This special section on “Explaining Positive Adaptation of Immigrant and Minority Youth across Cultures” is the result of an expert meeting organized by the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), the European Association of Developmental Psychology (EADP), and the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA). The aim of this special section was to bring together empirical studies and expert commentaries on a pressing topic of global importance, and to explore intersections between the fields of acculturation and positive youth development. From these contributions, several major challenges were identified. These included the need for greater attention to the strengths and adaptation of immigrant adolescents (i.e., to include a positive youth development framework in acculturation research and theory), the differentiation and intersections between acculturative processes and normative developmental challenges, the evolution acculturation theory, the need to better understand contact between multiple groups, the consideration of context-dependency and dynamic nature of acculturative processes.
This special section was championed and made possible through the leadership of Radosveta Dimitrova. The editorial work on this section was led by Radosveta Dimitrova. The study and commentary authors and the rest of the guest editorial team for this special section (Laura Ferrer-Wreder and Peter F. Titzmann) dedicate this section to our colleague Radosveta Dimitrova, who is recovering from an accident. We salute her scholarly spirit as well as her passion to better document the life conditions and to provide a forum for the voices of young people to be heard. We acknowledge her significant contributions to this special section and to the study of adolescent development and acculturation research.