Competition between the positive youth development and the psychopathological system among adolescents: less vulnerability or more scarring?

Background The alleviating effect of positive youth development (PYD) on psychopathological symptoms (PS) represents the less vulnerability hypothesis, while the damaging effect of PS on PYD represents the competitional hypothesis or the scar hypothesis. This study aims to explore which hypothesis is more dominant and which component of PYD plays the central role across developmental stages and environmental adversity. Method Two longitudinal waves of 40,473 Chinese adolescents (48.4% girls, M age = 12.67 ± 2.28) were analysed via a cross‐lagged network panel model. Results The results showed that competition indeed exists between the PYD and PS systems, while the alleviating effect of the PYD is greater than the damaging effect of the PS system, but less than the self‐loop effect within the PS system. The PYD components with the most alleviating effects are self‐esteem, emotion regulation and self‐regulation. With adolescents maturing (early, middle and late adolescence), the alleviating effect surpasses the damaging effect and self‐loop effect in the PS system. When adversity (low, moderate and high) increases in severity, the alleviating effect also surpasses the damaging effect and self‐loop effect in the PS system. In addition, resilience plays a central role in alleviating the PS system only when adversity is high. Conclusions Compared with the scar hypothesis, the less vulnerability hypothesis showed a more powerful impact. Early and adversity‐aimed interventions aimed at promoting adolescents' positive attributes are the most beneficial. The central PYD components should be treated as core targets in future intervention programs.