Several of the most frequent psychological difficulties in childhood and adolescence are related to anxiety and lead to numerous short- and long-term negative outcomes in emotional, social, and academic domains. Empirical evidence consistently shows that the 5Cs (competence, caring, confidence, connection, and character) of Positive Youth Development (PYD) are positively related to adolescents’ contribution to self, family, and society as well as negatively related to risky behaviors and emotional difficulties, such as anxiety. Thus, the PYD can be one of the models that informs prevention programs. To provide contextualized, data-driven support for prevention efforts, we have analyzed the predictive value of the 5Cs for anxiety and anxiety dimensions using three different convenience youth samples from Portugal (N= 384, 46.6% female), Slovenia (N= 449, 69% females), and Spain (N= 768; 60.5% females). To assess the 5Cs, we used the same short form of the PYD scale in all samples (Geldhof et al., 2013) and different anxiety measures across samples: the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) in Portugal, the Lestvica anksioznosti za otroke in mladostnike anxiety scale (LAOM) in Slovenia and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) in Spain. The findings show significant associations of PYD and anxiety across all three contexts with all three different anxiety measures used. The associations vary across countries emphasizing the need to further research the role of contexts in anxiety prevention. Despite variations the results do indicate that connection is negatively associated with anxiety in all three contexts using the three anxiety measures, while confidence is a negative predictor and caring is a positive predictor of anxiety in Slovenia and Spain. Implications for practice within an educational framework for adolescents and youth are discussed, together with public policy recommendations.

Framed by the EU-project Hand in Hand focusing on Social, Emotional and Intercultural (SEI) competencies among students and school staff the paper discusses implementation and professional competencies based on a literature review. Five themes were identified: 1) Intercultural/transcultural competency is not often referred to in the same research as social-emotional learning, though socio-emotional aspects appear to be `in the core´, 2) it is crucial to be aware of agency among school staff in a SEI-implementation, 3) successful implementation is about more than the activities in the specific program, it is rather about elements in synergy and professional learning over time, 4) the subtle balance between adaptation and fidelity might best be addressed in an adaptive curriculum emphasizing active ingredients, and 5) this is a field with many intervention studies, but it is urgent to consider if the psychometric measures are sufficiently sensitive to catch the subtle changes related to SEI-competencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated anxiety and triggered a new and specific COVID-19 anxiety in all age groups, especially in adolescence. The aim of the present study was to identify differences between anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety in profiles of positive outcomes by using the Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework (i.e., the Five Cs of competence, confidence, character, caring, and connection) on a sample of 1,977 adolescents from Slovenia (57.4% females; M_age = 15.34 years) from lower- and upper-secondary schools. Latent profile analysis revealed four distinctive profiles: High PYD, Self-efficacious, Socio-emotional, and Low PYD. The High PYD profile reported lower anxiety and moderate COVID-19 anxiety; the Self-efficacious profile reported lower anxiety and the lowest COVID-19 anxiety; the Socio-emotional profile reported moderate anxiety and the highest COVID-19 anxiety; and the Low PYD profile reported higher anxiety and moderate COVID-19 anxiety. The study findings suggest that higher levels of competence, confidence, and connection can mitigate anxiety, while higher levels of caring are associated with COVID-19 anxiety. Nonetheless, the study supports the promotion of all Five Cs of the PYD framework to prevent anxiety, COVID-19 anxiety, and maladaptive developmental outcomes. The study provides important insights into profiling responses to extreme situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.