Positive youth development among diverse racial-ethnic children: Quality afterschool contexts as developmental assets.

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[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 88(5) of Child Development (see record 2017-38998-002). The original article was mistakenly published as OnlineOpen with a Creative Commons license. The correct copyright line is as follows: © 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.] Positive youth development (PYD) deserves more empirical attention, particularly among children of diverse racial-ethnic backgrounds. Given the need among families for monitoring and supervision during out-of-school time, community-based afterschool is a potentially promotive ecological setting. This study explores the quality of afterschool experiences upon PYD. This multimethod study includes over 500 elementary school children in Grades 2-5 (Mage = 8.80, SD = 1.12). The sample comprises of 49% White, 27% African American, 7% Latino, and 17% mixed race/others with 45% free/reduced lunch eligible children. In multilevel models, independently observed quality across time positively impacted competence, connection, caring for all youth, and cultural values for racial-ethnic minority youth. Afterschool fosters PYD, including sociocultural dimensions, when comprised of appropriately structured, supportive, and engaging interactions.