Growing up the hard way: pathways of urban adolescents

Presented a description and initial findings from the Adolescent Pathways Project (APP). There is a dearth of developmentally and ecologically anchored knowledge concerning adolescents, particularly poor and ethnically diverse urban adolescents, other than that they are at greater risk for behavioral, emotional, and educational problems. As a result, our ability to develop and implement grounded prevention programs is severely limited. The APP was intended to fill this knowledge gap. Using an accelerated longitudinal design, the APP examines the developmental trajectories of an ethnically diverse sample of 1,333 black, Latino, and white youth from inner-city public schools in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and New York. It involves four interrelated studies: Youth, Parent, School, and Neighborhood. The project's major aim is to identify the critical psychological, developmental, and ecological factors that facilitate positive as well as negative outcomes. This initial description of the APP presents the overarching ecological-developmental framework and guiding questions, as well as initial findings central to the tenets of community psychology.