ABOUT THE Y
What are the Developmental Assets for Youth
The Search Institute's 40 Developmental Assets are concrete, common sense, positive experiences and qualities essential to raising successful young people. These assets have the power during critical adolescent years to influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible adults.
The Developmental Asset framework is categorized into 2 groups of 20 assets.
What are the External Assets?
These are the positive experiences young people receive from the world around them. These 20 assets are about supporting and empowering young people, about setting boundaries and expectations, and about positive and constructive use of young people's time. External assets identify important roles that families, schools, congregations, neighborhoods, and youth organizations can play in promoting healthy development.
What are the Internal assets?
They identify those characteristics and behaviors that reflect positive internal growth and development of young people. These 20 assets are about positive values and identities, social competencies, and commitment to learning. The internal developmental assets will help these young people make thoughtful and positive choices and, in turn, be better prepared for situations in life that challenge their inner strength and confidence.
For a complete list of the 40 Developmental Assets, click here.
Why Are Developmental Assets Important?
The framework of Developmental Assets is grounded in extensive research on child and adolescent development, resiliency, health promotion, prevention, and public health. Numerous researchers have found that these kinds of positive resources provide key sources of strength for children and youth.
In addition, through surveys of almost 2 million young people since 1990 from all types of communities and all cultural groups, Search Institute consistently finds that the more assets young people have the better.
The more assets young people have, the more likely they will grow up to be caring, competent, responsible adults. The more assets young people have, the better their chances for contributing to their society and finding a meaningful purpose in life. On average, young people with more assets:
The challenge we face, according to the most current Search Institute research, is that the average young person surveyed has about 19 of the 40 assets. Furthermore, only 9 percent of the youth surveyed experience at least 31 of the 40 assets.
For more information on the 40 Developmental Assets contact Jocelyn Boyd, Operations Director, Lauderhill Community YMCA at JBoyd@YMCAbroward.org
