Handbook of Positive Youth Development Advancing Research, Policy, and Practice in Global Contexts

“The Handbook of Positive Youth Development represents a milestone in research on PYD. By combining theoretical advancements, empirical evidence … this Handbook constitutes a must-have for any scientist or practitioner in the field of youth development. Social scientists from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds such as positive psychology, well-being studies … will find this Handbook useful. The editors have made a tremendous job in providing a groundwork from which future work on minimizing the impact of adversity will be built.” (Stefanos Mastrotheodoros, Adolescent Research Review, Vol. 7 (4), 2022)






“The Handbook of Positive Youth Development: Advancing Research, Policy and Practice in Global Contexts is a potentially ground-breaking work … . The text provides a truly international perspective on the latest research in the field of PYD, featuring new scholarship from underrepresented and understudied geographic locations. … The Handbook will undoubtedly serve as an important resource for a broad audience of youth researchers, practitioners and policy makers for many years to come.” (Steven Eric Krauss, Applied Research in Quality of Life, Vol. 16, 2021)






“The book sets itself apart as pioneering in PYD research, nowadays … . Besides summarizing a number of unique features and relevant conceptual and methodological contributions of the book at hand, the foreword written by Shek stands itself as a testament to the book’s ethos of increasing visibility of non-WEIRD PYD research and scholars. The Handbook is a tremendous ambitious collective product that raises the voice and advances the research in PYD in both WEIRD and non-WEIRD societies.” (Delia Stefenel and  Mădălina Mirea, Research and Science Journal, Vol. 22 (2), 2021)

Radosveta Dimitrova holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology (University of Trieste, Italy received the best dissertation award of the Italian Association of Psychology) and a PhD in Cross-Cultural Psychology (Tilburg University, the Netherlands received the best dissertation award of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). She is the recipient of the 2016 Scientist Award of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD) for distinguished theoretical contribution and programmatic research to the study of behavioral development and dissemination of developmental science. Her main research interests regard positive development, acculturation, migration, identity, indigenous and vulnerable ethnic minority communities, and adaptation of measures for use in different cultures. She has research and teaching experience in leading universities in the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, New Zealand, Italy, Norway, Sweden and international collaborations and projects in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, North and South America. She has widely published in developmental science, cross-cultural and international psychology, human development, emerging adulthood, child and family studies and assessment fields by also serving governing councils of major organizations and editorial boards of leading journals in these fields. 

Nora Wiium is an Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway where she obtained her PhD in Health Promotion. Her teaching and research activities regard developmental psychology, health behaviors and youth development. Since 2014 she leads an international project on Positive Youth Development (PYD) representing collaborations from over 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North and South America and expertise from diverse scientific fields including health psychology, developmental psychology, human development, intervention and implementation science. She has co-edited a special issue on PYD across cultures in Child & Youth Care Forum and has served as a reviewer or guest editor for several journals, including Frontiers in Psychology and International Journal of Public Health .