Short Definitions of Youth Developmental Assets
• • • • •External Assets
• • • Support
- Family support: Family life provides high levels of love and support.
- Positive family communication: Parents and youth communicate positively; youth is willing to seek advice and counsel from parents and extended family.
- Other adult relationships: Youth receives support from three or more nonparent adults.
- Caring neighborhood and community: Youth experiences caring neighborhood and community.
- Caring school climate: School provides a caring, encouraging environment.
- Parent involvement in school: Parents are actively involved in helping child succeed in school.
• • • Empowerment
- Community values youth: Youth believes that community adults value young people.
- Youth have useful roles: Youth are taught and given useful roles in community life.
- Volunteers in community: Youth gives one hour or more per week to serving in the community.
- Safety: Youth feels safe in home, school, and neighborhood/community.
• • • Boundaries and Expectations
- Family boundaries: Family has clear rules and consequences and monitors youth’s whereabouts.
- School boundaries: School provides clear rules and consequences.
- Neighborhood boundaries: Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring youth’s whereabouts.
- Adult role models: Parents, Elders, and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.
- Positive peer influence: Youth’s close friends model responsible behavior.
- High expectations: Parents and teachers encourage youth to do well.
• • • Constructive Use of Time
- Creative and cultural activities: Youth is involved three or more hours per week in activities that include music, arts, crafts or cultural activities.
- Youth programs: Youth spends one hour or more per week in sports, clubs, or other organizations at school or in the community.
- Religious community: Youth is involved in one or more hours per week in religious services or spiritual activities.
- Time at home: Youth is out with friends “with nothing special to do” two or fewer nights per week.
• • • • •Internal Assets
• • • Commitment to Learning
- Achievement motivation: Youth is motivated to do well in school.
- School engagement: Youth is actively engaged in learning.
- Homework: Youth reports doing one or more hours of homework per day.
- Bonding to school: Youth cares about his or her school.
- Reading for pleasure: Youth reads for pleasure three or more hours per week.
• • • Positive Values
- Caring: Youth places high value on freely helping other people.
- Equality and social justice: Youth places high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty.
- Integrity: Youth acts on convictions and stands up for beliefs.
- Honesty: Youth tells the truth even when it is not easy.
- Responsibility: Youth accepts and takes personal responsibility.
- Restraint: Youth believes it’s important not to be sexually active or use alcohol or other drugs.
• • • Social Skills
- Planning and decision-making: Youth has skills to plan ahead and make responsible choices.
- Interpersonal skills: Youth has empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills.
- Cultural competence: Youth knows and is comfortable with people of different cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.
- Resistance skills: Youth can resist negative peer pressure and dangerous community influences.
- Peaceful conflict resolution: Youth seeks to resolve conflict without violence.
• • • Positive Identity
Adapted for this Web site with permission from Search Institute.
- Personal power: Youth feels in control over “many things that happen to me.”
- Self-esteem: Youth reports having high self-esteem.
- Sense of purpose: Youth reports that “my life has a purpose.”
- Positive view of personal future: Youth is optimistic about his or her personal future.
Assets Home Page
Assets Framework Page
The Assets project is sponsored by the Association of Alaska School Boards and Alaska's Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Public Health.
This Web site sponsored by The Alaska Transition Initiative, with services from the Special Education Service Agency.
