the power of assets pdf search institute

Louis Park, MN, that was funded by the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.

The Minnesota Institute of Public Health evaluated the results of a specific asset-building project. A study in a Minnesota community suggested that young people experiencing low levels of assets (fewer than ten) are two to five times more likely to predict their involvement in high risk behaviors than the fact that they are poor. Research conducted by SI has examined the interrelationship among developmental assets, poverty and risk. The data suggest that the developmental assets protect children and youth from the negative consequences typically associated with risk factors/processes. Research conducted by SI consistently shows that the more developmental assets youth experience in their family, school, and community life, the less likely they are to engage in risky behaviors such as excessive alcohol use, illicit drug use, early involvement in sexual activity, and engagement in violence. All three versions can be downloaded from the Search Institute website, Since their release, the developmental asset frameworks have become one of the most widely referenced and utilized strength-based formulations in the fields of positive psychology and positive youth development.Ī consistent and growing body of evaluation results points to the beneficial influence of the developmental assets on young people’s lives.

A copy of the adolescent framework can be found at the end of the article.

The synthesis led to the creation of frameworks specifying forty developmental assets which are organized into four internal and four external categories for adolescence, middle childhood and early childhood. The findings based upon the early childhood synthesis (covering the preschool years) are presented in Building Blocks for a Successful Start: A Comprehensive Approach to Understanding and Promoting Positive Development in Early Childhood, that will be available in the fall of 2008. The findings derived from the middle childhood synthesis (covering the upper elementary grades 4-6) are described in Coming into Their Own: How Developmental Assets Promote Positive Growth in Middle Childhood. The findings from the adolescent synthesis (covering the middle school and high school years) are summarized in the publication entitled Developmental Assets: A Synthesis of the Research on Adolescent Development. Since the early 1990s, SI has integrated and synthesized research results from developmental scholars and evaluation findings from the fields of child and adolescent development, prevention, and resilience in order to identify the factors that make important contributions to the healthy development for children and youth. Scholars and practitioners dealing with the civic realm have noted reductions in relative degrees of civic participation, community engagement, and collaborative decision-making among younger and older Americans, and have lamented its negative impact on the nation’s civic culture.Ĭlick on the image below to open a pdf version Developmental Assets’ Contribution to Human Development On a seemingly separate front, increasing numbers of community development professionals and activists throughout the country find themselves questioning whether community interests can find a secure foothold in a world increasingly structured around global capitalism and wedded to a pervasive culture of contentment that serves to diminish the public square as it underwrites an expanding sphere of social and economic privatization. Many developmental support mechanisms for young people in families, schools and neighborhoods also seem to be fragile. Most American adolescents appear to be lacking a firm sense of support and belonging, missing opportunities for personal empowerment and affirmation, failing to experience appropriate structure, and losing access to situations for meaningful engagement and connection with adult role models. For well over a decade Search Institute (SI) has conducted survey-based profiles of several million youth in thousands of suburban, rural, and urban communities throughout the country, and discovered that a majority of young people fail to receive basic developmental ingredients and experience developmentally rich environments.Ī low level of access to key developmental resources also tends to be the prevailing norm across gender, grade, parental education level, and race/ethnicity.

Challenges Facing Human and Community Development In Americaĭata continue to suggest there are serious deficiencies in young Americans’ acquisition of core developmental competencies and capabilities.

The power of assets pdf search institute