Developmental Assets
The ultimate purpose of CB Cares Educational Foundation is to promote responsible and resilient youth, as stated in our mission statement. To achieve this goal, CB Cares Educational Foundation uses the Search Institute's Developmental Assets® as the bedrock of all activities and initiatives.
What are the Developmental Assets?
The Developmental Assets® are 40 research-based, positive qualities determined by Search Institute that influence young people’s development, helping them become caring, responsible, and productive adults. Based in youth development, resiliency, and prevention research, the Developmental Assets® framework has proven to be effective and become the most widely used approach to positive youth development in the United States and, increasingly, around the world.
Developmental Assets® are concrete, positive, common sense experiences and qualities that provide understanding of what young people need to succeed and be healthy. These assets focus on solutions rather than problems and are powerful predictors of behavior and have built in resiliency factors that help youth to cope with and avoid difficult situations. The more assets a child possesses, the higher probability that child will not be involved in behaviors such as teen pregnancy, school dropout, substance abuse, delinquency or violence.
There are two categories of assets:
External Assets
Internal Assets
The Assets
External Assets
Internal Assets
Who needs them?
Assets matter for youth from many backgrounds and contexts. The framework has been adapted to be developmentally relevant from early childhood through adolescence for every gender, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and special needs status. The positive power of assets is evident across all cultural and socioeconomic groups of youth in the United States as well as other parts of the world.
Why are they important?
According to the Search Institute, over time, studies of more than 4 million young people consistently show that the more assets that young people have, the less likely they are to engage in a wide range of high-risk behaviors and the more likely they are to thrive. Levels of assets are better predictors of high-risk involvement and thriving than poverty, family structure, or other demographic difference. Research shows that youth with the most assets are least likely to engage in high-risk behaviors. When they have higher levels of assets, they are more likely to do well in school, be civic minded and engaged, and value diversity. The average young person experiences fewer than half of the 40 assets.
Search Institute
Search Institute is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. To accomplish this mission, the institute generates and communicates new knowledge, and brings together community, state, and national leaders. At the heart of the institute’s work is the framework of Developmental Assets®, which are positive experiences and personal qualities that young people need to grow up healthy, caring, and responsible.