Building Assets in Real-World Communities

Abstract

For more than a decade, scientists at Search Institute have committed themselves to identifying, assessing, and documenting the developmental implications of human “assets” (Leffert et al., 1998). As Peter Benson explains in chapter 2, assets represent psychosocial resources that have been linked conceptually and empirically to optimal development in youth. The resources identified thus far include environmental qualities (i.e., the 20 external assets) and individual characteristics (i.e., the 20 internal assets; see Chapter 2, Table 1). These 40 assets have been identified through a systematically scientific investigatory sequence. A reasonably comprehensive analysis of relevant developmental, psychological, and social science literature (Scales & Leffert, 1998) informed the construction of a paper-and-pencil survey measure that, over the past decade, has been administered across a relatively wide range of ages and grade levels (grades 6–12) across economic and cultural subgroups. Aggregating survey responses across hundreds of settings with hundreds of thousands of children, Search Institute investigators have produced an encouraging and heuristically exciting body of evidence linking measured asset levels with selected developmental outcomes.