Family Leadership, Inc. - The 40 Assests

Bringing parents the 40 Youth Developmental Assets™

Parenting Partners is a university-affiliated program bringing parents the best practices in youth development. Our research partner, the Search Institute, has identified 40 Developmental Assets through their research on more than two million youth – these are the real life practices of youth who succeed in school and resist negative influences such as drugs.

Parenting Partners gives parents the skills to build these 40 Assets in their children. Parents are empowered by this research and the practical power of the assets to promote their children’s success.

The Search Institute has selected Parenting Partners as its training resource across North America for parent engagement with the 40 Assets.

To learn more about The Search Institute visit www.search-institute.org

Research on the 40 Youth Developmental Assets™

The Search Institute and universities such as Stanford, The University of Minnesota, Tufts, and Fuller Seminary School of Psychology are continually conducting new research on the impact of the 40 Youth Assets.

Search Institute's Insights & Evidence is a Web-based publication that presents the latest research from Search Institute on healthy children and youth in a format that is useful to educator, parents , and community leaders. Recent research demonstrates the power of Assets to improve academic performance and drug resistance. These studies are summarized below.

Assets and GPA

Increasing the number of Youth Developmental Assets increases GPA. Youth with 10 or fewer Assets earned a 2.1 GPA, but GPA rose to 2.7 for those with 11-20 Assets. Youth who crossed the 21-Asset threshold (21-30 Assets) earned a 3.0 GPA.

The study also found that high levels of Assets trump socio-economic factors. “Students from all racial/ethnic backgrounds with high levels of assets (31-40) are about five to 12 times as likely as those with few assets (0-10) to be successful in school.”

For a one page summary of the study:
http://www.search-institute.org/research/Insights/IE-10-03-brief.pdf

For the complete study:
http://www.search-institute.org/research/Insights/IE-10-03-Achievement.pdf

Building Assets to Strengthen Substance Abuse Prevention

“Because of the power of developmental assets in young people’s lives, Asset building offers innovative strategies for building community capacity to ensure that fewer young people engage in substance abuse and other high-risk behaviors, and that more young people thrive.”

Simply stated, young people with high levels of Assets lose interest in drugs, alcohol, drinking and driving, cigarette use, etc.

For a one page summary of the study:
http://www.search-institute.org/research/Insights/Insights-ATOD-Brief-03-04.pdf

For the complete study:
http://www.search-institute.org/research/Insights/Insights-ATOD-03-04.pdf

For more recent 40 Asset research visit:
http://www.search-institute.org/research/Insights/

What Are Assets?

Research by the Search Institute has identified 40 concrete, positive experiences and qualities called Developmental Assets that have a tremendous influence on young people's lives.

These building blocks of healthy development help young people group up healthy, caring, and responsible. The Assets are grouped in eight categories:

Support
Empowerment
Boundaries and Expectations
Constructive Use of Time
Commitment to Learning
Positive Values
Social Competencies
Positive Identities

The more assets young people have, the better! Assets have a powerful effect on a young person. Assets promote actions (also called thriving behaviors) that we hope for in our children and youth:

Succeeding in school
Helping others
Valuing diversity
Maintaining good health
Exhibiting leadership
Resisting danger
Overcoming adversity

Developmental Assets

Search Institute has identified the following building blocks of healthy development that help young people grow up healthy, caring, and responsible. Percentages of young people who experience each asset represent over 217,000 6th to 12th grade youth surveyed in 318 communities and 33 states during the 1999-2000 school year.

Asset Type		Asset Name		Definition	%
	Support	1.	Family Support	Family life provides high levels of love and support.	70%
		2.	Positive family communication	Young person and her or his parent(s) communicate positively. Young person is willing to seek advice and counsel from parent(s).	30%
		3.	Other adult relationship	Young person receives support from three or more nonparent adults.	45%
		4.	Caring neighborhood	Young person experiences caring neighbors.	40%
		5.	Caring school climate	School provides a caring, encouraging environment.	29%
	Empowerment	6.	Parent involvement in schooling	Parent(s) are actively involved in helping young person succeed in school.	34%
		7.	Community values youth	Young person perceives that adults in the community value youth.	25%
		8.	Youth as resources	Young people are given useful roles in the community.	28%
		9.	Service to others	Young person serves in the community one or more hours per week.	51%
		10.	Safety	Young person feels safe at home, at school and in the neighborhood.	51%
	Boundaries and Expectations	11.	Family boundaries	Family has clear rules and consequences and monitors the young person's whereabouts.	48%
		12.	School boundaries	School provides clear rules and consequences.	53%
		13.	Neighborhood boundaries	Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring young people's behavior.	49%
		14.	Adult role models	Parent(s) and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.	30%
		15.	Positive peer influence	Young person's best friends model responsible behavior.	65%
	Constructive Use of Time	16.	High expectations	Both parent(s) and teachers encourage the young person to do well.	49%
		17.	Creative activities	Young person spends three or more hours per week in lessons or practice in music, theater or other arts.	20%
		18.	Youth programs	Young person spends three or more hours per week in sports, clubs or organizations at school and/or in the community.	58%
		19.	Religious community	Young person spends one or more hours per week in activities in a religious institution.	63%
		20.	Time at home	Young person is out with friends "with nothing special to do" two or fewer nights per week.	52%
	Commitment to Learning	21.	Achievement motivation	Young person is motivated to do well in school.	67%
		22.	School engagement	Young person is actively engaged in learning.	61%
		23.	Homework	Young person reports doing at least one hour of homework every school day.	53%
		24.	Bonding	Young person cares about his or her school.	54%
		25.	Reading for pleasure	Young person reads for pleasure three or more hours per week.	23%
	Positive Values	26.	Caring	Young person places high value on helping other people.	50%
		27.	Equality and social justice	Young person places high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty.	52%
		28.	Integrity	Young person acts on convictions and stands up for her or his beliefs.	68%
		29.	Honesty	Young person "tells the truth, even when it is not easy"	67%
		30.	Responsibility	Young person accepts and takes personal responsibility.	63%
	Social Competencies	31.	Restraint	Young person believes it is important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs.	47%
		32.	Planning and decision-making	Young person knows how to plan ahead and make choices.	30%
		33.	Interpersonal competence	Young person has empathy, sensitivity and friendship skills.	47%
		34.	Cultural competence	Young person has knowledge of, and comfort with, people of different cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds.	42%
		35.	Resistance skills	Young person can resist negative peer pressure and dangerous situations.	42%
	Positive Identity	36.	Peaceful conflict resolution	Young person seeks to resolve conflict nonviolently.	45%
		37.	Personal power	Young person feels he or she has control over "things that happen to me."	44%
		38.	Self-esteem	Young person reports having high self-esteem.	52%
		39.	Sense of purpose	Young person reports that "my life has a purpose."	59%
		40.	Positive view of personal future	Young person is optimistic about his or her personal future.	74%

Permission to reproduce this chart is granted for educational, non-commercial purposes only. Copyright © 2000 by Search Institute, 615 First Avenue NE, Ste.125, Minneapolis, Minn. 55413. For information on Asset building and Search Institute's national Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth initiative, call 1 (877) 240-7251. Used by permission.