What is Integrative Youth Development (IYD)™?
Integrative Youth Development™ takes the best of the youth-development research. We have identified the seven factors (we call them phactors) that can be used to assess, nurture, and sustain young people. The science of Integrative Youth DevelopmentTM is founded in the multi-disciplinary study of young people within the context of their environments (ecologies).
IYD brings research, data, and insights from biology, genetics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, theology, economics, physics, and anthropology. IYD presents a framework for the development of individual youth, within the context of their environment. This framework demonstrates the role of his/her individual traits, talents and propensities within the conditions provided by family, school, community, and culture.
Over the past 50 years, researchers and theorists have been exploring the time-honored cultural wisdom that all youth are more likely to thrive within a nurturing and supportive environment that provides opportunities for skill development and talent identification. Within this circle of support, the young person is exposed to values, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that they will absorb into their personality, and give them more options in the environments outside this circle.
