The 5Cs of Positive Youth Development in Brazil: adaptation and validation of a short scale

Objective: Positive youth development is a strengths-based approach to examine developmental regulations of children and adolescents to foster thriving on individual and contextual levels. The present study seeks to present the adaptation of a short measure of positive youth development for Brazilian youth focused on five facets of positive youth development: competence, confidence, caring, connection, and character. Methods: A linguistic and cultural adaptation of the 5Cs short scale of positive youth development was conducted with 585 children and adolescents, with data collection supported by schools in late 2020. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the results. Results: Model results indicated an adequate fit to data (χ2(345)=830.25, p>.05, CFI=.90, RMSEA=.04, SRMR=.04), and 28 items of the scale were retained in the final model, distributed in five factors (competence, confidence, caring, connection, and character). The instrument presented a satisfactory internal consistency in the overall scale (α=.91; ω=.91), and was also adequate in all sub-dimensions (α>.70; ω>.70). Through these validity indicators, the study provides a valuable instrument to evaluate indicators of positive youth development among Brazilian children and adolescents.