Stacy Deeble-Reynolds, MPA recently spoke to my CSEC class at Vanguard University. She is the Orange County Department of Education Prevention Coordinator. She emphasized that prevention is not just tell kids what to beware of, but rather, it is promoting healthy youth development. She then introduced our students to the concept of youth success related to the Developmental Assets framework. This framework signals a major shift from fixing problems to promoting young people’s strengths.
The Developmental Asset framework lists forty assets that a child acquires as they grow up. The first twenty are External and the send twenty are Internal. (see chart).
40 Developmental Assets® for Adolescents (ages 12-18) Search Institute® has identified the following building blocks of healthy development—known as Developmental Assets®—that help young people grow up healthy, caring, and responsible.
Support
1. Family support—Family life provides high levels of love and support.
2. Positive family communication—Young person and her or his parent(s) communicate positively, and young person is willing to seek advice and counsel from parents.
3. Other adult relationships—Young person receives support from three or more non parent adults.
4. Caring neighborhood—Young person experiences caring neighbors.
5. Caring school climate—School provides a caring, encouraging environment.
6. Parent involvement in schooling—Parent(s) are actively involved in helping young person succeed in school.
Empowerment
7. Community values youth—Young person perceives that adults in the community value youth.
8. Youth as resources—Young people are given useful roles in the community.
9. Service to others—Young person serves in the community one hour or more per week.
10. Safety—Young person feels safe at home, school, and in the neighborhood.
Boundaries & Expectations
11. Family boundaries—Family has clear rules and consequences and monitors the young person’s whereabouts.
12. School Boundaries—School provides clear rules and consequences.
13. Neighborhood boundaries—Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring young people’s behavior.
14. Adult role models—Parent(s) and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.
15. Positive peer influence—Young person’s best friends model responsible behavior.
16. High expectations—Both parent(s) and teachers encourage the young person to do well.
Constructive Use of Time
17. Creative activities—Young person spends three or more hours per week in lessons or practice in music, theater, or other arts.
18. Youth programs—Young person spends three or more hours per week in sports, clubs, or organizations at school and/or in the community.
19. Religious community—Young person spends one or more hours per week in activities in a religious institution.
20. Time at home—Young person is out with friends “with nothing special to do” two or fewer nights per week.
Commitment to Learning
21. Achievement Motivation—Young person is motivated to do well in school.
22. School Engagement—Young person is actively engaged in learning.
23. Homework—Young person reports doing at least one hour of homework every school day.
24. Bonding to school—Young person cares about her or his school.
25. Reading for Pleasure—Young person reads for pleasure three or more hours per week.
Positive Values
26. Caring—Young person places high value on helping other people.
27. Equality and social justice—Young person places high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty.
28. Integrity—Young person acts on convictions and stands up for her or his beliefs.
29. Honesty—Young person “tells the truth even when it is not easy.”
30. Responsibility—Young person accepts and takes personal responsibility.
Social Competencies
31. Restraint—Young person believes it is important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs.
32. Planning and decision making—Young person knows how to plan ahead and make choices.
33. Interpersonal Competence—Young person has empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills.
34. Cultural Competence—Young person has knowledge of and comfort with people of different cultural/racial/ethnic backgrounds.
35. Resistance skills—Young person can resist negative peer pressure and dangerous situations.
Positive Identity
36. Peaceful conflict resolution—Young person seeks to resolve conflict nonviolently.
37. Personal power—Young person feels he or she has control over “things that happen to me.”
38. Self-esteem—Young person reports having a high self-esteem.
39. Sense of purpose—Young person reports that “my life has a purpose.”
40. Positive view of personal future—Young person is optimistic about her or his personal future.
Here’s a snapshot of the results:
According to a snapshot look at our youth, 13% have 0-10 assets, making them less likely to handle challenges and adversity, while 11% have 31-40 assets and report that they do not give up when things get difficult. What often doesn’t seem fair is that the youth with a high developmental asset score seem to get “all the breaks” even though they do not need it. It turns out that because they have these assets, they are more likely to save money for a future goal. That’s a habit that contributes to financial security for the rest of their lives, to value diversity among their peers, be involved in leadership roles in an organization or group.
On the flipside, the more Developmental Assets youth report, the less likely they are to engage in problem alcohol use, to use tobacco or illicit drugs, be involved in violent behaviors or other anti-social behaviors. They are also less likely to engage in sexual intercourse (remember we are talking about youth grades 6 to 12. Finally, another significant finding is that they are less likely to report depression or attempted suicide.
If we were talking about a tomato plant in our Spring garden, we might compare two strategies for producing a bountiful harvest. The first strategy is to spray weekly for bugs that might infest the garden, and build a fence to protect the plants from the wind. The second strategy is to plant the seedlings in rich soil, water and feed regularly to assure strong, resilient plants. The first strategy has some unintended consequences. The pesticides used leave a dangerous residue and the fence blocks the sun that inhibits growth. The second is far more likely to yield healthy, sustainable results.
Next month we will explore how to develop a plan that improves resiliency and strength among youth.
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The Search Institute studies consistently show that the more strengths youth have, the more they are likely to grow up successfully. On average, youth, grades 6 to 12, surveyed in the United States in 2010 experienced 19 of the 40 Developmental Assets.
SOURCE: Surveys of 89,000 U. S. youth, grades 6 to 12, in 2010. See A Fragile Foundation: The State of Developmental Assets Among American YouthSURVEY: Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors
Owner/Editor - Chris Chmielewski