Youth work in the registered religious communities from the positive youth development perspective

摘要

This Master’s Thesis presents the theory behind a contemporary perspective called positive youth development. This perspective, paradigm, approach or concept touches different fields and draws from interdisciplinary research, philosophy, policy formation, Youth program description and others. Its theoretical background consists of developmental system theories combined with the idea that the fundamental process of development is marked by mutually influential relations between the developing individual and the multiple levels of his/her changing context. udThe perspective for positive youth development rests on two fundamental ideas. The first is the conviction that every young person has plasticity and strength and this always allows positive changes. These can be achieved if the environment in which the young person is growing up provides him or her with so-called developmental assets. These consist of various different encouraging elements which help young people develop into successful young people and then into adults. Amongst the developmental assets an important role is played by programs for young people that are geared towards positive development. They help young people develop Competence, Confidence, Connection, Character and Caring – the elements which make up the so-called »5 Cs« that are an attempt to define positive development. Richard M. Lerner, one of the important authors of this perspective, emphasises that the presence of the »5 Cs« in a young person can lead to a sixth »C« – Contribution. Contribution to the young person’s self, family, community and entire society, which is an important goal of development. udThe empirical part consists of two sections. The introductory part makes use of a short questionnaire and a quantitative and partly qualitative method to offer an insight into activities for young people that are run by religious communities registered in Slovenia. The second, longer section uses qualitative analysis to establish how youth work is organised in three religious communities (the Catholic Church, the Islamic Community in Slovenia, the Seventh-day Adventist Church), what is the purpose of this work, how the young people see their membership of a religious community and whether the activities of the religious communities are connected with the »5 Cs« that are mentioned by the positive youth development perspective. The research has shown that the activities organised by the religious communities for young people cover different areas and include different aspects of cooperation, mostly activities that are not directly linked with spirituality. However, spirituality is the starting-point from which all the other aspects of cooperation branch out. The nature of the programs, how they are organised and how large they are differs amongst these religious communities and we can put this down to the theological, sociological and other characteristics of the religious communities. However, the investigation nevertheless confirms that the cooperation of young people in all three religious communities bears the potential for positive development. This investigation offers many ideas for further research into various aspects of the broad field of religion and the development of young people. udud