A practitioner’s view: Invited commentary

Comments on the articles in the special journal issue "Individual and contextual bases of Thriving in adolescence: Findings from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development." This special issue provides practitioners a fascinating new view of intentional self-regulation growth trajectories and contextual conditions that influence intentional self-regulation and indicators of thriving. The papers further elucidate parent and program intervention opportunities, and they raise a host of practitioner questions about "what to do." The identification of four ISR growth trajectories (Bowers, Gestsdottir, Geldhof, Nikitin, von Eye, & Lerner, this issue) causes a practitioner to beg for additional research to discover the individual strengths and ecological assets that mitigate for low parent involvement and socio-economic status in the Late Onset trajectory -- or to understand the "why" and the "how" to intervene with youth and their families of higher socio-economic status in the severe drop-off trajectory. As practitioners strive to shape lessons and tools that impact and measure thriving trajectories of youth, in a wide range of cultural and environmental contexts, this special issue shines a beacon on the applied research path ahead. [Copyright Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd.]