Growing up flexibly: DNA-v as a contextual behavioural science approach to working with young people
DNA-V is the name for a model for youth development that is an applied version of contextual behavioral science and aims to address all streams of adaptation. DNA stands for three classes of behavior that we label “Discoverer (D),” “Noticer (N), and “Advisor (A)” that are, optimally used in the service of vitality and valued action (V). DNA-V is one of the few models that incorporates all four CBS streams of knowledge: evolutionary science (D. Wilson, Hayes, Biglan, & Embry, 2014), behavioral principles (Skinner, 1969), relational frame theory (S. C. Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2001), and acceptance and commitment therapy (S. C. Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2012). However, unlike acceptance and commitment therapy, DNA-V is not based on treatment for psychological distress. Rather we conceptualise it as a bottom-up model that considers how humans grow from birth into adulthood. In this chapter we focus on adolescents specifically.
DNA-V shines a spotlight on adolescent development in the context of evolution and life history. We do not follow the clinical approach of comparing “disordered” adolescents to “normal” adolescents and trying to make the disordered ones look more normal (Ciarrochi & Bailey, 2008). Instead, we view all adolescent behavior as an adaptation to adolescents’ context. Thus, we look at how adolescents can grow strong and flexible, and how principles of variation, selection, and retention contribute across the streams, from biology to learning to cultural transmission. We never lose sight of the context in which young people grow. We look at their social world and attachment bonds. We use operant principles to examine how children’s behavior is selected by consequences, and we use relational frame theory to understand how their symbolic, or cognitive, world grows. We use applied behavioral processes from acceptance and commitment therapy to understand why young people often become distressed and stuck in unhelpful behavioral patterns, and understand how we can intervene to help them let go of unhelpful behavior and develop new, more functional overt and symbolic behavioral repertoires.
It should be noted that DNA-V is not intended to be a package, but rather a model that captures empirically supported processes.
For a detailed account of DNA-V and its intervention strategies, please see L. Hayes & Ciarrochi (2015).
Read more of the background - If you want to read more about the evidence base and theory underpinning DNA-V, please access this article http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01561/full.
Read more of the SEL base - If you want to see how DNA-V can be applied in schools, go to this article on how DNA-V maps to best practice social and emotional learning standards - click here
Read the book - If you want to see the complete model, check out the book that has it all - - The Thriving Adolescent. You can download the first chapter for free by subscribing at the bottom of our home page www.thrivingadolescent.com
Go to a DNA-v live or online workshop - see www.louisehayes.com.au/events