Funder: Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, as part of its support for Search Institute’s Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth initiative.
Purpose: Beginning in 1997, Search Institute partnered with the Children First initiative in St. Louis Park, Minnesota in a multiyear study of Developmental Assets among 6th-12th grade youth. This study is unique in measuring Developmental Assets longitudinally (1997, 1998 and 2001) and in linking young people’s asset profiles to their actual school records. This study offers important new insights into the patterns of Developmental Assets through adolescence as well as examinations of the power of Developmental Assets across time.
Status: Three waves of data collection have been completed, and an initial report was released by Children First. Additional analyses and reporting continue on an ongoing basis.
Duration: This study began in 1997 and continued with data collection in 1998, 2001, and 2003.
Findings: Findings from the first three data collections (1997, 1998, 2001) were released in May 2003 in a report titled Signs of Progress in Putting Children First. Download the study’s executive summary (PDF) or full report (PDF). Longitudinal analyses of the relation of assets to GPA were published in the October 2003 issue of Search Institute Insights & Evidence.
