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Beyond the 'Village' Rhetoric: Creating Healthy
Communities for Children and Adolescents
Peter L. Benson , Nancy Leffert , Peter C. Scales & Dale A. Blyth
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To cite this article: Peter L. Benson , Nancy Leffert , Peter C. Scales & Dale A. Blyth (1998): Beyond the 'Village' Rhetoric:
Creating Healthy Communities for Children and Adolescents, Applied Developmental Science, 2:3, 138-159
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Applied Developn~entalScience
1998. Vol. 2. No. 3. 138-159
Copyright O 1998 hy
Lawrence Erlhaum Associates. Inc.
Beyond the "Village" Rhetoric: Creating Healthy Communities for
Children and Adolescents
Peter L. Benson, Nancy Leffert, Peter C. Scales, and Dale A. Blyth
S e a r c h lnsritrrtel
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Minneapolis,
MN
T h e r o l e o f c o m m u i t i t y in childandado1e.scentder~elopnrent
i s e m e r g i n g a s a significant
a r e a of t h e o r e t i c a l i n q u i r y . research, a n d a p p l i c a t i o n . Thi.s a r t i c l e d e s c r i b e s t h e
d e v e l o p n ~ e nat n d u t i l i z a f i o r ~of a c o m p r e h e n s i v e c o m m u n i t y c h a n g e effort desigrted to
irtcrease t h e a t t e n t i o n of all conmntui~itymentbers toward s t r e n g t h e n i n g c o r e d e v e l o p m e i t m l processes for c h i l d r e n a n d adole.sceitrs. I t describes t h e developrnenr of 2
t h e o r e t i c a l constrrrcts, that ofdevelopmeiifalarretsa~rdofusset-baildbtg
communities.
I t presents a c o n c e p t u a l overc'iew of both constructs, a d e s c r i p t i v e a c c o u n t of t h e
d e v e l o p m e n t a l assets w i t h i n a l a r g e a g g r e g a t e r a n t p l e of a p p r o x i m a t e l y 99,000 six111
t o t w e l f t h g r a d e r s , a n d a suntntary of c h a n g e s t r a t e g i e s shapirtg asset-btrilding
m o v e m e n t s i n o v e r 200 c o m m u n i t i e s .
The role o f community i n child and adolescent development i s emerging as a significant area o f theoretical inquiry, application, and research. This interest parallels increasing attention to the concept of community
in a number o f other fields and i n public policy deliberations. Community (or the lack there00 is now a
pivotal construct in the areas o f economic development
(Stone, 1996), neighborhood revitalization (Chaskin,
1992). and civic engagement (Kretzmann & McKnight,
19931, and is an important analytical tool forexplaining
a number o f historical and cultural phenomena, from
the implementation and sustainability of democracy
(Putnam. 1993) to the advent of culture wars (Gitlin,
1995). The political trend toward "devolution" of services exacerbates the focus on community by shifting
some o f the responsibility for human welfare from the
federal level to the state and local level.
FROM T1.E EDITORS:This aticliclr is Ihe first ill a series [rum
Percr Renson and his C D I I C ~ ~
a1Uthe
~ BSearch Inmilute. Thc Search
tnstiture seeks to promote the positive development of youth by
linking rescarchand policy in suppon ofcornrnunity-haced prognrns
thal focus nn ,he strengths or assets ofindividuals and fvmilies. The
scope. t i ~ ~ e l i n c sms d, importance of the work of the Search lnsritutc
is of peat significance to ihc youth of our nation. Future issuer will
repan further on the rermrch of the Search Institute and its implicalions for youth policy and programs.
Requests for repnnls should he en1 lo Peter L. Bmson. Search
Instilurc. 700 South Third Strcel. Suitc 210. Minneapolis. M N
55415.
' ~ m r c hlnstirua is an independent. nonprofit. social science rcsearch and educational organization with hzadqumerr in Minneapolis. Foundrd in 1958, its staff or70 social scientists. resource developers. and change agents focus on rhc role ofsocial institutions, social
policy. and community in child and adotcsccnl development.
The concept of community within the field o f child
and adolescent development owes considerable debt to
Bronfenbrenner's (1979) theoretical foundations on the
ecology of human development, as well as to the significant workof Jessorand hiscolleagueson social+uItural influences on adolescent behavior (e.g., Jessor.
1993; Jessor. Graves, Hanson. & lessor, 1968; lessor
& Jessor. 1977). This line of theory and research helped
to trigger both a more coherent view o f the child's
embeddedness within a complex pattern of social institutions (Belsky. 1981; Zieler, 1990) and the design of
community-based interventions aimed at a wide range
of issues, including school readiness and the prevention
of juvenile delinquency (Zigler, Taussig. & Black,
1992).
Lerner's (1986. 1992) work on developmental contextualization has added to the understanding o f community context i n its articulation o f the ecologies that
inform development and the ways in which adolescents
influence their social contexts. The implications of this
work for policy and program are significant (Lemer.
1995).
Socialization occurs principally. ol' course, within
nuclear families and, especially for youth o f color
(Scales & Cibhons, 1996). also within their extended
families. But families do not exist i n isolation. They are
part o f neighborhoods and o f larger communities that
exert broad cultural and normative influences and offer
positive and negative possibilities to specific youth.
Some communities clearly are dangerous or "toxic"
environments (Garbarino. 1995) due to extreme poverty, family and institutional disintegration. and crime.
Other communities have relatively plentiful economic
and social resources yet fail to connect youth with those
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BEYOND THE 'Im.LACE. RHETORIC
supports. Given the obvious importance of community,
it perhaps is surprising that relatively little research has
been done to define systematically the nature of community and its developmental impact (National Research Council, 1996). Nevertheless, it is clear that
community has both direct and indirect effects on children and adolescents.
Werner and Smith's (1992) classic 30-year study of
children born on the Hawaiian island of Kauai has
shown that those who were most resilient as adults had
the largest network of multigenerational kin and unrelated adults for support during childhood. More specifically, when they were children of elementary schoolage, they had more access than did their less resilient
peers to supportive teachers, clergy, neighbors, and
other caring adults outside thefamily.
Neighborhoods and communities can provide additional or compensatory nurturance to youth, specific
expectations and norms for youth behavior, opportunities for young people to feel valued and valuable, and
vehicles for youth to occupy their time with (Clark,
1988) high-yield leisure activities. The negative effects
of poor or violent neighborhoods, for example, can be
at least partially overcome through microprocesses
such as effective childrearing practices, in which parents set strict boundaries on youth time and behavior
(DuRant, Cadenhead, Pendergrast. Slavens. & Linder,
1994). Macroprocesses such as a higher proportion of
affluent neighbors that youth may experience in poor
but not extremely poor neighborhoods have beenshown
to have a positive effect on school completion, especially for boys (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan. Klebanov. &
Sealand. 1993; Duncan, 1994).
As Colenlan (1974) wrote a generation ago, one of
the major mechanisms of developmental influence is
adult-youth interactions through which "skills, culture.
ideas. and information is transmitted" (p. 132). How
young people understand what it means and what it
takes to be productive and civically engaged citizens.
as well as their belief in themselves as people who can
achieve those goals, depends to a large extent on the
cumulative influences of all the adult role models and
connections they have. Indeed, the very experience of
feeling that one has no meaningful role in the wider
community has been cited as a root cause of many
problems among youth (Nightingale & Wolverton,
1993).
Applications of the varied concepts of community
are now common in a number of applied areas, including alcohol and other drug prevention (Hawkins &
Catalano. 1992). student learning and achievement
(Comer, 1997; Epstein, 1996). and health promotion
(Walberg, Reyes. Weissberg. & Kuster. 1997). A common theme running through these community-based
theoretical and action formulations is the assumption
that child and adolescent well-being requires the engagement and participation of multiple community
forces and sectors. Recent studies have helped to detine
several of the dimensions of this necessary engagement.
The initial publication of the National Longitudinal
Study of Adolescent Health (Resnicket al.. 1997) concluded that youth connectedness to multiple support
networks such as family, school. and community serve
as an important protective factor across multiple domains, including emotional health, violence, substance
use, and sexuality.
In an analysis of the variability of violent crime in
343 Chicago neighborhoods, Sampson, Raudenbush,
and Earls (1997) suggested that the level of social
cohesion among neighbors, combined with the level of
shared commitment to take action when an understanding of the common good is threatened, is strongly
linked to rates of violence, beyond what is accounted
for by controls for demographic factors like income and
residential stability. What is particularly germane is that
the definition of the common good-the glue that
unites neighbors in shared purpose and action-has to
do with the welfare of neighborhood children.
Community and the Cultural Context
Community as an analytical and applied construct
holds high promise. However, intentional efforts to
mobilize and sustain the engagement of multiple community systems and energy face considerable obstacles
(Center for the Study of Social Policy, 1995; U.S.
General Accounting Office, 1995). Community is, of
course, acomplex construct that occasionally is touted
as apanaceafor most social and human problems. Some
of this potential overextension of the concept may be
due to the relatively recent efforts to conceptualize the
dimensions and dynamics of community that inform
human development. Some of the current preoccupation with community may reflect a growing despair
about the efficacy of more historical approaches to
changing problematic trends in child and adolescent
health outcomes, which typically viewed the individual child or adolescent as the appropriate target of
change (Dryfoos, 1990). What this situation suggests
is a cultural readiness for community-based approaches to human development and a demand to
deepen the inquiry about how knowledge of the influence of community can be translated into effective
community change efforts.
Thisarticledescribes thedevelopment and utilization
of a comprehensive community change effort designed
tocatalyze focused attention by residentsand all primary
and secondary socializing systems to sh.engthen core
developmental processes over which the people and
institutions of a community have significant control.
This work includes the formalion and dissemination of
two theoretical constructs: developmental assets and
asset-buildingcommunity. Beforedescribing this work.
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BENSON. LEFFERT. SCALES. & BLYTH
we outline some of the features of the cultural context
that signal rupture i n key community dynamics. They
are dynamics that, if repaired or renewed, may hold
promise for advancing the constructive role of community i n child and adolescent development. Unless they
are addressed, they also represent obstacles to community-building. Accordingly, they frame part of the intellectual foundation guiding our formulation o f assetbuilding communities.
This brief analysis focuses on extant or emerging
cultural themes that potentially undermine thecapacity
of family. other socializing systems, and the residents
of a city to create and sustain a vibrant developmental
infrastructure, which, for the sake of this argument,
includes sustained community commitment, both formal and informal, to placing children and adolescents
at the center of civic life. Doing so requires norms.
commitments, and forms of engagement not now typical i n American communities. The following are some
o f the factors that may interfere.
cross-national comparisons, that community supports
for families are strained or, too often. absent. One factor
has been labeled the privatization o f families, the expectation, partially grounded in current public attitudes, that the family has sole or dominant responsibility for the care of children. Furstenberg (1991) has
suggested that this is a radical departure from more
historically pervading social norms in which parents
were understood to be representatives of the larger
society: "Other adults i n the community are no longer
relied upon to supervise and sponsor children" (p. 253).
Other trends interfering with the natural capacity of
community tosupportfamiliesmay include@) changes
i n the workforce that lessen the availability o f neighborhood adults during the workday; (b) patterns o f
social mobility that cause some families to enter communities without known or easily accessible support
systems; and (c) consonant with civic disengagement,
a growing national predilection for adults to disconnect
from traditional affiliations and memberships, some o f
which, as i n the case of religious communities, can
provide networks of support.
Isolation o f Families
The family typically is thought of as the primary
agent of socialization. For families to operate out o f
strength, considerable societal and community engagement is necessary. Theseconnectionscan enhance
family functioning in a variety of ways, from information transmission and support to reinforcing the cultural importance and status o f effective parenting. Additionally, family capacity is strengthened when
partnerships of mutual support and trust unite around
shared goals family, school, youth organizations.
neighborhoods, and other socializing agents. Finally.
public policy ought to be in place toassistcommunities
in lhese support functions. The "goal of society should
be to provide families with the support-including
places, time, stability. status, recognition, beliefs, customs, and actions-that will enable them to establish
the relationships and the environment necessary for
healthy child development" (Bronfenbrenner &
Neville, 1994, p. 18).
Theoretically, thc family has high potential to promote developmental strengths. But even the best of
families cannot optimize this development without the
active assistance of other sectors. Comparing communities with high rates o f healthy youth to communities
with lowerrates,Blyth and Leffert( 1995) demonstrated
that the factors differentiating the two kinds of communities are associated less with how youth perceive their
families than with how they were connected to other
socializing systems.
A n extended exploration o f the extent to which
this society enhances family functioning is beyond
the scope of this article. However, there is ample
evidence, from trend studies in the United States to
Civic Disengagement
Currently, one of the most discussed phenomena
influencing the workings o f community is "the disappearance of social capital and civic engagement in
America" (Putnam, 1996, p. 34). Healthy society, at
least i n Western terms, requires the mobilization o f
social networks and social norms to support the pursuit
o f shared goals (social capital) and the meaningful
participation of citizens i n building and being community (civicengagement).In the fieldsof politicalscience
and public affairs, the suppression o f social capital and
civicengagement arewidely documentedand discussed
as positive explanations for historical downturns i n
voting behavior and as consequences of rising social
mistrust. isolation, and individualism (Benson. 1997).
I f wecan extrapolate from this literature, theconcept
o f civic engagement also i s useful for analyzing processes of child and adolescent development within a
community context. We take it as axiomatic that such
core developmental processes as the transmission of
values and standards, the provision of support, the
estahlishment of checks and balances in behavior, and
the promotion of belonging and empowerment depend
to a large extent on consistent adult presence and voice.
Funher, we suggest that these kinds of core developmental processes are promoted best when such presence
and voice is redundant, holding across many of the
contexts of child and adolescent development (e.g..
fnmily. neighborhood, public gathering places. schools.
congregations). This kind of vibrant developmental
infrastructure requires considerable civic engagement
in the lives of children and adolescents. And that, in
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BEYOND THE "VILI.AGE9'RHETORIC
turn, requires social norms favoring engagement and a
kind of self-selection by most community residents to
connect and engage.
We are not aware of a scientific literature that documents and describes what social norms about engagement in the lives of children and adolescents prevail in
thiscountry. Several lines ofresearch, however, suggest
that norms favoring disengagement are commonplace.
First. in the research on developmental assets discussed
subsequently, we found in a large aggregatesample that
certain developmental experiences that predict civic
engagement are relatively uncommon among public
school students in grades 6 through 12. These include
sustained intergenerational relationships outside of
family, theexperienceof neighborhood support, and the
perception that adults in the community value youth.
Recent public opinion poll data on adult views of children and adolescents arealso relevant here. Whenasked
to describe American youth, a majority of adults chose
negative descriptors (e.g., undisciplined, disrespectful,
unfriendly) as their initial response (Farkas & Johnson,
1997). These perceptions may function to retard engagement.
Professionalization of Care
In a rather pointed critique, McKnight (1995) described the evolution of the American service industry
and its unintended consequence of suppressing communlty social capital and engagement resources.
The most significant developmenttransforming America since World War 11 has been the growth of a
powerful service economy and its pervasive serving
institutions. Those institutions have [commoditized]
the care of community and called that substitution a
service. As citiztns have seen the professionalized
service commodity invade their communities, they
have grown doubtfulof their commoncapacity to care,
and so it is that we have become a careless sh-iety,
populated by impotent citizens and ineffectual communities dependent on the counterfeit of care called
human services. (pp. ix-x)
Intertwined with the social phenomenon of cornmoditi7ation of care is the contemporary dominance of
what is often called the deficit-reduction paradigm. In
this paradigm, research and practice are steered to naming, counting, and reducing the incidence of environmental risks (e.g., family violence, poverty, family
disintegration) and health-compromising behaviors
(e.g.. substance use. adolescent pregnancy, interpersonal violence, school dropout). This paradigm, it has
been argued, dominates the services and strategies chosen to enhance child and adolescent health and historically has driven resource allocation in federal and foundation initiatives (Benson, 1997). The point here is not
that deficit-reduction as a way of thinking and mobiliz-
ing action is misguided. But as a dominating paradigm,
it may unintentionally strengthen both the overprofessionalization of care and civic disengagement. These
processes may well be symbiotic. That is, civic disengagement and professionalized forms of addressing
child and adolescent health may feed each other. Part
of the value of the emerging line of inquiry and practice
commonly called positive youth deveiopn~entis the
naming of developmental outcomes to be promoted
through mechanisms requiring coordination and collaboration among both public sector and communitybased entities (Pittman & Cahill, 1991).
Moving beyond a problem-focused paradigm does
not mean that we do away with services and interventions. It is necessary, of course, that one address substanceabuse and adolescent pregnancy directly through
interventions and treatment. It is also necessary to address large social problems like poverty and forms of
victimization such as the increasing numbers of children and adolescents infected with, or left orphaned by,
HIV and AIDS (e.g., Levine & Stein, 1994: Michaels
& Levine, 1992). Addressing these problems through
professionals and programs is necessary, but they are
not sufficient. Positive youth development approaches
are just as necessary and should be put in the hands of
real people, in real communities. rather than solely
those of the professional service delivery systems.
Loss of Socialization Consistency
To transmit a coherent and constructive world view
to children and adolescents, primary socializing systems (e.g., family, school, youth organizations, neighborhoods. religious institutions) must provide some
semblance of consistency in message. If, for example,
we seek to nurture the value of environmental responsibility, our success is enhanced when youth are exposed to multiple settings that are symbolizing, articulating, and modeling this core value.
Price, Cioci, Penner, and Trautlein (1993) have
noted that healthy development requires youth to be
supported and surrounded by positive "webs of influence." In their view, this means not only that family.
school, and community influences are consistent in the
positive norms and opportunities they provide young
people. It also means that there are abundant connections among family, school, and community resources
in youths' lives: Parents are involved with schools,
schools work seamlessly with community resources,
and communities provide plentiful support and resources that strengthen families. The better those connections, the tighter the webs of influence and the
harder it is for youth to "fall through the cracks."
Connell. Halpern Felsher, Clifford. Crichlow, and Usinger (1995) noted that a critical element of work with
communities, particularly disadvantagedcommunities.
is to help build a consistency of values and norms, as
BBNSON. LEFFERT, SCALES. & B L Y W
well as mutual support, among the various adults in
young people's lives. Together, those resources create
a network of positive influence in which child and
adolescent development can be constructively advanced. As Scales (1996) noted:
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There is evidence that when young people seeall these
sectors of their lives delivering the same messages
about expected behavior and providing the supports to
act on these expectations. then behavior in fact becomes healthier and their risks decrease. (p. 226)
Coleman and Hoffer (1987). in their pioneering investigation of school success, reported that achievement is dramatically advanced when students are embedded in relationships and systems that articulate a
shared set of values and perspectives about schooling
and achievement. They posit that such embeddedness
is rapidly deteriorating as acoredevelopmental process,
as is seen in their analysis of the National High School
and Beyond data set.
Damon (1995) viewed polarization as a core factor
explaining the demise of consistency:
Of all the distortions in today's public conversation
about youth. the most disturbing is the unnecessary
polilrization of opinions about education and child rearing. Oppositional thinking rules theday. ... Beyond the
havoc that it wreaks with the truth, polarization mund
matters of child rearing leads to paralysis among the
groups of elders who should be mobilizing to provide
young people wilh guidance. The paralysis created by
oppositional thinking has been a main contributor to the
lack of direction that plagues so many young people
these days. To combat widespread youthful demoralization, responsible adults need to show solidarity rather
than discord with one another. (pp. 95-96)
It is our assumption that in all communities, all
people-regardless of income, political persuasion, religious ideology, or race-share some common core of
what is defined as good. Subgroups, families, and individuals may have additional perspectives that add richness beyond this common core. But the common core
must be named through a process of safe community
dialogue. Then it can becomea matter of broad and deep
intentionality to articulate, model, and symbolize this
shared commitment in all places of interaction with
youth. T o do otherwise-via silence or inconsistency-invites confusion and risks soft commitment to
the best of this culture. Some important work on reclaiming consistent messages at the community level is
now occurring (Damon. 1997).
Marginalization of Youth
Modem industriali7ation has meant that the socialization of children and youth has increasingly moved
outside of the family's sole control (Hess, Petersen, &
Mortimer. 1994). In addition, compulsory education
has been extended in most societies. Secular changes
such as those witnessed in compulsory education have
resulted in ashift in socialization function from families
to schools and other contextual sources of influence.
The transition period between childhood and adolescence has lengthened because of this longer educational
period, and adolescents are not automatically well-integrated into society (e.g., Rutter, 1980). Scholars (e.g.,
Lewin, 1939; Muuss, 1975) increasingly have described adolescents as being marginalized; young people are denied access to useful roles (Hess et al., 1994;
Nightingale & Wolverton, 1993). Coleman (1994) has
suggested that youth are kept in "'holding tanks,' so to
speak, with difficulty in moving from the holding tanks
to the productive economy" (p. 34). Indeed, adolescent
problem behaviors have been frequently attributed to
the lack of these roles (e.g.. Erikson, 1968).
To summarize, our focus has been to identify some
of the core community dynamics needed to undergird
and support community-wide intentionality and effectiveness in the important task of promoting core developmental targets. A number of interlocking processes
threaten the developmental infrastructure of a community, by which we mean citizen andsystemengagement
in the tasks of support giving, boundary setting, expectation and value transmission. competency building.
and empowerment.
This necessary but fragile developmental infrastructure is not the only infrastructure within thecommunity
needed to enhance child and adolescent well-being.
Certainly, economic infrastructures (e.g., affordable
housing, job availability, reasonable wages for work)
and service infrastructures(e.g.. treatment and intervention systems) also are instrumental in advancing human
development. Although these infrastructures are interrelnted, our work focuses on the first of these: reclaiming or strengthening the human developmental inirastructure. Moving i n this direction requires different
shategies than are frequently found. for example, in
community collaborations to strengthen service delivery (as in the case of models for the "co-location'' of
services). It could be said that our work is about triggering the co-location of core developmental processes
(e.g.. support, empowerment, value transmission, helonging). However, in a healthy community, all of these
infrastructures (developmental, economic, service)
need to be viable and effective.
The remainder of this article describes the development and utilization of two theoretical constructs in
stimulating local, community-based movements to
strengthen the developmental infrastructure. The first
of these is a framework of developmental assets. a set
of "building blocks'' that when present or promoted
appear to enhance significant developmental outcomes
among youth. This framework has a dual purpose. By
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BEYOND THE "VILL, A G E RHETORIC
framing an overarching conceptualization of essential
developmental targets, it invites theoretical and scientific scrutiny. Second, it is designed as an essential first
step in the transformation of community, providing a
language about positive development that can unite
community across political and class lines and across
socializing systems to promote the common good. The
language shift to the elements of development to be
promoted (rather than prevented) is an intentional strategy to empower individual citizens, families, neighborhoods, religious institutions. and other community actors to reenvision, claim. and act on their inherent
developmental power. The second construct to be discussed is that of asset-building community and the
strategies needed to move toward it.
The Developmental Asset Framework
The framework of developmental assets establishes
a set of benchmarks for positive child and adolescent
development, weaving together in an apriori conceptual
model a taxonomy of developmental targets requiring
both family and community engagement to ensure their
acquisition. The original configuration of 30 developmental assets was described in several publications
(Benson. 1990; Benson. 1996b; Benson. Espeland. &
Galbraith. 1994) as well as in data-based reports developed for each of 460 school districts. These reports were
based on Search Institute's Profiles of Student Life:
Atritlrdes and Behaviors, a survey designed to measure
the developmental assets. In 1996, the model was expanded to 40 developmental assets, based on analysis
of data gathered on 254,000 students, additional synthesis of child and adolescent research, and consultations with researchers and practitioners.
The Framework's intellectual foundations are rooted
in empirical studies of child and adolescent development, with additional focus on the more applied literature of prevention, protective factors, and resiliency.
How one captures this extensive scientific legacy in a
finite number of developmental targets depends on
one's definition of healthy outcomes. The &sets initially are framed around the second decade of life.
roughly spanning the middle school and high school
years. The research synthesis focused on integrating
developmental experiences that are widely known to
inform three types of health outcomes: (a) the prevention of high-risk behaviors (e.g.. substance use, violence, sexual intercourse, school dropout): (b) the enhancement of thriving outcomes (e.g., school success,
affirmation of diversity. the proactive approach to nutrition and exercise); and (c) resiliency, or the capacity
to rebound in the face of adversity.
In further delimiting the number of potential elements, we looked for developmental factors that, when
present. were particularly robust in predicting health
outcomes and for which there is evidence that their
predictive utility holds across sex. race-ethnicity, and
family income. Finally, the assets were conceived to
reflect core developmental processes. Accordingly,
they include the kinds of relationships, social experiences, social environments, patterns of interaction,
norms, and competencies over which a community of
people has considerable control. That is, the assets are
more about the primary processes of socialization than
the equally important arenas of economy, services, and
the "bricks and mortar" of acity.
The 40 developmental assets are both a theoretical
framework and a research model. Because the model is
also intended to have practical significance for the
mobilization of communities, the 40 assets are placed
in categories that have conceptual integrity and that can
be described easily to the people of a community. As
seen in Table 1, they are grouped into 20 external assets
(i.e., health-promoting features of the environment) and
20 internal assets (e.g., commitments, values, and competencies). The external assets are grouped into four
categories: (a) support, (b) empowerment. (c) boundaries and expectations, and (d) constructive use of time.
The internal assets are placed in four categories: (a)
commitment to learning. (b) positive values, (c) social
competencies, and (d) positive identity. The scientific
foundations for the eight categories and each of the 40
assets are described in more detail in Benson (1997) and
Scales and Leffert (in press).
The external assets refer to the positive developmental experiences of relationships and opportunities that
adults provide. They emerge through constant exposure
to informal interactions withcaringandprineipled adults
and peers, and they are reinforced by a larger network
of community institutions. The internal assets are competencies, skills, and self-perceptions that young people
develop gradually over time. Communities can ensure
that young people have external assets, but internal
assets do not simply occur; they evolve gradually as a
result of numerous experiences. From a community
mobilization standpoint, it is conceptually sound to organize around increasing the external assets, but the
growth of internal assets is a slower, more complex, and
idiosyncratic process of self-regulation.
The support assets cover a range of opportunities for
experiencing affirmation, approval, and acceptance,
within multiplesettings (family, intergenerational relationships, neighborhood, school). These experiences
include relational support and warm and caring environments (Scales & Gibbons. 1996: Zimmerman &
Amnkumar, 1994).
The empowerment assets represent a constellation
of factors that encourage children and adolescents to
becomeactors withincommunity, with afocuson being
valued and useful within community (Zeldin & Price,
1995).Theasset of safety isseen as an important suhtext
for empowerment.
BENSON. LEFFERT, SCALES. & B L M M
Table 1. 40 Develop!nenralAssers
k w t Type
External
Sopport
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Empowerment
Boundaries and Expectations
Conswctive Use ofrime
Internal
Commitnlent to Learning
Positive Values
Social Competencies
Positive Identity
Asset and Description
1. Fnmily suppon: Family lifepravids high levels of love and suppon.
2. Positive family communiwtion: Young penon and her ur his parent(s) communicate positively. and
young penon is willing to reek psrent(s) advice and counsel.
3. Other adult relationships: Young penon receives support from three or more non-parent adult-.
4. Caring neighborhd: Young penon experiences caring neighbors.
5. Caring schml climate: Schwl provides a caring, encouraging environment.
6. Parent involvement in schmling: Parent(s) are actively involved in helping young person succeed in
schwl
7. Community values youth: Young person perceiver that community adults value youth.
8. Youth as resources: Young people are given useful rolcs in the community.
9. Service to others: Young persan serves m the community I hrar mare per week.
10. Safety: Young penan feels safe in home, school. and the ncighborhd.
I I. Family boundaries: Family ha? clear rules and consequences and monitors the young person's
whereabauts.
12. Schwl boundaries: School provides clear mlcs and cunseqaences.
13. Neighborhood boundaries: Neighbn lake responsibility for manitoring young people's behavior.
14. Adult role models: Parent(s1 and other adults modcl positive. respansible behavior.
15. Pafiitive peer influence: Youne
best friends model oositive, reswnsible behavior.
.rrenon's
.
16. High expectations: Both parents and teachenencourage the young person to do well.
17. Creative amivitics: Youne
-.penon spends 3 or m r e hr rrer week in lessons or nractiec in music
theater. or other arts.
IS. Youth programs: Young person spends 3 or more hr per week in spons, clubs, or organizations al
school andlor in community organizations.
19. Religiour community: Young person spendr I n mxe hr per week in activities in arelidour institution.
20. Time at b m e : Young person isaut with frienm "with nothing special to dd'2or fewer nights per week.
21. Achievement motivation: Young penon is motivated to do well in school.
22. Schwl engagement: Young penon is actively engaged in lcnming.
23. Homework: Young penon repans I or more hr of homework evcry schwl day.
24. Bonding to schwl: Ynung person cares about his or her schwl.
25. Readine.for pleasure:
Youne
penon reads for lea sure 3 or more hr per week.
.
..
26. Caring: Young person places high valuc an helping other people.
27. Equality and social justice: Young person placcr high value on promoting equality and reducing
hunger and poverty.
28. Integrity: Young penon acts on convictions and stands up far her or his beliefs.
29. Honesty: Young person tells the vulh even when it is not easy.
30. Responsibility: Young person accepk and takes personal responsibility.
31. Restraint: Young penan believes it is impanant not to be scxually active or to use alcohol or other
drugs.
32. Planning and decision making: Young penon knows how to plan nhead and make choices.
33. Interpersonal competence: Young person h a empathy, sensitivity. and friendsbp skills.
34. Cultural competence: Young penon has knowledge of and comfort with people of different
cultud-ncial+thnic hackgraunds.
35. Resistance skills: Young- .penon can resist negative
peer
pressure and dangerous situations.
.
.
36. Peaceful conflia rmolution: Young peaon seeks to rcsnlve conflict nonviolently.
37. Penonal wwer: Youne
feels he or she has control over "thines that happen to me."
.person
.
38. Srlfzsterm: Young person rrpans having high self*steen~.
39. Sense of purpose: Young person repons "my life has a purpose."
40. Positive view of penanal future: Young person is optimistic about her or his personal future
E a r l y m o d e l s f o r understanding w h a t i m p a c t s adcl e s c e n t d e v e l o p m e n t focused o n t h e s i n g u l a r effects o f
t h e family e n v i r o n m e n t o n child development. R e c e n t
e x p l a n a t i o n s h a v e g o n e b e y o n d those m o d e l s a n d h a v e
s u g g e s t e d t h a t t h e s o c i a l i z a t i o n s t r a t e g i e s in t h e
b r o a d e r c o m m u n i t y a r e n o l e s s important f o r a d o l e s c e n t
d e v e l o p m e n t (e.g.,Furstenberg. 1 9 9 3 ; S a m p s o n , 1997).
As s u c h , t h e boundaries a n d expectations assets address
t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f clear a n d consistent m e s s a g e s in a
~
~
n u m b e r of different c o n t e x t s (including families) in
which adolescents a r e involved a n d t h e p r e s e n c e o f
a d u l t s a n d peers w h o model positive a n d responsible
behaviors.
The constructive u s e of t i m e assets pertains to t h e
important array o f constructive opportunities that
s h o u l d be available to a l l y o u n g people, particularly i n
t h e 10- t o 18-year-old range. Bronfenbrenner ( 1 9 7 9 )
suggested that healthy d e v e l o p m e n t s h o u l d include a
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variety of such activities. Ideally, these are settings that
connect youth to caring adults who help to nurture their
skills and capacities (e.g.. Blyth & Leffert. 1995;
Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1992;
Dub% & Snider. 1993). Religious institutions are one
of the few remaining intergenerational communities to
which youth have access. They are places of multiple
generations, with people bound together, to a greater or
lesser degree, through a shared perspective and shared
values. The congregation as an intergenerational community. however, represents potential more than reality, because most communities of faith have become as
age segregated as is the rest of society. Nevertheless.
there is an extensive scientific literature that shows that
religious participation more broadly enhances caring
for others and helps reduce multiple forms of risk-taking behavior, even after controlling for family background (e.g., Donahue & Benson, 1995).
The commitment to learning assets include a combination of personal beliefs, values, and skills known
to enhance academic success (Scales & Leffert, in
press). They include an engagement in learning activities, a sense of belonging to the school environment,
the inotivation to do well, and expectations for success
(e.g.. Eccles & Midgley, 1990; Wentzel, 1993). Commitment to learning has a number of sources. Parental
attitudes, encouragement, involvement, and modeling
are key. The quality of schooling matters, through its
formal and informal curricula. Norms that encourage
high attention to educational tasks, by peer group and
community, also are instrumental.
The six positive values assets represent prosocial
values and values of personal character (e.g., BrooksGunn & Paikoff, 1993; Chase-Lansdale, Wakschlag,
& Brooks-Gunn. 1995; Eisenberg. Miller. Shell. &
McNalley. 1991). These six reflect asignificant public
consensus on values, with some evidence that they
approximate a universal core of values within advanced technological societies. As important, there is
research evidence supporting the role of each in health
promotion (Scales & Leffert, in press).
The social competencies assets include a personal
skill set needed to deal with the myriad choices, challenges, and opportunities presented in complex societies. They generally refer to adaptive functioning in
which the individual may call on personal and environmental resources (Peterson & Leigh. 1990; Waters &
Sroufe, 1983). Social competence is thought to develop
within social contexts(lerner, 1987)and includesplanning and decision making skills, interpersonal and cultural competence, resistance skills, and the ability to
resolve conflicts peacefully (e.g.. DuBois & Hirsch,
1990; Mann. Harmoni, & Power, 1989: Zimmerman.
Sprecher. Langer. & Holloway. 1993).
Identity formation is a critical task of adolescent
development (Erikson. 1968). As such, the positive
identity assets focus on young people's views of thern-
selves in relation to their future, self-esteem, and sense
of purpose and power (e.g., Diener & Dweck, 1980;
Garmezy, 1993; Harter, 1990).
Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes a n d
Behaviors
Since 1989, Search Institute has conducted numerous studies of 6th-lo 12th-grade students in public and
private schools across the country. The first aggregate
report. The Troubled Journey: A Portrait of 6th-12th
Grade Youtli (Benson, 1990), based on survey data
from 112 school districts, documented the shape of
developmental assets, risk behaviors, and their interrelations among 47.000 students
The 156-item survey instrument, Profiles of Student
Life: Attitudes and Behaviors (A&B: Search Institue.
1996), measures each of the 40 developmental assets
and a number of other constructs, including developmental deficits, thriving indicators, and high-risk behaviors. The high-risk behaviors include substance
abuse (alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs), sexual intercourse, antisocial behavior, violence, school failure,
attempted suicide, and gambling. Many of the high-risk
behavior items are drawn from federally funded national research studies.
The survey is administered anonymously in a classroom setting. The instructions are standardized. Students place completed surveys in an envelope, which is
then sealed andmailed to Search Instituteforprocessing
and generation of a school district report. Typically,
school district studies represent a complete census of
all 6th- to 12th-grade students attending school on the
day the survey is administered. It should be noted that
school districts self-select into these studies, often as
part of a community strategy to mobilize around the
developmental asset framework. The report developed
for each city often becomes a widely shared public
document framing a community-wide call to action.
T o communicate effectively with diverse community audiences, the measurement of each asset is simplified into a single percentage of youth who have the
asset. We have found that this dichotomous approach
to reporting, which we recognize affects reliability, is
much more understandable to the citizens of a community than are reports based on scale means. Most important, it also allows for a very simple summation of the
average number of assets youth within a community
possess that, as described subsequently, can be used to
predict at-risk behavior. Each of the assets is measured
by one or more survey items, with a minimum of five
response options. These items are combined and then
convened into a binary variable for each asset."
'~s~chornetricproperties of the survey will br
forthcoming article in this serics.
discussed in a
BENSON. LEFPERT. SCALES, & BLYTH
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Sample Description
The sample for the series o f studies we report here
and in subsequent articles i n this series represents an
aggregate of 99,462 youth i n Grades 6 through 12 in
public or alternative schools from 213 U.S. cities and
towns who took the survey during the 1996-1997
academic year. The sample reported here included only
thosecommunities whohad surveyed at least onegrade
from Grades 6 through 9 and one from Grades 10
through 12. Not all communities administered the survey to students i n all Grades 6 through 12: a comparison of schools that surveyed all grades with those that
did not survey all grades revealed a few minor differences. Thus, data pertaining to the entire sample are
reported here.
The sample was made up of approximately equal
numbers o f boys and girls (49,138 and 49.620, respectively) and included 40% sixth to 8th graders and 60%
9th to 12th graders. The race or ethnicity of the sample
was predominantly Caucasian (R6%), with 5% multiracial, 4% Latino-Latina, and 2% each African American, American Indian, and Asian-Pacific Islander. The
sample developed in the 1997-1998 school year will
add additionalurban strength tothis aggregateddataset.
Approximately 25% o f the sample lived in what would
be described as the country or on a farm, about 34% in
small towns under 10,000 people and about 35% in
towns or small cities with populations from 10,000 to
250.000 residents. Only 4% of youth in this aggregate
sample were from major metropolitan areas with a
population greater than 250.000. Ten percent or fewer
of adolescents' parents had failed to graduate from high
school. Nearly 30% of both mothers and fathers had
graduated from high school, and another 40% had
graduated from college or graduate school. Thus, the
sample overrepresents Caucasian youth from smaller
cities and towns, whose parents have higher-than-average formal education. Although this aggregate sample was not nationally representative. i t was, nevertheless, large and diverseand provides a sense o f how
youth i n a significant number of communities describe their lives.
Given the overrepresentation of Caucasian youth
from small towns, with higher-than-average parental
education, it is likely that our data underestimate
youths' risk behaviors and overestimate their assets.
Moreover, the communities that have asked Search
Institute to conduct the surveys are arguably socially
organized and give a high priority to youth development, probably a higher priority than does the average
community. Thus, our data probably understate the
degree o f concern we ought to have about the developmental infrastructure for most youth, particularly
among the economically disadvantaged.
The mean number o f assets based on an index of
0-40 binaries for this aggregate sample is 18.0. By
grade. the mean decreases from 2 1.5 in Grade 6 to 17.2
in Grade 12. Boys average three assets fewer than girls
(16.5 and 19.5, respectively). Means for communities
range from 16.5 to 20.0 across all 213 cities. A particularly imponant finding is that themeannumberof assets
i s relatively similar when comparing students in different community sizes (communities ranging i n size from
under 10.000 to those of 250,000 or more). Although
there is variability between communities. it is less than
expected and reinforces the sense that all communities
have significant proportions o f youth who lack key
developmental building blocks i n their lives.'
Family income was not measured in the survey.
However, in astudy done in Minneapolis, we looked at
how the developmental assets vary as a function o f the
city's I I planning districts, which differ substantially
in average family income. property values, and resources. Across these I 1 geographical areas o f the city.
the average number o f 40 assets ranged from 16.7 to
20.1 (Benson. 1996a). Not surprisingly, as average
wealthrises,assets rise. But putting this in context, note
that the difference is only about three developmental
assets when comparing the least and most afiluent
planning districts.
Table 2 shows the percentage o f youth possessing
each o f the assets by grade within sex. Although these
data are cross-sectional, we observed decreases i n reports o f many of the assets over the developmental
period from 6th to 12th grades, particularly between 6th
and 7th and between 7th and 8th grades. There appears
to be a steeper decline among some o f the assets as
compared to others. For example, among 6th-grade
boys, 45% report that their parents are involved i n their
schooling; this percentage declines. consistent with
other reports (e.g.. Eccles & Harold, 1993). to only 15%
by 12th grade. Similarly, 44% of 6th-grade girls report
that their parentsare involved in theirschooling,declining to 19% among I2th-grade girls. Because of the large
sample size. separate analyses o f variance (ANOVAs)
examining the Sex x Gradeeffects of these differences
revealed either significant main effects of sex, grade, or
an interaction of sex and grade on almost all of the
assets. The effect sizes (Cohen. 1988) comparing sex.
grade. and their interaction generally range from small
to moderate with a few of the interactions yielding a
large effect size.
Relation o f Developmental Assets to
Behavior
As part o f the data report, communities received a
breakdownofthepercentofstudentsfalling withineach
level of assets. Based on the aggregate sample, these
%'he variability between communities and the meaning of that
variability for community change stnte*es will he elahonted further i n n fonhcorning article in this series.
BEYOND THE "VILLAGE. R H E M R l C
percentages are as follows: Twenty percent have 0-10
assets,42% have 11-20assets,30% have21-30assets.
and 8% have 31-40 assets. These percentages, when
yoked with the association of asset levels to behaviors,
become a significant information source for the community mobilization process.
Table 3 shows the percentage of 6th- to 12th-grade
youth who report that they engage in patterns of risk
behaviors by their level of assets. The tablealso shows
how we have defined each risk behavior pattern. Note
that for each of the 10 variables, the percentage of
students reporting risk behavior patterns declines as the
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Tahle 2. Assels by Grade Within Sex Among an Aggregate Sample of Youth Survqed in the 1996-1997 School Year
Total
External Assets
Suppon
I . Family Suppon
2. Positive Family Communication
3. Other Adult Relationships
4. Caring Neighborhwd
5. Cuing School Climate
6. Parenl Involvement i n Schooling
Empowerment
7. Community Values Youth
8. Youth as Resaurccs
9. Service to Others
10. Safety
Boundaries and Expenalions
II. Family Boundaries
12. Schml Boundaries
13. Neighborhood Boundaries
14. Adult Role Models
15. Positive Peer Influence
16. High Expectations
Time Usc
17. Creative Activities
18. Youth Prognrns
19. Religious Community
20. Time at Home
Internal Assets
Educational Commitment
21. Achievement Motivation
22. School Engagement
23. Homework
24. Bonding to School
25. Reading for Pleawre
Valnes
26. Caring
27. Equaliry and Social Justice
2X Inlegdry
29. Honrsly
30. Responsibility
31. Restraint
Social Competencies
32. Planning and Decision Making
33. Inelpersonal Competence
34. Cultural Competence
35. Resistance Skills
36. Peaceful Conflict Resolution
Positive Identity
37. Penonnl Power
38. Self-Esteem
39. Sense of Purpose
40. Positive View of Pemnal Fulure
Nnre N = 99.462.
BENSON. LEFfERT. SCALES. & BLYTH
Table 3. Relarion oJAssers lo Parferns oJHigh-Risk Behavror Among on Aggregate Smnple of 6th-12rlr-Crude Yourh S u r v q ~ ~ d
During rhr 19961997School Year
Righ-Risk Behavior Patterns
&lo
11-20
21433
Definition
Asset3
Assels
Asets
3 1 4
Assets
H a used alcohol t h m or more times in
the paql month or gat drunk once or
more in the pa512 weeks
Smokes one or more cigarettes every day
or uses chewing tobacco frequenlly
Uscd illicit drugs three or mum rimes in
the pact year
H* had sexual intercourse t h e or mom
limes in lifctime
I s frequently depmssed andlor h s
attempted suicide
Has been involved in three or mom
incidents ofshoplifting. trouble with
police, or vandalism in the past year
Has engaged in lkor more acts of
fighting, hilting. injuring a person.
carrying or using a weapon. or
threatenink physical harm in the past
53
30
I1
3
45
21
6
I
42
19
6
I
33
21
10
3
40
25
13
4
52
23
7
I
61
35
16
6
43
19
7
2
42
24
10
4
34
23
13
6
Category
Alcohol
Tobacco
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Illicit
Drugs
Sexual Inlercaursr
Depression-S~ticide
Antisocial Rehavior
Violence
School Prohlems
Driving and Alcohol
Gnmbling
% With High-Rbk Patterns
year
Has skipped school 2 or more days in the
pat month anlVar has helow n C
avenze
Har driven after drinking or ridden with
a drinkinp driver Ihree or mare times
in the past year
Hagamhled lhrecarmaretimesinthep~~t
year
level o f assets rises, suggesting a rather omnibus connection between asset levels and risk reduction i n multiple behavioral arenas. W e have observed these patterns across grade, sex, race-ethnicity, family
composition, and i n all communities studied. Forexample, the risk behavior pattern o f alcohol use is defined
as having used alcohol three or more times in the paqt
month or gotten drunk one or more times i n the past two
weeks. Among youth i n this sample who report few
assets (0-10). 57% also report this pattern of alcohol
use. Alcohol use is reported less frequently among
youth with higher assets, falling to only 3% among
youth i n the highest asset group (3 1-40).
Table 4 shows the percentage of 6th- to 12th-grade
youth w h o report positive behavion and attitudes (i.e.,
thriving indicators) by their level ofassets. The opposite
pattern from that which was seen i n Table 3 can beseen
here, i n that youth whoreport fewerassetsare lesslikely
to also report each o f the thriving indicators. For example, we define that a youth maintains good health if lie
or she pays attention to healthy nutrition and exercise.
Among youth i n this samplewhoreportfewassets.25%
repon that they pay attention to healthy nutrition and
exercise. Healthy nutrition and exercise i s reported
more frequently among youth with higher assets. with
88% ofyoulh i n the highestassetcategory reporting that
148
they maintain good health. These t w o tables, based o n
the aggregate sample, m i m i c the patterns seen i n each
o f the 2 13 separate city or school district reports. These
relations frame p a n of the public presentation of the
developmental asset framework.'
I t must be emphasized, however, that the data displayed in Tables 3 and 4 are correlational in nature, and
the assets are not necessarily causal influences. For
example, i t is possible that these positive assets could
be consequences of an adolescent's refusal o f alcohol
ratherthan the assetscausing risk reduction per se(e.g.,
Masten & Coatsworth, 1998). Although these patterns
are correlational and must be tested i n research designs
that may elucidate more causal inferences, i t is still
striking to note that this pattern has been observed
consistently across the many communities in which we
have surveyed youth.'
''The relations among aacls. risk behaviors, and thriving indicators will he ciabonlcd runhur in fanhcoming vniclrs in this series.
In rcpssion analyses done to date. we found that the development~l
assel lwnework lends toerpl~nrignificml
and meaningful variance
i n lhr hikh-risk palterns and thriving indicators.
'we have two longitudinal sludics cumntly undenvvy in which
we hope lo provide a d < e F r understandingorthe relations ohscrved
i n this Iwge-scnlecross-rrotianal wnlyris.
BEYOND THE "VILLAGE' RHETORIC
Tahle 4. Relalion ofAsseo lo Thriving lndicarors Among an Aggregate Santple of6rh-12th-Grade Yourh Surveyed L)uring rhe
1996-IYY7School Year
% With Thriving Indimtors
Thriving Indicators
0-10
Category
Succeeds i n Schwl
Helps Others
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Maintains Good Health
Overcorns Adversity
Delinilion
Assets
11-20
Awe8
21-M
31-40
Assets
Assfts
Get%mostly A's on repon card
Helps friends or neighhon I or ma= hr per
week
Places high imponmce an getting to know
peoplr of other racial-ethnic p u p s
Pays attention to healthy nutrition and
excrciw
Has been a leader of n gmup or organization
in the lart 12 months
Avoids doing things lhnt are dangerous
Saves money for something special rather
thm spending it all right away
Does not rive uo when thincr eel difficult
The observation that assetshaveacumulativeor"pileup" effect such as that shown inTables 3 and4 adds to
emergingliteratureon thisphenomenon.Many studies
haveaddressedtheeffectsofrisksandprotectivefactors
;IS moderators of developmental outcomes (e.g., Garmezy. 1985; Hawkins, Catalano. & Miller, 1992: Jessor, 1991; Jessor, Donovan, & Costa, 1991). Such
studies have suggested that problem behaviors tend to
covary (Elliott. 1993; Garmezy. 1985; lessor et al..
199 1 )and tllatsomeriskfactorspotentiatetheeffectof
other risk factors (lessor, Van Den Bos, Vanderryn.
Costa. & Turbin. 1995; Rutter, 1979). These studies
have alsoshown the cumulative impact of risk factors
oninvolvementinproblem behaviors.However,fewer
studies have highlighted thecumulativeeffect of protective factors in thereductionofproblem hehaviorsor
on the promotion of positive behaviors (Jessor, 1993).
Jessorandcolleagues(1essoretal.. 1995)reported that
the higher the number of protective factors, the
lower the involvement in problem behaviors. In addition. lessor demonstrated that, in interaction with
risk factors, protective factors can moderate problem
behaviors. These findings were consistent within
cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. and the
model worked sufficiently across sex and ethnic
group differences.
Extrapolation to Children
As communities began to work on strengthening the
developmental foundation for youth using the asset
framework as a guide, it became clear that a congruent
framework for younger children was needed. It was
easy for people to see that the developmental assets
framework for adolescents built upon a foundation
established in childhood and that the asset language
might offer a helpful lens for understanding issues
pertaining to development during the first decade of
life. To develop the asset framework for children from
birth to age I I, we consulted child and youth practitioners and the developmental research literature. In
this way theemerging framework would begrounded
firmly in what is known about healthy development but
would also communicate clearly to parents and practitioners (Leffert. Benson. & Roehlkepartain. 1997). In
essence, we used the existing framework as a way of
capturing what the assets might look like in younger
children, and as such, the framework represents a
preliminary step in conceptualizing the developmental assets for children from birth to age 11. W e have not
developed tools to measure these assets in children, and
consequently, the development of this downward extension of the asset framework is exploratory in nature.
Figure 1 shows the framework of developmental
assets and its hypothesized progression from infancy
through adolescence across four developmental age
periods: (a) infancy-toddler. (b) preschool, (c) middle childhood or the elementary school age, and (d)
adolescence (Leffert et al.. 1997). As can be seen. we
have extended the external-internal distinction as it
continues to offer a way of clearly understanding the
asset categories, but it is not directly applicable to
infants and young children. Our review of the literature suggests that during infancy and early childhood
all of the assets would externally surround the child
through important relationships, with the responsibility for building the assets in the hands of parents
and other caregivers. Ideally, infants and young children are cared for in a sensitive and responsible
mnnner, and they are exposed to many situations that
build assets.'
'A c o m p l e ~descripticm of
the devclopmntal assets framework
for children can be found in Leffert el al. (1997).
149
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Asset-Building Community
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Inherent i n the developmental assets framework and
the descriptive reseach findings i t generates are a set
o f ideas crucial for beginning community change efrorts. Local reports on the developmental asset framework intend to promote a set o f shared understandings
with both conceptual and motivational import. Someof
these shared understandings are:
The developmental assets begin to frame a territory o f positive humandevelopment that benefit all children and adolescents;
Middle school and high school students (nationally and i n thecommunity) typically experience
less than half o f these developmental assets;
The developmental assets serve as important
protective and thriving factors;
The developmental assets need to be nurtured
by the community at large, not just by families
or institutions.
Understanding how communities can activate their
influence and more intentionally shape local developmental infrastructures now frames much o f Search Institute's work. T o a considerable extent, our work on
defining the dynamics o f asset-building community and
the strategies that promote meaningful and long-term
community change i s a work in progress. integrating
theory, field research, and evaluation i n an ongoing
effort to expand and refine the vision and change strategies (Benson. 1997). This work is informed by: (a) the
synthesis of a wide variety of literature (e.g.. community development. organizational and systems change,
social movements); (b) the ongoing efforts o f over 200
communities nationwide that have launched, or are i n
the process o f launching, asset-building initiatives
(most have emerged since 1995); (c) a subset o f pilot
communities studied more intensively; (d) longitudinal
studies recently begun i n three Minnesota and Colorado
communities that are designed to track changes i n developmental assets and the strategies that account for
these changes; and (e) forums involving experts i n
social and community change.
Defining Community
The term c o ~ ~ ~ m u nhas
i t y rich and varied connotations and a growing number o f meanings and usages.
We define cor~~mttr~iry
largely as a geographic area
rather than as a community o f association or as one's
perceived community. I t refers typically to a town.
city. or municipality, defined by school district
boundaries. We chose this approach because much o f
the socialization energy that can be mobilized for
children and adolescents occurs within geographically
overlapping systems o f schools, neighborhoods. youth
organizations, parks, and religious institutions within a
municipality.
O f course. community is more complicated
(Wynn, Richman, Rubenstein. & Littel. 1987). When
systems of socialization overlap (as when school
districts draw students from multiple towns), community must be thought oias several cities, a county.
or other area. I n large urban centers, the geography
that defines a particular child's community might be
a neighborhood or section o f the city where most
socialization is experienced.
Community, then, i n this work is a geography of
influence and has definable boundaries that can be
plotted for most children. However, socialization influences can easily stretch across these boundaries. Television i s a prime example o f an influence that crosses
community boundaries. Thus, definingcommunity as a
neighborhood may have utility i n that the most influential relationship may be i n the child's proximal environment, but a broader definition, going even beyond
geography, may he necessary to fully capture the comprehensive influences that affect assets.
Just as commurlih has many different connotations.
the term kealrhy co~nmunihis used by many disciplines
and can have variousemphases.We focus thatemphasis
primarily on geographic communities that effectively
organizesocial life (i.e.. its residents and its systems) to
consistently promote developmental assets among
young people. h.om birth through age 20.
Healthy communities for children and adolescents
are places with a shared commitment. They are distinguished as relational and intergenerational places that
emphasize support, empowerment, boundaries, and opportunities and a shared commitment to developing
internal assets. Developmental assets become a language o f the common good, and the commitment to
engage citizens and systems pursuing this common
good is visible, long term, and inclusive. I t is important
to note that this is a vision o f the developmental infrastructure. As such, it must be recognized that there also
areeconomic and service infrastructures that are needed
to address additional immediate community concerns
such as jobs, safety, and racial and socioeconomic
inequities.
As communities organize to become asset-building places, the health and well-being o f youth should
improve. Work is currently underway to test this
hypothesis. We also expect the effect to be bidirectional; healthy youth also enhance the welfare of the
community.
Following are some o f the images we should be able
to observe in healthy communities. as contrasted with
communities not engaged i n collective asset building:
A l l residents build caring relationships with children and adolescents and express this caring through
dialogue, listening. commending positive behavior.
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RENSON. LEFFERTS C A L E S , & BLYTH
knowing their names, acknowledging their presence,
involving them in decision making and doing things
with them.
Neighborhoods develop intentional mechanisms
to name, know. and engage children and adolescents in
constructive ways.
Families elevate asset development to top priority
for their own children and their children's friends.
Religious institutions mobilize their capacity for
naturally occurring intergenerational relationships, parent education, value developmen!, quality structured
opportunities, and service to the community.
Schools place priority on becoming caring environments for all students, provide additional opportunities for the nurture of values deemed crucial by the
community, strengthen cocurricular activities, and use
connection to parents to escalate parental involvement
and reinforce the importance of family attention to
assets.
Youth organizations train leaders and volunteers
in asset-building strategies and provide a continuum o f
opportunities for healthy relationships with adults and
peers.
Businesses that employ teenagers address the assets o f support, boundaries, commitment to learning,
values, and social competencies. Employers develop
family-friendly policies and provide mechanisms for
employees to build relationships with youth.
Through policy, training, and resource allocation, city government moves asset development to
top priority.
Ultimately, rebuilding and strengthening the developmental infrastructure i n a community i s not a program run by professionals. I t i s a movement o f people
and systems that arises from and continually recreates
a community-wide sense o f common purpose and creates a normative culture i n which all residents are
expected by virtue of their membership i n thecommunity to promote the positive development of children
and adolescents.
Core Principles
The classic tenets of community-building and community development (Mattessich & Monsey, 1997;
Stone. 1996) and child and adolescent development
(e.g.. Wynn, Richman, Rubinstein, & Littel. 1987) are
relevant to this complicated work o f understanding and
promoting community change. Hence, our conceptual
~nndelo f change includes a series o f core tenets. The
first is the classic principle of collaboration. A l l socinlizing systems in a town or city must work together in
an asset-huilding community. These include youth organizations and religious institutions, as well as neighborhoods, schools. and families. These all have poten-
tial for directly promoting developmental assets, and
success of an initiative will depend on how well each
system is activated, trained, and supported i n its efforts
(Benson. 1997).
At the same time, there are sectors within a community whose influence i s more indirect but whoseparticipation in a community-wide spirit of responsibility i s
still necessary. One such sector i s local government.
which, through policy, resource allocation, and advocacy, can advance the power of socializing systems.
Others include community education, libraries, health
care providers, higher education, and the media, each
o f which has an important teaching and mobilization
role (Benson. 1997).
The business sector has both direct and indirect
influence. Direct influencecan beexercised through its
support for and mentoring of adolescent employees.
Indirect influence i s exercised though policies that
enhance asset-building such as family-friendly policies
and paid release time for employees to serve as mentors.
volunteers, or coaches. In addition, the business and
corporate sectorcan play an important role (along with
other philanthropic entities) i n providing resources (i.e..
financial and in-kind) to support the community mobilization process (Benson, 1997).
The second principle is ronlprelrerrsiveness. I t refers
to the understanding that social issues are interconnected. Hence, change is facilitated when the effort
seeks to alter all the interconnected pms. For example,
economic revitalization requires strategies to simultaneously tackle housing, employment, wages, job training, and education. I n the case of child and adolescent
development, comprehensiveness means, i n part, that
threats to health such as adolescent pregnancy, alcohol
and other subst~mceuse, school failure, and antisocial
behavior cannot be solved individually. Rather. they
must be seen as symptoms with pervasive underlying
causes, which can be described as adecay o f the developmental infrastructure (Benson, 1997).
Comprehensiveness also has two additional meaninzs i n this context.
1. An asset-building initiative should seek to promote the larger territory of all 40developmental assets.
not just a subset o f them. This reflects the cumulative
nature o f the developmental assets.
2. Asset-building efforts necessitate comprehensive strategies, i n which policy, programs. and human
relationships are integrated to create a daily web of
asset-buildins for all children and adolescents.
The third principle i s broad and sustained civic
engagenrent. I n building healthy developmental communities, the critical actors are the residents who live
or work within the boundaries of community. They
have considerable power and capacity to promote developmental assets. The role of traditional leadership
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BEYOND THE "VILLAGE" RHETORIC
(e.g.. policy makers, public officials, and other civic
leaders) is to support a movement of the people, not
10 control or dictate the shape and direction of the
movement.
There are many stakeholders who must be actively
engaged. Because a major part o f the vision is tochange
the way in which adults and systems connect to children
and adolescents, i t i s essential that a broad spectrum of
people are engaged in shaping the community's vision,
including parents. senior citizens, low-income residents, as well as business and organizational representatives. T h i s principle calls for inclusiveness, but
there remains a real challenge to community organizers to do this in a way that avoids tokenism and
marginalization.
The fourth principle is meaningful youth involve,,tent. The ultimate "clients" or stakeholders are children and adolescents. I t is likely that the long-term
success o f asset-building initiatives will leap forward to
the degree that youth are partners with adults. On some
things. youth may know more than adults. For example.
you111 involvement, participation. and leadership will
help to define the nature and dynamics o f effective
support, transform a city's structured activities to become more engaging and enticing, and transform social institutions into places of care, consistency, and
empowerment.
The fifth principle i s the capacie for lofrg-term
c/~u~r,qe.
Becoming an asset-building community, just
like becoming a socially just or economically vibrant
community, requires a commitment to stay with the
change process over a long period of time. The status
quo has becomedeeply entrenchedand is reinforced by
decades o f attitudes. values. and behaviors regarding
who is responsible for meeting the needs o f children
(i.e.. only parents and professionals) and who is responsible for srrlving community problems (i.e., government). These norms w i l l not be transformed easily or
quickly (Benson. 1997).
A number o f obstacles get i n the way o f long-term
change. The nature o f government and philanthropic
organizzltions is such that communities are called to
action one year to prevent alcohol and other drug use.
Then the interest shifts to adolescent pregnancy, then to
school reform, then to preventing violence. The difficulty o f institutionalizing thecommitment to change i n
elected or appointed officials is another obstacle to
long-term change. Their interests are too often mercurial and expedient. I n addition, such leaders come and
go, along with a concomitant shift i n civic priorities.
The diHicult nature of change itself i s also an obstacle
to long-term change. This is particularly true when i t
involves the issues and norms in society. I t requires
dedicated. painstaking. and ongoing attention to examining and chnllenging (often unspoken) cultural norms
and expectations, and how they are expressed concretely i n attitudes and behaviors.
Long-term change will be possible when a passion
for becoming an asset-building community becomes
deeply grounded i n social norms and the self-definitions o f the residents. I t is the people (neighbor, parent.
parishioner, shop owner, coach, teacher) who can sustain a movement across many incarnations of leadership. These same people can also begin to embody the
shifting norms and encourage their peers todo the same.
Thus, the vision for asset-building communitiesemphasizes the importance o f the individual transformation
and action alongside organizational commitment and
actions (Benson, 1997).
The sixth principle germane to building developmental assets is the need for both depth arid breadth.
Depth refers to repeated or redundant experience. For
example, research show that thevalueof family support
is enhanced by its frequency and quality. Although
evidence i s less clear, the positive developmental consequences o f neighborhood caring are enhanced when
it is experienced long-term with the participation o f
multiple actors. (See review i n Scales & Leffert, i n
press.) Breadth pertains to the reach or scope o f planned
change within a community and on signals, based on
the research discussed earlier, that most children and
adolescents within a community lack many of the developmental assets. By extension, the target for building developmental assets is the universe ofchildren and
adolescents within a community.
Conceptual Model of Change
Since 1994, more than 200 cities have begun or are
beginning the planning process o f intentional community-wide initiatives to unleash long-term citizen and
system commitment and action. Those cities and towns
are using the developmental assets paradigm to unify
community sectors around a shared vision and to empower both individual citizens and multiple socializing
systems. Most o f these initiatives emerge on their own
and most become part of a network supported with
national and regional conferences, print and video resources. and expanding training services and consulting. These cities include urban centers like Seattle.
Albuquerque, Minneapolis, and Orlando, many middle-sizecities, as well as suburbs and rural communities
in 32 states.
This community change process emphasizes high
levels of grassroots engagement, cross-sector leadership, and sustained attention to public awareness and
civic engagement. The models o f change and of evolving evaluation are grounded i n the traditions of social
movements, community empowerment, and capacitybuilding. This rapidly expanding arena of inquiry and
action involves a number of elements, including
planned change models and a long-term focuson studying the dynamics of multiple asset-building initiatives.
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RENSON, LEFFERT. SCALES. PL BLYTH
Cumn>unity Change
Pmilivc Child and i\dulcscen~ Developn~ent
I
Figure 2. Conceptual model for strenflheninp community developmental infra$lmctures. Frnm All kids are our kids: Wl,of cornmunifbsmust do fo rake coring and re~pnnsihlechildren and odolescen1.v (p. 122), hy P. L. Rcruon. 1997, San Francbra, CA: Jmwey.
Rass. Copyright 1YW by Josscy-Bm. Adopted with permission.
Our goal is to inform best practices for planning,
launching, and sustaining initiatives as well as to pinpoint replicable dynamics that alter the actions of citizens and socializing systems.
Figure 2 presents n working model that unites many
of the points described i n this article. It begins with a
set of targets and combines these with a series o f
recommended community change strategies. These include a sustained commitment to public education and
awareness-building in which the concept, theory, and
implications o f thedevelopmental assets framework are
communicated to all residents through multiple dissemination mechanisms. A number of resources have
been developed to help catalyze and suppon those local
communications systems. Current research efforts at
Search Institute include investigations of effective dissemination mechanisms for urban families disconnected from mainstream media and related forms o f
traditional comniunication7 and the development of
strategies, based on emerging public health models. for
moving individuals from awareness to action (Andreasen. 1995).
The model hypothesizes that the effective and sustained implementation of these systems of communica-
' ~ h c s ereswcheffons rn undcnvay with suppon from the Annie
E. C x r y and W. K. Kellog~
Foundation.
tion. coordination, planning, training. networking, and
capecity-building (a11 pursued more within a social
movement context than a traditional program context)
will lead to a series of changes that begin with widespread individual-level change, normative change
among opinion makers and indigenous leaders as well
3s residents, leading to system-level change across institutions. I n turn. the model predictschanges in youths'
developmental assets that retlect and promote shortterm and long-term behavior change. The model has
helped frame a comprehensive evaluation system i n
Colorado, as described subsequently. The model also
has certain liniitationsrequiring additional conceptualization;it i s biased ina lineardirection and insufficiently
captures the random and chaotic nature of much
"planned change within a social movement. Understanding what are and will be more organic interactions
among these many constructs i s necessary.
Evolving Support Systems for
Community Initiatives
As the number of communities and places that were
embracing the asset framework grew, it became increasingly clear there was a need for a facilitative
support stmcture that was matched to the nawre o f the
movement itself. Initially this structure came in the
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BEYOND THE "Vtt .LACE" RHETORIC
form of a series of "Link 'n' Learn" half-day meetings.
Those involved in using the framework in their community mobilization efforts could come and network
with others and share their inspirations and challenges.
These meetings served to set a tone of shared learning
and networking.
However. as the demand for speaking, training, and
consulting grew, it quickly became clear that a more
systematic operating structure was needed. In thespring
of 1996. Search Institute launched the Healthy Community-Healthy Youth Initiative, a comprehensive community-change effort involving research, evaluation,
resource development, training, and consultation.' The
goal of this initiative was to facilitate and encourage
asset-building movements that are more the creation of
local ingenuity than the adoption of a prescriptive
model. Accordingly, we have begun a shift from a
primarily reactive mode to a proactive, intentional
mode of providing speaking, mining, networking,
evaluation, and consulting services to initiatives around
the country. Critical to the philosophy behind this effort
is the belief, as noted earlier, that the40 developmental
assets paradigm is a useful way to capture and frame a
community vision of what youth need to succeed, which
is then strategically addressed by unleashing local
mechanisms of planning and support. Rather than creating curricula or programs that defined how assetbuilding takesplace, emphasis is placed on empowering
communities to design important change efforts and
their own ways of building assets.
As the asset building initiatives continued to spring
up around the country, several regions appeared ready
for more sustained support. Community initiatives in
New Mexico and in New England led in 1996 to the
positioning of regional consultants.
In the spring of 1996, another source of energy
around asset building was emerging in Colorado based
on a number of community efforts and the desire of
those communities for a statewide support system. In
early 1997, the Assets for Colorado Youth Initiative
was launched.' The initiative is staffed by Search Institute through an office in Denver and intentionally creates a combination of microgrants, public awareness
campaigns, training, consulting, and networking activities to support efforts i n dozens of communities. This
initiative includes three grant programs centered around
mobilizing communities, building statewide partnerships, and innovative efforts at asset building directly
' ~ h cHealthy Cornrnuniry-Healthy Youth Initinlive is suppaned
hy a nurnher of community, regional. and national foundations.
Luxheran Brorherh~~ad.
a nalionnl fralernal hrnefit society with headquarters in Minneapolis, provides rnujor corporate sponsorship as
well ar a network of volunteers and professionals, which assist wilh
5ome local rnohilirstinn effc>ns.
' ~ s s r l sfor Colorado Youth is a S'h-year initiative supponed hy
thc Colorado Trust.
with youth. Even in setting up a grant-making effort.
however, care was taken to insure that the initiatives in
communities were not driven by the funds but rather by
an overall community vision. All grants are kept small
in size (less than $30,00Oin any 1 year, for up to 3 years)
anddesigned to reinforceand help resource local efforts
to build assets.
On a parallel track with the increasing intentionality
about community mobilization. Search Institute also
was being asked to work with national and local youth
development organizations of various types. Just as the
early community efforts recognized the need to mobilize across sectors and create a set of integrated roles
for multiple players in the community, it also became
clear that greater depth was needed in particular sectors.
The first two sectors where this emerged, partly due to
the availability of resources and the nature of their
primary work, were the religious-congregational sector
and national youth development organizations.
A major effort to utilize the asset framework as a tool
in youth development programs within a community's
faith communities was initiated in a project called Uniting Congregations for Youth ~ e v e l o ~ m e n t .This
" ' project sought tounite many religiously based youth workers from diverse faith traditions around a common
understanding of what youth need to succeed and then
help them develop ways that they could integrate those
efforts into their youth work and congregations as a
whole. This effort now is operating in seven sites
around the country supported by a series of resources
and trainings. It also has spawned a series of efforts
within various faiths and denominations to incorporate
theasset paradigm within their own systems.
Within the youth development organization sector.
the dynamics were somewhat different. These organi7ations have beendoing positive youthdevelopment for
many years. As the youth development approach wa$
emerging across the country, both through the asset
paradigm and the efforts of others (e.g., Academy for
Educational Development's Center for Youth Development and Policy Research in Washington. DC. Chapin
Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago).
so was theneed for accountability. Theefforts of United
Way of America and others to become increasingly
outcome-driven led several youth development organizations within the National Collaboration for Youth to
seek ways of using a measurement-based.explicit statement of what youth need to succeed as a possible bmis
for evaluation. These circumstances then provided the
opportunity to present the asset framework through n
series of national and regional meetings sponsored by
different youth development organizations. These efforts often then connected to or initiated local asset-
he
Dcwilt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund suppons this rnultisite effon.
RENSON. LEFFER:T.
SCALES. & BLYTH
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building efforts to bring sector-specific work together
with community-based efforts. The YMCA of the
United States i s one example. Asked to bring together
the literature on the impact o f youth development for
use by local YMCAs, the resulting report, Making t h e
Case (Leffert, Saito, Blyth, & Kroenke, 1996), led to
the creation o f a very simple, posttest only survey that
wasdesigned to assess how activitiesat YMCAs inform
developmental assets.
Evaluating a Movement: Challenges
and Opportunities
Although the asset framework has been grounded
i n research from many fields and has been driven i n
part by the survey designed to measure assets, the
need for and difficul~iesinvolved i n evaluating the
larger movement of community, regional, and organizational changes is complex and still i n its infancy.
Because virtually all of the initiatives around the
country are spontaneousefforts and not funded i n any
way by a central source, i t has been very difficult to
get even a basic understanding of what is being
implemented, how the asset paradigm is being utilized, whether there are major local evaluation efforts
underway, and how useful different resources and
services have been.
Recent efforts to capture some of this information
more systematically have come from a survey o f over
200 communities that claim to be using the developmental assets paradigm. This survey, with a 70% response rate, provides several insights-most notably
that communities are using multiple frameworks to
mobilize their communities and that help on evaluation
is the single area o f highest need.
Fortunately, as part o f the Assets for Colorado
Youth Initiative described previously, a systematic
series o f evaluation efforts are underway. These include statewide surveys of adults and youth at multiple
points i n time as well as carefully designed 4-year
longitudinal studies o f several thousand adolescents
and parents in two communities that are mobilizing
around the asset paradigm. I n addition. 10 other communities are part of a series o f implementation and
outcome studies designed to address critical research
questions. Through those efforts, and a number of
similar but smaller scale efforts i n selected other communities, a baseoffindings isgradually being builtthat
will inform the field about the effectiveness and challenges of utilizing a nonprogrammatic, movement-oriented change strategy.
Critical scientific and conceptual issuesremain. Among
issues requiring deep and sustained inquiry are:
I. Thedefinition and refinement o f the territory of
developmenral assets.
2. The generali~abilityof the paradigm.
3. The measurement of the asset framework.
4. The determinants of developmental assets
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
within each o f multiple sectors (e.g., families.
schools, youth organizations, neighborhoods.
religious institutions).
Models of effective youth engagement within
community initiatives.
Strategies for leadership development and
renewal.
The degree to which intentional community
change strategies can alter developmental asset
profiles.
The impact of community-level variables (e.g.,
size, diversity, economics, region) on thechange
process.
The sustainability o f change.
What is emerging is a multidisciplinary line of inquiry that examines the intersection of community and
child and adolescent development. A major part of the
inquiry is learning from and with many communities
initiating what might be construedas naturalisticsocial
"experiments" i n unleashing their developmental capacity and building their developmental infrastructure.
Ultimately, the most critical question is how communities can be supported to integrate and simultaneously
pursue strength-building i n three community infrastructures: economic, service delivery, and development. The goal of this integration is to develop a comhination of policy, resources, and actions, which will
meet basic human needs, reduce threats to human development. provide humane and effective access to
services, and promote healthy development.
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