News
In a new Getting Smart Podcast episode hosted by Tim Vander Ark, Adaptivity podcast host and CDA founding director Ron Dahl discusses how adolescence is a critical developmental phase featuring unique opportunities for fostering agency, contribution, and authentic mattering.
In a new Washington Post article, NSCA member Anthony Burrow discusses his study on purpose during adolescence. During a six-year project, Burrow and his researchers selected around 1,200 adolescents to receive $400 no-strings “contributions” to pursue something that benefits their community, family, or even themselves. Eight weeks later, those who received the contributions scored significantly higher than the non-recipients on all measures: latent well-being, sense of purpose, sense of belonging, sense of feeling needed and useful, and affective balance.
CDA founding director Ron Dahl spoke on the Gen Change: Youth’s Potential for Societal Contribution podcast hosted by Erasmus University Rotterdam. During this episode, host Kayla Green, a postdoctoral researcher at the Erasmus SYNC Lab, and Dahl delve into the unique strengths and capacities that make youth potential agents of change for societal challenges.
NSCA member Anthony Burrow joins Smerconish on CNN to discuss his research on the link between purpose and mental health. In this interview, Burrow discusses The Contribution project, a study and social experiment that provided young people with $400 to make a difference that mattered to them. The young people selected for this project who made contributions reported greater feelings of purpose and reported increased feelings of happiness, meaning, and belonging.
Co-Executive Director Adriana Galván speaks with The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s CEO Lisa Lawson on the latest episode of the foundation’s podcast, CaseyCast. In this conversation, Lawson asks Galván about her research on how the adolescent brain can inform the understanding of policymakers, educators, and youth-serving systems regarding this critical stage of development.