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Mailman School
of Public Health
Columbia University
722 West 168th Street,
8th Floor
New York, NY 10032
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The troubled journey: A portrait of 6th-12th grade youth Peter L. Benson This report poses a vision of standards for positive youth development and it gauges the extent to which this vision is being met. Based on a random sampling of public and private school students in grades 6-12 from 111 communities in 25 states, the author documents the presence or absence of 30 external assets (such as family support, positive peer influence, or involvement in extracurricular activities) and internal assets (such as achievement motivation, assertiveness skills, or a positive view of the future); 10 deficits (such as being alone at home, physical abuse, or social isolation); frequency of prosocial behavior (such as hours spent helping others); and 20 at-risk behaviors (such as ATOD use, sexual activity, or absence of seat belt use) to rate youth well-being. Examining these scales across age groups, the author concludes that only 10 percent of the students met a minimal level of standards for positive assets and social behavior, and too many had a high level of negative factors and risky behaviors that have serious impacts on personal fulfillment and society as a whole. The author outlines 34 program strategies for parents, educators, and community members that focus on those assets most strongly associated with prevention (educational commitment, control, positive values); deal with co-occurring risks; use a comprehensive community approach; and include a service learning component. For example, educators can create a caring school atmosphere and improve youth' social skills and sense of responsibility for others. Congregations and community organizations can create adult mentoring and youth service opportunities, support quality day care and after-school programming, and develop positive values and social competence in both youths and their parents. A 1995 pilot study of Minneapolis youth adds new assets and groups them into revised categories: support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, time use, educational commitment, values, social competencies, and positive identity.
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Disclaimer Free To Grow is a national program supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with direction and technical assistance provided by the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University. |