Public Policy and Human Development

Current Trends in Public Policy

The Center for the Study of Social Policy's Policy Matters project discussion paper (2003) points out that there is a growing interest in the public policy field in youth issues such as school readiness and achievement, constructive activities, family economic security, healthy families, and positive family relationships. The project's findings indicate that there is no well-defined and unified federal policy aimed at the goal of addressing the needs of youth and that traditional programs and funding—organized categorically by service institutions such as education, juvenile justice, sports and recreation, and health—may not be well suited to helping young people develop through the transitions that challenge them. According to the report, some state policy initiatives are making progress in creating coherent policies that may be better able to support youth across the various domains of their experience.

Public Policy and Applied Developmental Science

It is clear that public policy is an essential and integrated component of ADS, which has been defined as encompassing theory and research, professional practice, and policy and program development and evaluation (Lerner, 1995). To be accepted by communities and effective across contexts, agreed-on courses of action and objectives must be a central dimension of policy development, implementation, and evaluation. As such, developmental scientists can play a critical leadership role in facilitating collaborations with various sectors of society to offer practical, theory-based and empirically proven solutions to an array of societal challenges (e.g., teenage pregnancy, poverty, out-of-school contexts for socialization and learning) that affect the developmental outcomes of youth (Fisher & Murray, 1996).

To facilitate efforts that affect individuals and communities, however, scholars must be engaged with communities in developing ideas that address contextual challenges. In short, policy is ideally created, implemented, and evaluated through an interactive and iterative process involving theory, research, professional practice, and program development and evaluation. Furthermore, collaborating on the creation of public policy is an opportunity to address the goals of ADS, which include (a) promoting positive child and adolescent (youth) development, (b) strengthening and enhancing family life, (c) building communities as well as community capacity and community collaborations from an asset- or strength-based orientation, and (d) engaging, creating, and sustaining efforts at enriching civility.

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