Next-Gen Futures Cultivated Through Positive Youth Development: A Narrative Review of Challenges and Opportunities Amid Rapid Social Changes

Today’s youth live in a rapidly changing, global, and digital world characterized by climate change, social inequality, and social polarization. Such issues can both trigger their civic engagement and undermine their mental health. In the present paper, we discuss the need for a contemporary Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework that would live up to its theoretical roots in the relational developmental systems (RDS) theory and adequately consider the challenges and opportunities of today’s youth. Based on expert discussions by the Cross-National Positive Youth Development Network, the following social change indicators were identified as most pressing: (i) digitalization, (ii) inequality and marginalization, (iii) polarization and radicalization, and (iv) climate change. Applying a critical narrative review, we assess the current research trends in youth development and suggest a way forward regarding how the PYD framework can accommodate the challenges and opportunities of today’s youth. Specifically, we suggest adding a social justice lens more explicitly to the current framework, while considering digital context and natural environment as two additional interactive layers of contextual influences. Lastly, we support the inclusion of critical consciousness as a new C in the PYD framework to expand our understanding of the different forms of (non)contribution among today’s youth.