Mapping item‐level dynamics of positive youth development in Chinese adolescents: A four‐wave cross‐lagged panel network study

Positive Youth Development (PYD) theory emphasizes strengths that emerge from person-context exchanges, yet item-level, time-ordered relations among PYD attributes (i.e., Competence, Confidence, Character, Caring, and Connection) remain unclear in high-pressure school systems. Using four-wave data from a cohort of grade 10 students in three public high schools in Shouguang, Shandong Province, China, we examined time-ordered relations among the 16-item Chinese Positive Youth Development-Very Short Form (PYD-VSF). At baseline, N = 2086 (Mage = 15.41, SD = 0.52; 53.74% girls); wave-level participation was T2 = 1522, T3 = 1860, and T4 = 1776, with lag-specific analytic samples of 1296-1550 across adjacent intervals. We estimated cross-lagged panel networks (CLPNs) for each successive wave pair using LASSO-regularized regression, summarized networks with out- and in-expected influence. Across intervals, connection-related indicators tended to occupy relatively upstream positions, showing stronger prospective associations with subsequent changes in other PYD indicators, whereas caring indicators more often appeared relatively downstream. Findings indicate that connection indicators were relatively more predictive within the observed system; stronger perceived relational support was prospectively associated with subsequent increases in caring. Clarifying these developmental dynamics can inform interventions to enhance adolescents' mental health and well-being in high-pressure contexts.