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What are the 40 Developmental Assets?

The Developmental Assets are 40 common sense, positive experiences and qualities that help influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible adults.

The Power of the Assets

Studies of more than 2.2 million young people consistently show that the more assets young people have, the less likely they are to engage in a wide range of high-risk behaviours and the more likely they are to thrive. Assets have power for all young people, regardless of their gender, economic status, family, or race/ethnicity, and are better predictors of high-risk involvement and thriving than poverty or being from a single-parent family.

Where the Assets Framework comes from

Researchers have learned a great deal in the past several decades about elements in human experience that have long-term, positive consequences for young people. Factors such as family dynamics, support from community adults, school effectiveness, peer influence, values development, and social skills have all been identified as contributing to healthy development. However, these different areas of study are typically disconnected from each other.

The framework of Developmental Assets steps back to look at the whole—to pull many pieces together into a comprehensive vision of what young people need to thrive. In addition to roots in the scientific research on adolescent development, the assets grow out of three types of applied research:

• “Positive youth development,” which highlights core processes and dynamics in human development that are foundational for growing up healthy.

• Prevention, which focuses on protective factors that inhibit high-risk behaviours such as substance abuse, violence, sexual intercourse, and dropping out of school.

• Resiliency, which identifies factors that increase young people’s ability to rebound in the face of adversity, from poverty to drug-abusing parents to dangerous neighbourhoods.

The first Developmental Asset

Family Support

Sunday, January 30th

The second Developmental Asset

Positive Family Communication

Sunday, February 6th

The third Developmental Asset

Other Adult Relationships (Mentors)

Sunday, February 13th