News Release
Asset Building Plays a Vital Role in Substance Abuse Prevention
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. (March 20, 2004)—Building "developmental assets" can
play an
important role in reducing many forms of youth substance use,
particularly as when asset building engages the whole community in
contributing to young people's healthy development, according to a new
report from Search Institute.
Titled "Tapping the Power of
Community: Building Assets to Strengthen Substance Abuse Prevention,"
the new report shows that young people with
low levels of developmental assets are two to four times as likely to
use alcohol, tobacco, and other
drugs than those who have above-average asset levels, according to a
new report from Search Institute. This relationship is true for young
people from all racial/ethnic, family, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
"Though there have been great advances in understanding of substance
use and prevention, it is clear that prevention programs are necessary,
but not sufficient to substantially reduce overall use among
adolescents," write report authors Peter L. Benson, Eugene C.
Roehlkepartain, and Arturo Sesma Jr. "Asset building offers additional
approaches, strategies, tools, insights, and capacity that can be woven
together around a shared and sustained commitment to young people’s
healthy development in communities."
The research shows that the more developmental assets young people
have, the less likely they are to engage in any form of alcohol,
tobacco, or other drug (ATOD) use. For example, those young people who
experience 6 or fewer of the 40 developmental assets report, on
average, engaging in three or more forms of ATOD use (out of eight
measured). In contrast, those who experience more than 20 assets
engage, on average, in fewer than one of these eight forms of ATOD use.
In addition, longitudinal research also shows that young people
with more assets
are also more likely to abstain from substance use into high school,
suggesting that assets play an important role in delaying substance
use. This finding is particularly important because young people are
much more likely to develop serious substance use problems when they
start using alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs early.
Created by Search Institute, the framework of developmental assets
identifies and measures 40 experiences, relationships, opportunities,
skills, and character traits that form a foundation for
healthy development for children and adolescents. Since 1990, assets
have been measured in approximately 2 million 6th- to 12th-grade
students across North America. More than 500 communities use the
framework to
guide grassroots community-building efforts across the United States
and Canada.
The complete framework is available at
www.search-institute.org/assets.
Building developmental assets focuses on ensuring that all young people
in a community experience
many assets in all aspects of their lives across time. In doing so, it
highlights the responsibility of everyone in a community to contribute
to young people's healthy development. Thus, building developmental
assets includes formal prevention programs, but it
also engages a wide range of individuals and institutions, such as
families, schools, faith communities, youth-serving organizations,
neighborhoods, and many others.
This research is featured in the March issue of the online
publication,
Search Institute
Insights & Evidence, which is available for downloading at
www.search-institute.org/research/Insights.
Search Institute Insights &
Evidence is published approximately six times per year by Search
Institute, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization with a mission to
provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy
children, youth, and communities.
