The relationship between positive youth development components and academic achievement in students

Many factors are related to students’ academic achievement and many studies have been conducted in this regard, but can the components of positive youth development also be related to students' academic achievement?

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between positive youth development and students' academic achievement.

The present study was descriptive-correlational on high school students in the city of Tehran. To this aim, 400 students (200 girls, 200 boys) were selected by multistage cluster sampling. Measures used in this study were the Arnold et al. (2014) Positive Youth Development Questionnaire and the students' GPA.

The results of Pearson’s correlation analysis showed that there were significant positive associations between the components of competence, confidence, mood, caring, connection, and contribution with academic achievement (p<0.05). Results of analysis of variance indicated significant differences between the two groups of boys and girls. These differences were significant in the components of competence, confidence, mood, caring, connection, and contribution. The female group significantly scored higher than boys in all components of positive of positive youth development (p<0/01).

The positive youth developmental components play an important role in students' academic achievement and can lead to improved academic achievement.