ARE THE 5CS OF POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT RELATED TO RISKY BEHAVIOURS: ANALYSIS ACROSS COUNTRIES

The Positive Youth Development approach views youth development from a broader perspective by emphasizing strengths rather than deficits. If youthstrengths are aligned with the resources in their environment, positive youth development outcomes (5Cs: Competence, Confidence, Character, Connection, and Caring) will be more probable,and risky behavioursless frequent. Itis crucial to understand the relationship between possible protective factors (e.g., 5Cs) and risky behaviours to provide support for at-risk youth. An emphasis was put on the national contexts of Kosovo, Norway, and Slovenia in investigating the research questions:1) Does the experience of 5Cs differ across countries? and 2) Does the relation between 5Cs and risky behaviours vary across countries? The sample included 916 participants from Kosovo (66.3% girls; Mage= 16.32), 220 participants from Norway (47.7% girls; Mage= 17.30) and 218 participants from Slovenia (70.6% girls; Mage= 17.18).Results show that the 5Cs differ across countries, revealing that participants from Slovenia reported the lowest scores of the 5Cs in comparison with participants from other countries. In addition, a series of Factorial ANCOVAs revealed that relation between alcohol use and 5Csvaries across countries for Competence, Confidence, and Connection. Guidelines for interventionsand future research arediscussed.