Positive youth development and youth peacebuilding in Colombia

Abstract

Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a strengths-based framework related to young people's well-being and agency in their environment, which has been recognized as a cornerstone of peaceful societies. Similarly, a growing body of research has documented youth peacebuilding as a way for youth to engage with and foster constructive change interpersonally, structurally, and culturally. Building on recent work, we examine the relationship between PYD and peacebuilding among adolescents and young adults in Colombia, a conflict-affected country. We analyzed survey data across two time points with Colombian youth (N = 806, ages 14–26, 52% male). Four core constructs were used to conceptualize PYD: internal locus of control, prosocial behavior, social trust, and civic accountability. Peacebuilding outcomes were assessed with the Youth Peacebuilding Beliefs Scale, which captures youth beliefs about their roles in promoting peace at different socioecological levels: microsystem (relational change), mesosystem (structural change), and macrosystem (cultural change). First, we explored potential PYD profiles among Colombian youth using latent profile analysis, finding two distinct profiles—youth who were overall high or low in PYD. Second, using path models controlling for age, gender, political orientation, SES, and Time 1 levels for each outcome, we found that greater support for mesosystem peacebuilding was predicted by lower levels of internal locus of control and, at the trend level, lower levels of social trust. Moreover, civic accountability was associated with greater microsystem peacebuilding beliefs. Overall, these findings help understand how diverse beliefs about peacebuilding may be influenced by youth's positive development in Colombia.