developmental assets : a synthesis of the scientific research on adolescent development

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Peter C. Scales and Nancy Leffert Foreword by Richard M. Lerner A Synthesis of the Scientific Research on Adolescent Development A ssets D evelopmental SECOND EDITION

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This foundational volume examines more than 800 scientific articles and reports on adolescent development that tie to each of the 40 Developmental Assets identified by Search Institute.

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Page 1: Developmental Assets : A Synthesis of the Scientific Research on Adolescent Development

P e t e r C . S c a l e s

a n d N a n c y L e f f e r t

F o r ewo r d b y R i c h a r d M . L e r n e r

A S y n t h e s i s o f

t h e S c i e n t i f i c R e s e a r c h

o n Ad o l e s c e n t D e v e l o pm e n t

AssetsDevelopmental

An Updated Resource on the Research Foundations of Developmental Assets

In the first edition of Developmental Assets: A Synthesis of the Scientific Research onAdolescent Develop ment, Peter C. Scales and Nancy Leffert reviewed more than 800 sci-entific articles and reports that relate to Search Institute’s conceptual framework of

developmental assets—positive relationships, opportunities, skills, values, and self- perceptions that all young people need to be healthy, caring, and productive. This vol-ume retains that fundamental literature review and incorporates lessons learned from fiveyears of subsequent research. A chapter is dedicated to each cate gory of developmentalassets (support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, constructive use of time,commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity).Each chapter in this new edition shows:

• how the scientific literature defines the category of assets;

• updated research findings on the impact of the assets on young people’sbehaviors, including variations in findings among different populations of youth;

• in-depth information on how each asset works;

• more recent data on young people’s experiences of the assets from SearchInstitute surveys of more than 200,000 6th- to 12th-grade youth;

• what the literature says about how the assets can be built in young people’s lives.

This second edition of Developmental Assets provides critical information for scholars andleaders who seek to understand the rich traditions of scientific research that undergird theasset model. And by highlighting what research has learned about how the assets are builtfor and with differ ent populations of youth, it also serves as an invaluable reference forpeople who seek to build assets for youth in their organizations and communities.

“Scholars of youth development owe Peter Scales, Nancy Leffert, and their colleagues at Search Institute a great debt for providing an exemplar ofapplied developmental science. . . . In building a compelling case for a focuson the assets requisite for healthy youth development, the work of SearchInstitute is making a singular and sustainable contribution to the future ofcivil society in America.”

Richard M. Lerner, from the Foreword

Scales/Leffe

rtDevelopm

ental Assets

Search

Institu

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$29.95 #0338

SECOND EDITION

Page 2: Developmental Assets : A Synthesis of the Scientific Research on Adolescent Development

Peter C. Scales

and Nancy Leffert

Foreword by Richard M. Lerner

Search Institute • Minneapolis

DevelopmentalAssets

A Synthesis of

the Scientific Research

on Adolescent Development

Page 3: Developmental Assets : A Synthesis of the Scientific Research on Adolescent Development

Copyright © 1999, 2004 by Search Institute

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatso-ever, mechanical or electronic, without prior permission from the publisher except in briefquotations or summaries in articles or reviews, or as individual charts or graphs for educa-tional use. For additional permission, write to Permissions at Search Institute.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Scales, Peter, 1949–Developmental assets : a synthesis of the scientific research on

adolescent development / Peter C. Scales and Nancy Leffert.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 1-57482-338-8 (acid-free paper)1. Adolescent psychology. I. Leffert, Nancy, 1949– .

II. Title.BF724.S327 1999305.235′5—dc21 98-47379

Search Institute615 First Avenue Northeast, Suite 125Minneapolis, MN 55413

612-376-8955800-888-7828

www.search-institute.org

CreditsEditors: Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, Kate Tyler, Kathryn (Kay) L. Hong, Tenessa GemelkeDesign: Diane Gleba HallProduction: Becky Manfredini, Mary Ellen Buscher

About Search InstituteSearch Institute is an independent, nonprofit, nonsectarian organization whose mission is toprovide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and com-munities. The institute collaborates with others to promote long-term organizational andcultural change that supports its mission. For a free information packet, call 800-888-7828.

Page 4: Developmental Assets : A Synthesis of the Scientific Research on Adolescent Development

Foreword, by Richard M. Lerner, Ph.D. ix

Preface to the Second Edition xiii

Acknowledgments xxi

List of Figures and Tables xxiii

Introduction: The Framework of Developmental Assets 1Developmental assets are the positive relationships, opportunities,competencies, values, and self-perceptions that youth need to succeed.

The External Assets

1. The Support Assets 21Supported young people know they can rely on positive, fulfilling relationships with many adults in their families, schools, and communities.

2. The Empowerment Assets 49Young people are empowered to the extent that they are seen by others as resources, makecontributions to society, and feel free of threats to their safety.

3. The Boundaries-and-Expectations Assets 75Boundaries and expectations are the rules, standards, and norms in families, schools,neighborhoods, and communities that guide young people’s choices and regulate their behavior.

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Contents

Page 5: Developmental Assets : A Synthesis of the Scientific Research on Adolescent Development

4. The Constructive-Use-of-Time Assets 97A healthy community offers a rich array of constructive, engaging opportunities and activities to all young people.

The Internal Assets

5. The Commitment-to-Learning Assets 119A young person’s commitment to learning is strongly influenced by relationships with family, peers, and others, as well as by the school environment.

6. The Positive-Values Assets 149Positive values become deep commitments that guide how young people think and act.

7. The Social-Competencies Assets 173Social competencies are the skills young people need to confront new situations, face harddecisions, and interact effectively with others.

8. The Positive-Identity Assets 193Shaping one’s self-concept, beliefs, capacities, roles, and personal history is one of the centraltasks of adolescence.

Postscript: Lessons from the Research 211

References 221

Index 267

C o n t e n t s

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In the larger sweep of time, five years is not terribly significant. But when itcomes to research in the psychological and social sciences, five years is a signifi-cant span of time. A plethora of empirical work involving thousands of studieshas appeared since the first edition of Developmental Assets: A Synthesis of theScientific Research on Adolescent Development. At Search Institute, our continuedscientific research and work with social change in communities have necessi-tated an ongoing familiarity with this current scholarship; we are pleased to ob-serve that the synthesis and conclusions we presented in still hold. The re-search on adolescent development continues to support the validity of theframework of developmental assets as a theoretically sound lens through whichto understand adolescent development and to energize and inform strategiesthat communities can use to become more developmentally attentive places foryoung people.

Although our basic conclusions remain the same, we have learned a greatdeal in the past five years. For example, all the data we reported in the edi-tion were based on Search Institute studies from the ‒ school year ag-gregate sample of nearly , students in grades ‒ from more than U.S. communities. The sample was illuminating as a portrait of developmentalwell-being among young people, but it largely represented white youth fromsmaller towns and more intact, more affluent families. As a result, some havewondered how applicable the developmental assets framework is for youth ofcolor, youth who live in economically poor settings, and urban youth.

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Preface to the Second Edition

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xiv

For this edition, each chapter contains updated Search Institute data froman aggregate sample of more than , students in grades ‒ from morethan U.S. communities surveyed in the ‒ school year. Althoughstill not a true nationally representative sample, this sample was more diversethan the earlier one in terms of race/ethnicity, geographic representation, andsocioeconomics, and was further weighted to align with the most recent censusfigures on adolescents’ race/ethnicity and geographic residence.

Given those different sample characteristics, it is meaningful that the per-centages of young people reporting they experience the developmental assetsare comparable to what we reported in . In addition, the data acrossracial/ethnic diversities similarly link a higher number of developmental assetsto less engagement in patterns of risk behavior and greater evidence of thriving(Developmental assets: A profile of your youth, ; Sesma & Roehlkepartain,).The developmental assets framework remained useful and valid with thismuch more diverse sample. Further, in this new edition of Developmental Assets,we describe other smaller studies with more diverse samples of young peoplethat Search Institute has conducted over the past few years. These studies inColorado Springs (with one-third of the students non-white; Scales, Leffert, &Vraa, ) and Houston (nearly all Hispanic or African American, economi-cally poor, urban high school students; Scales, Foster, Mannes, Horst, Pinto, &Rutherford, in press) add to the growing research foundation showing that al-though there may be some differences in which assets are most helpful for par-ticular groups of youth, all groups of young people benefit from experiencingthose developmental assets.

Research also continues to support the basic conclusions we described in about the relation of developmental assets to academic achievement.Asset-like constructs measured by other researchers are related to a variety ofmeasures of school success, and Search Institute’s own measures of the de-velopmental assets are related to students’ self-reported grades. But over thepast five years we also have conducted a study using actual Grade Point Average(GPA) as the outcome, and we reach the same conclusion in this current edi-tion: Students at each successively higher level of assets have significantlyhigher GPAs (Scales & Roehlkepartain, ).

We now know that, as predicted, the same relations seen between assets andoutcomes at one point in time (“concurrent” relations) generally were seenacross time as well (“longitudinal” relations). The connections between assetsand outcomes in this study were significant, but, as expected, not as strong orconsistent across outcomes over time as those observed at a single point in time.For most risk and thriving outcomes, higher levels of assets were related tobetter outcomes several years later. For example, asset-depleted students (‒

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assets in ) had about a C average three years later, but asset-rich students(‒ assets) had about a B+ average three years later (Scales & Roehlkepar-tain, ).

In the edition of Developmental Assets, we also discussed the role thatadults outside young people’s families play in their positive development. Sincethen, we have conducted several national studies—two with U.S. adults andone with U.S. adolescents aged to —that provide fresh perspectives for thiscurrent edition. The studies and new data underscore our earlier conclusionsabout the significant gap between how much adults believe they ought to be en-gaged with young people, and how engaged they really are. We found thatyoung people who have more of the “other adult” assets that come from adultsoutside the home report fewer risk behaviors and more thriving, but that only aminority of adults could be said to be highly engaged with young people. Thesestudies have led us to draw a number of practical implications—several ofwhich we note in the new edition—about how to change social norms and ex-pectations so that more adults connect positively with “other people’s kids” tobuild developmentally attentive communities (Scales et al., ; Scales, Ben-son, & Mannes, ; Scales, Benson, & Roehlkepartain, ).

We have also learned much about the developmental assets framework fromour study of its applicability in the middle childhood period, that period of life(grades ‒) immediately preceding the adolescent years. Overall, we concludethat, as predicted, children in middle childhood probably experience more as-sets than do adolescents, but that, like adolescents, large minorities of youngpeople may not experience many of even the most common assets (Scales,Sesma, & Bolstrom, ). Our post- learnings, although needing to beelaborated and confirmed with additional empirical data, add to the growingconfidence that the developmental assets framework has both scientific and ap-plied utility across the first two decades of life.

Since the developmental assets framework has increasingly had an im-pact on shaping and contributing to theory in positive youth development(Benson, Scales, Hamilton, & Sesma, ; Benson & Saito, ; Connell &Kubisch, ), applied developmental science (Lerner, ; Benson, Scales,& Mannes, ), and the science-based development of community programsfor youth (Eccles & Gottman, ) and health promotion programs for youth(Mahoney & Lafferty, ). It has also served as one of the organizing ap-proaches for the increasing emphasis scholars and practitioners alike are givingto the study and promotion of thriving in young people (Scales, Benson, Lef-fert, & Blyth, ; Lerner et al., ; Scales & Benson, ) and to the cre-ation of national systems of positive indicators of youth development to standbeside traditional measures of youth problems and deficits (Moore & Lippman,

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). We were beginning to notice these impacts in the late s; however,the emergence of the developmental assets framework as a leading componentof both theory and science-based application in youth development has notice-ably accelerated in the first few years of the st century.This trend has providedscholars, practitioners, and policymakers with increasing evidence of the powerof developmental assets to mobilize communities and make a difference for di-verse young people.

As the research continues to reveal new insights, we identify many opportu-nities for future inquiry. We would like to see peer-reviewed papers in the liter-ature showing how developmental assets were intentionally increased in asample of young people, and that the theory successfully predicted the con-comitant changes in their risk and thriving outcomes. Limits in existing re-search permit questions about the effectiveness of the developmental assetsframework to linger. The first longitudinal study of assets and outcomes in asample of several hundred youth (Scales & Roehklkepartain, ; Roehlke-partain, Benson, & Sesma, ) helps ameliorate such doubts; however, moresuch research is needed, especially studies investigating (a) how assets can beincreased over time, and (b) the connection between those increases and posi-tive developmental gains.

Another related strand of needed research is a deeper understanding of howassets work. Our recent research has reinforced the conclusion that the numberof assets young people experience matters to their development, but there hasbeen far less exploration of the processes by which that influence is exerted.Such work needs to include identifying particular clusters of assets that theo-retically may have greater impact than other assets on specific developmentaloutcomes, and then examining whether those relations are observed, both con-currently and longitudinally. The challenge is to avoid becoming reductionistand formulaic about the implications for program and practice that arise fromsuch studies; for example, take two doses of positive family communication,three of school boundaries, and add an hour a week of youth programs, andvoilà, young people will abstain from alcohol and other drug abuse.

There is great temptation to identify the “most important” assets, eithergenerally or with regard to specific outcomes, and then for communities tofocus on building only those. But young people live in complexly connected,multilayered environments of self, family, school, community, and peers. At-tempts to reduce developmental cause and effect within such a system to a few“most important” linear relationships are bound to miss the ecological wholethat is more than the sum of its parts. Still, it is neither theoretically defensiblenor grounded in common sense to suspect that all assets have equal power toaffect positively all developmental outcomes. Somewhere between avoiding ex-

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ploration of linkages among particular assets and specific outcomes and imag-ining that the whole of human development can be reduced to such simple con-nections lies a fertile area for significant research over the next five years thathas meaningful applied implications.

Finally, more scientific and practical work in communities needs to be doneto integrate the asset framework with other approaches to problem preventionand promotion of positive youth development. Although Search Institute hasalways advocated for comprehensive approaches to youth development (Ben-son, ; Benson, ; Scales, ), the framework is sometimes misunder-stood as promoting an either/or orientation in which communities must choosebetween risk reduction and promotion of young people’s positive well-being(Pollard, Hawkins, & Arthur, ). Since , there are increasing examplesof communities attempting to blend or integrate approaches such as the devel-opmental assets framework and the social development model (Whitlock &Hamilton, ), the latter often referred to as the risk and protective factorsapproach (Hawkins, Guo, Hill, Battin-Pearson, & Abbott, ). Studies ex-amining how those two influential approaches and others (e.g., the recent “pos-itive psychology” movement—see Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, ) cancomplement each other and provide a more valuable impact for young peoplewhen used together are notably absent in the literature and are sorely needed.We wrote in the Introduction that asset building was an approach basedmore on opportunities than risks and represented a more hopeful, optimisticperspective than many traditional, risk-focused approaches to youth develop-ment. Today research and leading efforts in the field (e.g., Weissberg, Kumpfer,& Seligman, ) suggest more than ever that both prevention science and re-search-based promotion of positive youth development are necessary for eitherapproach to achieve its promise for young people.

Although the future holds many more research opportunities, our recentwork has yielded numerous confirmations of the scientific and practical impor-tance of the developmental assets framework for promoting the well-being ofdiverse young people. While we suggested in that both scholars and prac-titioners could use the framework with confidence, the ensuing years have en-abled us to be even more optimistic about its value in helping inform and guidenew efforts in the promotion of positive youth development. We hope this newedition of Developmental Assets helps add stimulus to that noble goal.

Peter C. Scales

Manchester, Missouri

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Selected Readings

Benson, P. L. (). The troubled journey: A portrait of th–th grade youth. Minneapolis:Search Institute.

Benson, P. L. (). All kids are our kids: What communities must do to raise caring and respons-ible children and adolescents. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Benson, P. L., & Saito, R. N. (). The scientific foundations of youth development. In P.L. Benson & K. J. Pittman (Eds.), Trends in youth development: Visions, realities, and chal-lenges (pp. ‒). Boston: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., Hamilton, S. A., & Sesma, A., Jr. (in press). Positive youth devel-opment: Theoretical issues, research, and applications. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner(Eds.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. , 6th ed. New York: John Wiley.

Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., & Mannes, M. (). Developmental strengths and theirsources: Implications for the study and practice of community-building. In R. M.Lerner., F. Jacobs, & D. Wertlieb (Eds.), Handbook of applied developmental science, Vol. ,Applying developmental science for youth and families—Historical and theoretical foundations(pp. ‒). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Connell, J. P., & Kubisch, A. C. (). Community approaches to improving outcomes forurban children, youth, and families: Current trends and future directions. In A. Booth &A. C. Crouter (Eds.), Does it take a village? Community effects on children, adolescents, andfamilies (pp.‒). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Developmental assets: A profile of your youth. (). Minneapolis: Search Institute (‒school year aggregate dataset).

Eccles, J., & Gootman, J. A. (Eds.). (). Community programs to promote youth development.Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Hawkins, J. D., Guo, J., Hill, K. G., Battin-Pearson, S., & Abbott, R. (). Long term ef-fects of the Seattle social development intervention on school bonding trajectories. Ap-plied Developmental Science, , ‒.

Lerner, R. M. (). Developmental assets and asset-building communities: A view of theissues. In R. M. Lerner & P. L. Benson (Eds.), Developmental assets and asset-buildingcommunities: Implications for research, policy, and practice (pp. ‒). New York: KluwerAcademic/Plenum.

Lerner, R. M., Brentano, C., Dowling, E. M., & Anderson, P. M. (). Positive youth de-velopment: Thriving as the basis of personhood and civil society. New Directions for YouthDevelopment, No. , ‒.

Mahoney, C. A., & Lafferty, C. K. (). Special issue: Positive youth development. Ameri-can Journal of Health Behavior, (Supp. ), S–S.

Moore, K. A., & Lippman, L. (Eds.). (). Conceptualizing and measuring indicators of posi-tive development: What do children need to flourish? New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

Pollard, J. A., Hawkins, J. D., & Arthur, M. W. (). Risk and protection: Are both neces-sary to understand diverse behavioral outcomes in adolescence? Social Work Research, ,‒.

Roehlkepartain, E. C., Benson, P. L., & Sesma, A., Jr. (). Signs of progress in puttingchildren first: Developmental assets among youth in St. Louis Park, ‒. Minneapolis:Search Institute (download at www.children-first.org).

Scales, P. C., & Benson, P. L. (in press).Thriving in adolescence. In R. M. Lerner & C. Fischer(Eds.), Applied developmental science encyclopedia. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., Leffert, N., & Blyth, D. A. (). Contribution of developmen-tal assets to the prediction of thriving among adolescents. Applied Developmental Science,, ‒.

Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., & Mannes, M. (). Grading grown-ups : How do Americankids and adults relate? Highlights from a national study. Minneapolis: Search Institute(download at www.search-institute.org).

Scales, P. C., with Benson, P. L., Mannes, M., Roehlkepartain, E. C., Hintz, N. R., & Sulli-van, T. K. (). Other people’s kids: Social expectations and American adults’ involvementwith children and adolescents. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

Scales, P. C., Benson, P. L., & Roehlkepartain, E. C. (). Grading grown-ups: Americanadults report on their real relationships with kids. Minneapolis: Search Institute and LutheranBrotherhood.

Scales, P. C., Foster, K., Mannes, M., Horst, M., Pinto, K., & Rutherford, A. (in press).School-business partnerships, developmental assets, and positive outcomes among urbanhigh school students: A mixed-methods study. Urban Education, (March ).

Scales, P. C., Leffert, N., & Vraa, R. (). The relation of community developmental atten-tiveness to adolescent health. American Journal of Health Behavior, (Supp. ), S–S.

Scales, P. C., & Roehlkepartain, E. C. (). Boosting student achievement: New researchon the power of developmental assets. Search Institute Insights & Evidence, (), ‒.

Scales, P. C., Sesma, A., Jr., & Bolstrom, B. J. (). Coming into their own: How developmen-tal assets promote positive growth in middle childhood. Minneapolis: Search Institute.

Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (). Positive psychology: An introduction.American Psychologist, , ‒.

Sesma, A., Jr., & Roehlkepartain, E. C. (). Unique strengths, shared strengths: Develop-mental assets among youth of color. Search Institute Insights & Evidence, (), ‒.

Weissberg, R. P., Kumpfer, K. L., & Seligman, M. E. P. (). Prevention that works forchildren and youth. American Psychologist, , ‒.

Whitlock, J. L., & Hamilton, S. F. (). The role of youth surveys in community youth de-velopment initiatives. Applied Developmental Science, , ‒.

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About the Authors

Peter C. Scales, Ph.D., senior fellow in the Office of the President at SearchInstitute, is a developmental psychologist, author, speaker, and researcher whois widely recognized as one of the nation’s foremost authorities on the healthydevelopment of children, youth, and families. Among his previous positions,Dr. Scales has served as director of national initiatives for the Center for EarlyAdolescence, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; chair of the AlaskaGovernor’s Commission on Children and Youth; and research director, Syra-cuse University’s Institute for Family Research and Education. In addition tonumerous scientific articles and chapters, Dr. Scales is author of more than adozen books and monographs, including The Sexual Adolescent (Duxbury), APortrait of Young Adolescents in the s (Center for Early Adolescence), GreatPlaces to Learn: How Asset-Building Schools Help Students Succeed (Search Insti-tute), Other People’s Kids: Social Expectations and American Adults’ Involvementwith Children and Adolescents (Kluwer/Plenum), and most recently, Coming intoTheir Own: How Developmental Assets Promote Positive Growth in Middle Child-hood (Search Institute). The winner of the U.S. Administration for Chil-dren and Families Commissioner Award for “outstanding leadership and ser-vice in the prevention of child abuse and neglect,” he earned his doctorate andmaster’s degree in child development and family relations from Syracuse Uni-versity, and his bachelor’s degree in psychology also from Syracuse University.

Nancy Leffert, Ph.D., Associate Dean in the School of Psychology, FieldingGraduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA and formerly Senior Research Scien-tist at Search Institute, is a developmental psychologist, licensed independentclinical social worker, researcher, author, and speaker who specializes in devel-opment during adolescence and childhood. She is the recipient of the Her-shel Thornburg Dissertation Award by the Society for Research on Adoles-cence. Dr. Leffert has previously served in several positions at the University ofMinnesota and as director of the Child and Youth Problems Clinic, Family Ser-vice Association of San Diego County. In addition to many scientific articlesand chapters, Dr. Leffert is coauthor of Starting Out Right: Developmental Assetsfor Children (Search Institute), Shema: Listening to Jewish Youth (Search Insti-tute), and Making the Case: Measuring the Impact of Youth Development Programs(Search Institute). She earned her doctorate in child psychology from the Insti-tute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, and her master’s of socialwork and bachelor’s degree from California State University at San Diego.

Page 14: Developmental Assets : A Synthesis of the Scientific Research on Adolescent Development

P e t e r C . S c a l e s

a n d N a n c y L e f f e r t

F o r ewo r d b y R i c h a r d M . L e r n e r

A S y n t h e s i s o f

t h e S c i e n t i f i c R e s e a r c h

o n Ad o l e s c e n t D e v e l o pm e n t

AssetsDevelopmental

An Updated Resource on the Research Foundations of Developmental Assets

In the first edition of Developmental Assets: A Synthesis of the Scientific Research onAdolescent Develop ment, Peter C. Scales and Nancy Leffert reviewed more than 800 sci-entific articles and reports that relate to Search Institute’s conceptual framework of

developmental assets—positive relationships, opportunities, skills, values, and self- perceptions that all young people need to be healthy, caring, and productive. This vol-ume retains that fundamental literature review and incorporates lessons learned from fiveyears of subsequent research. A chapter is dedicated to each cate gory of developmentalassets (support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, constructive use of time,commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity).Each chapter in this new edition shows:

• how the scientific literature defines the category of assets;

• updated research findings on the impact of the assets on young people’sbehaviors, including variations in findings among different populations of youth;

• in-depth information on how each asset works;

• more recent data on young people’s experiences of the assets from SearchInstitute surveys of more than 200,000 6th- to 12th-grade youth;

• what the literature says about how the assets can be built in young people’s lives.

This second edition of Developmental Assets provides critical information for scholars andleaders who seek to understand the rich traditions of scientific research that undergird theasset model. And by highlighting what research has learned about how the assets are builtfor and with differ ent populations of youth, it also serves as an invaluable reference forpeople who seek to build assets for youth in their organizations and communities.

“Scholars of youth development owe Peter Scales, Nancy Leffert, and their colleagues at Search Institute a great debt for providing an exemplar ofapplied developmental science. . . . In building a compelling case for a focuson the assets requisite for healthy youth development, the work of SearchInstitute is making a singular and sustainable contribution to the future ofcivil society in America.”

Richard M. Lerner, from the Foreword

Scales/Leffe

rtDevelopm

ental Assets

Search

Institu

te

$29.95 #0338

SECOND EDITION