What is African-centered youth development? A content analysis of Bantu perspectives

African-centered approaches play a significant role in many Black communities’ efforts to improve outcomes for their youth. For youth developmental researchers in social work, questions regarding how an African-centered approach applies to youth development remain. Using interpretive content analysis, this study sought to identify elements of a Bantu-derived model of youth development and how the determined elements relate in their cross-cultural implementation for Black American youth. Four key themes were derived from the analysis–(1) internalized self-regard (2) community regard (3) ethnicity, ancestry, and history (4) perceptions of supportive relationships with adult community members. Implications for social work research, education, and practice are provided.