achievement. Further, youth increased their connections to health and youth-serving spaces across the country. Identified challenges included difficulties in coordinating a national roundtable and defining shared responsibilities. IMPLICATIONS: The researchers generated the following evidence-based promising practices for youth engagement in health systems and program planning: (1) provide a consistent platform for youth input; (2) appreciate different forms of knowledge, expertise and communication methods; (3) invest in relationships and build mutual understanding among youth and adults; (4) for adult allies, be patient and comfortable with the ambiguity and unpredictability of working with youth; and (5) continually revisit and renegotiate structure and flexibility.

Associations of attachment orientation with early generative concern across adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: Researchers have begun to find evidence that generativity, defined as concern for future generations as a legacy of the self, has relevance prior to midlife. Examination of predictors of generativity in adolescence contributes to an overall model of positive development in youth. Bowlby's theory of attachment, a well-established framework for understanding close relationships, was applied in this study of how adolescents' approach to close relationships predicts early generativity. METHOD: Approximately 190 adolescents (Mage = 15) completed self-report measures of attachment (anxiety and avoidance) and generativity across a 4-year period. Additionally, a subsample of 73 adolescents completed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). RESULTS: Results indicate a transactional relationship whereby self-reported avoidance of closeness and generativity were negatively related across time. AAI dismissing attachment was negatively associated with generativity only for female participants. CONCLUSION: These findings support Erikson's original psychosocial theory highlighting the importance of intimate relationships in developing the capacity to care for future generations.

Predictors of Early Community Involvement: Advancing the Self and Caring for Others.

Recent research on community involvement points to the importance of both agentic (advancing the self) and communal motives (serving others) as key predictors, though few studies have examined both simultaneously. At the same time, research has identified generativity, defined as concern for future generations as a legacy of the self, as particularly relevant for community involvement. Moreover, generativity involves both agentic and communal motives, meaning that advancing personal goals and caring for others are integrated in this construct. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how individual differences in attributes pertaining to self and to others-specifically, self-esteem, initiative, and empathy-related to both generativity and community involvement. A sample of adolescents (N = 160; 64% female, Mage  = 17) and a sample of young adults (N = 237; 84% female, Mage  = 20) completed a survey including measures of community involvement and generativity. Generative concern fully mediated the associations between individual differences (self-esteem, initiative, and empathy) and community involvement, suggesting that the early generativity has a role in fostering capacities and contribution in youth. These developmental indicators pertaining to self and others link to actions that benefit the community through a desire to benefit future generations.

Doing for others: Youth's contributing behaviors and psychological engagement in youth-adult partnerships.

Youth contributions to others (e.g., volunteering) have been connected to indicators of successful development, including self-esteem, optimism, social support, and identity development. Youth-adult partnerships, which involve youth and adults working together towards a shared goal in activity settings, such as youth-serving agencies or recreation organizations, provide a unique opportunity for examining youth contributions. We examined associations between measures of youth's participation in youth-adult partnerships (psychological engagement and degree of partnering) in activity settings and youth contributing behaviors, in two Canadian samples: (a) community-involved youth (N = 153, mean age = 17.1 years, 65% female) and (b) undergraduates (N = 128, mean age = 20.1 years, 92.2% female). We found that degree of partnering and psychological engagement were related to each other yet independently predicted contributing behaviors. Our findings suggest that youth-adult partnerships might be one potentially rich context for the promotion of youth's contributions to others.

Youth-Adult Partnerships and Youth Identity Style.

Youth-adult partnerships (e.g., youth leading programs, participating as members of advisory boards) are a common and widely recommended practice in youth work and youth-serving program settings. Although researchers have suggested that these opportunities contribute to youth's identity development, empirical evidence is lacking. In the current study, we tested associations between identity style and degree of youth voice, collaborative youth-adult relationships, and youth's program engagement in 194 youth participating in youth-adult partnerships (M age = 17.6, 62 % female). We found that these characteristics of youth-adult partnerships predicted higher informational identity style, although only program engagement emerged as a unique predictor. Furthermore, exploratory analysis indicated that these associations were moderated by the type of organization. The findings suggest the need for more research on the multiple dimensions of youth-adult partnerships and their association with youth functioning, as well as pointing to the importance of the broader organizational context of youth-adult partnerships.

"Now I know I can make a difference": Generativity and activity engagement as predictors of meaning making in adolescents and emerging adults.

This study examined generativity (concern for future generations as a legacy of the self) and activity engagement as predictors of meaning making in young people's personal accounts of their key activity experiences. We elicited stories regarding events within participants' "most engaging activity," self-reports on generativity, and behavioral participation and psychological engagement in activities in 2 separate samples: an emerging adult sample and an adolescent sample. The stories were coded for meaning making, defined as degree of insight into individuals' understanding of themselves or the world (McLean & Pratt, 2006). Psychological engagement, but not behavioral participation, was positively associated with meaning making. Moreover, generativity was significantly and positively related to psychological engagement, and predicted meaning making, even after controlling for psychological engagement. Findings suggest that different types of activities can offer a potential context for fostering early generativity and meaning making, and that generativity in adolescence and emerging adulthood is related to the development of insight and meaning making.

The association between early generative concern and caregiving with friends from early to middle adolescence.

Generativity, defined as concern for future generations, is theorized to become a priority in midlife, preceded by a stage in which intimacy is the central issue. Recent research, however, has found evidence of generativity even in adolescence. This longitudinal study explored the associations between caregiving in friendships, closely related to intimacy, and early generative concern in a young adolescent sample. Given the importance of close friendships in adolescence, it was hypothesized that responsive caregiving in early adolescent friendships would predict later generative concern. Approximately 140 adolescents (56 % female, aged 14 at Time 1) completed questionnaires regarding generative concern and responsive caregiving with friends yearly across 2 years. Structural equation modeling revealed that caregiving predicted generative concern 1 year later but generative concern did not predict later caregiving. These results suggest that caregiving in close friendships plays an important role in the development of adolescents' motivation to contribute to future generations.

Predictors of adolescent successful development after an exchange: the importance of activity qualities and youth input.

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors involved in predicting successful development after an intensive exchange experience in adolescence. Specifically, we considered the eight positive features, as conceptualized by Eccles and Gootman (2002), as well as the amount of input youth had into their exchange experience as predictors of successful development after the exchange. In this short-term longitudinal study, 242 young, middle, and older adolescents, who participated in a national short-term exchanges program, completed surveys before and after completion of the program. Overall, we found that both the eight positive features and personal input were significantly related to overall successful development after an exchange, controlling for initial reports of successful development. This research contributes to an understanding of the importance of different qualities of activity experiences in overall youth development.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: parenting during adolescence, attachment styles, and romantic narratives in emerging adulthood.

In this longitudinal study, a quantitative and qualitative examination of the associations among parent-child relations, adult attachment styles, and relationship quality and theme in romantic narratives was conducted. Parenting and adult attachment style were assessed through questionnaires, whereas overall quality of romantic relationships (regard and importance), intimacy, and romantic story theme were examined with a life story approach (McAdams, 1993). At ages 17 and 26 years, 100 participants completed a series of questionnaires and also, at age 26, told a story about a "relationship-defining moment" with a romantic partner. Parent-child relations when participants were 17 years old were related predictably to all three attachment styles. About 70% of the sample told romantic stories with a "true love" type of theme. Associations between parent-child relations when the child was 17 and this type of theme in the story told when the participant was 26 were mediated by a more secure (and a less avoidant) attachment style when the participant was 26, as predicted. The implications of these findings for links between attachment models and the life story are discussed.

Positive parenting in adolescence and its relation to low point narration and identity status in emerging adulthood: a longitudinal analysis.

In this longitudinal study, we examined identity development using the life story model (McAdams, 2001), in addition to a traditional identity status approach, in order to explore the association between perceived parenting in adolescence and the subsequent quality of life story narration in emerging adulthood. Participants (N = 100) were given a battery of questionnaires at ages 17 and 26 years and were asked to narrate a story at age 26 about their most difficult life experience. Low point narratives were analyzed for evidence of concluding clarity, resolution, and affective tone, termed coherent positive resolution (Pals, 2006). Structural equation modeling showed that participants who experienced more positive parenting at age 17 narrated their low points with clearer evidence of coherent positive resolution at age 26. Coherent positive resolution of the low point was also related to concurrent measures of identity achievement and emotional adjustment at age 26. Discussion centers on the potential impact of positive parenting as a contributor to healthy low point narration and identity in emerging adulthood.

Parents' stories of grandparenting concerns in the three-generational family: generativity, optimism, and forgiveness.

Adults' level of Eriksonian generativity in midlife has been shown to predict variations in parenting, but there has been less research on its relation to inter generational processes in the three-generational family. As part of a larger study, a sample of 35 Canadian mothers and fathers described a particular, salient child-rearing problem with grandparents when their first-born children were 8 years old. Descriptions were rated for severity of the problem, anger/irritation, optimism about solution, and forgiveness of the grandparent's behavior. Generativity data were collected by a standard questionnaire (the Loyola Generativity Scale of McAdams; McAdams & de St. Aubin, 1992). Results showed few gender differences, though mothers tended to be angrier than fathers with the grandparents. More mature parents were more forgiving than younger parents and saw problems as less serious, as predicted. Finally, parent level of generativity predicted maternal and paternal forgiveness of grandparent behaviors, as well as paternal, but not maternal, optimism about problem outcomes. Parental generativity may thus serve to encourage greater forgiveness and optimism among the generations of the family.