Coming into Their Own: How Developmental Assets Promote Positive Growth in Middle Childhood

CHILD DEVELOPMENT/PSYCHOLOGY

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• How the scientific literature yields developmentally appropriate definitions of the developmental assets for children in the upper elementary years; • The similarities and differences among developmental assets in middle childhood, early childhood, and adolescence; • Research findings on the impact of the assets on children’s well-being, including variations in findings among different populations; and • Data on children’s experiences of the assets from field tests of Search Institute’s new assets survey for 4th–6th graders, Me and My World.

Coming into Their Own offers powerful evidence that adults should start building developmental assets for young people before they reach adolescence. This groundbreaking book sets the stage for fresh efforts in promoting positive child development.

Peter C. Scales, A r t u r o S e s m a , J r. , and Brent Bolstrom

Coming into Their O wn How Developmental Assets

Search Institute

“This book makes an excellent contribution to the field of developmental psychology, extending the developmental assets framework into middle childhood and clearly reviewing and consolidating a wealth of empirical research on this developmental period. It will be an invaluable resource for scholars and practitioners alike.”

Daniel M. Hyson, Ph.D. School Psychologist, Minnesota Independent School District 196

Coming into Their O wn

harting new territory in developmental psychology, Peter C. Scales, Ph.D., Arturo Sesma, Jr., Ph.D., and Brent J. Bolstrom explore Search Institute’s framework of forty developmental assets and describe its relevance during middle childhood. In the 1999 volume Developmental Assets: A Synthesis of the Scientific Research on Adolescent Development, researchers at Search Institute showed how these positive relationships, skills, opportunities, and values promote healthy, responsible, caring, and contributing adolescents and young adults. Now the authors review scientific reports and articles to document how and why these forty developmental assets carry significance even earlier in a child’s life. Coming into Their Own: How Developmental Assets Promote Positive Growth in Middle Childhood introduces a subtly revised framework of developmental assets for children in grades 4–6 and dedicates a chapter to each asset category (support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, constructive use of time, commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity). Each chapter illustrates:

Scales/Sesma/Bolstrom

Research Insights on Developmental Assets in Middle Childhood

Promote Positive Growth in Middle Childhood

Peter C. Scales, Arturo Sesma, Jr., and Brent Bolstrom Search Institute • Minneapolis

Coming into Their Own

How Developmental Assets Promote Positive Growth in Middle Childhood

Coming into Their Own: How Developmental Assets Promote Positive Growth in Middle Childhood Peter C. Scales, Arturo Sesma, Jr., and Brent Bolstrom Copyright © 2004 by Search Institute All right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever, mechanical or electronic, without prior permission from the publisher except in brief quotations or summaries in articles or reviews, or as individual charts or graphs for educational use.

For additional permission, write to Permissions at Search Institute.

At the time of this book’s publication, all facts and figures cited are the most current available; all telephone numbers, addresses, and Web site URLs are accurate and active; all publications, organizations, Web sites, and other resources exist as described in this book; and all efforts have been made to verify them. The authors and Search Institute make no warranty or guarantee concerning the information and materials given out by organizations or content found at Web sites, and we are not responsible for any changes that occur after this book’s publication. If you find an error or believe that a resource listed here is not as described, please contact Client Services at Search Institute.

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Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Scales, Peter, 1949– Coming into their own : how developmental assets promote positive growth in middle childhood / Peter C. Scales, Arturo Sesma, and Brent Bolstrom. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-57482-431-7 1. Child psychology. 2. Preteens—Psychology. I. Sesma, Arturo. II. Bolstrom, Brent. III. Title.

BF721 .S347 2004 155.42'4—dc22 2003022046 Search Institute 615 First Ave. NE, Suite 125 Minneapolis, MN 55413 612-376-8955 800-888-7828 www.search-institute.org Credits Editors: Susan Wootten, Kathryn (Kay) L. Hong, Mary Byers Design: Diane Gleba Hall Production: Mary Ellen Buscher

Contents

Acknowledgments

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Introduction: The Developmental Assets Framework and Its Application to Middle Childhood 1 Developmental assets are the positive relationships, opportunities, competencies, values, and self-perceptions that young people need to succeed.

The External Assets 1. The Support Assets

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Supported young people know they can rely on positive, fulfilling relationships with many adults in their families, schools, and communities.

2. The Empowerment Assets

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Young people are empowered to the extent that they are seen by others as resources, make contributions to society, and feel free of threats to their safety.

3. The Boundaries-and-Expectations Assets

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Boundaries and expectations are the rules, standards, and norms in families, schools, neighborhoods, and communities that guide young people’s choices and regulate their behavior.

4. The Constructive-Use-of-Time Assets

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A healthy community offers a rich array of constructive, engaging opportunities and activities to all young people.

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Contents

The Internal Assets 5. The Commitment-to-Learning Assets

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A young person’s commitment to learning is strongly influenced by relationships with family, peers, and others, as well as by the school environment.

6. The Positive-Values Assets

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Positive values learned in the family and elsewhere eventually become deep commitments that guide how young people think and act.

7. The Social-Competencies Assets

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Social competencies are the skills young people need to develop satisfying relationships with others, deal with new and challenging situations, and sharpen their decision-making capacities.

8. The Positive-Identity Assets

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Developing a sense of confidence, worth, and a positive outlook, and beginning to think about life’s meaning, are important developmental “building blocks” as children construct their personal identity.

Summary and Conclusions: Developmental Assets in Middle Childhood

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Appendix: Pilot and Field Tests of Search Institute’s Me and My World Survey

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Index

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Developmental assets are the positive relationships, opportunities, competencies, values, and self-perceptions that young people need to succeed.

Introduction: The Developmental Assets Framework and Its Application to Middle Childhood All stages of human development are inherently and infinitely fascinating. For parents, a child’s birth and infancy are accompanied by both excitement and exhaustion. Toddlerhood brings with it the joy of curiosity and exploration.

And the early childhood years are marked by that mixture of parental pride and letting go that comes with a child’s first days of school, a rite of passage no less poignant than a child’s first date in adolescence and, later, graduation from high school and college.

Middle childhood, which we define roughly as grades 4–6, holds its own special fascination and is the focus of this book. It is during these years, after all, that children approach the cusp of early adolescence. In many respects, children have one foot firmly planted in childhood, and with the other are gingerly reaching toward the vastly different world of adolescence. This transition will not be complete for a number of years, but for most children, the shift begins to declare itself during middle childhood. By the middle school years, most young people act and feel rather more like adolescents than they do children, but their childlike thoughts, behaviors, and qualities often still have a strong and unmistakable presence.

It is in middle childhood, however, that the first murmurs of the coming early adolescence begin to be heard and the first hints of the transition become apparent. Many children, though still clearly children, begin to occasionally act and feel in ways more characteristic of adolescents. Middle childhood is a time of great change, of enormous expansion of children’s worlds and understandings

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Introduction

of self and others, and a time when children’s self-structures, values, beliefs, and aspirations are still malleable and relatively optimistic.

Children’s risks and opportunities both increase in these years, and the changing landscape of risks, opportunities, and emerging capacities can lead to either developmental success or frustration, both in children’s present and future. We have written this book because understanding the positive developmental experiences children need during middle childhood is critical for ensuring their well-being. Understanding what children need, and the individual, organizational, and community actions that emerge from that knowledge, can contribute to reducing children’s risk behaviors, promoting their resilience, and enhancing their thriving during the upper elementary years, and to enabling them to effectively navigate the gradual transition between childhood and adolescence.

Here, we have tried to synthesize the scientific research on how a variety of “developmental assets” or building blocks of success (Benson, 1997) seem to “work” in middle childhood. This book provides some insights that can influence informal relationships among adults and young people, as well as formal programs and policies, so that preadolescents are on a path to a developmentally “rich” adolescence from which they ultimately “graduate” into successful adulthood.

The value of this explication of the asset framework in middle childhood lies both in deepening basic scientific understanding of the period and in helping to focus informal and formal applied efforts to improve children’s lives. The overarching purpose of all this articulation is, as reflected in Search Institute’s vision, to create a world where all young people are valued and thrive.

How can that vision be realized? At Search Institute, we believe there are five action strategies (as depicted in Figure 1), informed by an understanding of developmental assets in each age group from birth to 20, that can transform communities and society into more developmentally attentive places that foster more positive child development.

Five Action Strategies • Engage adults. Engage adults from all walks of life to develop sustained, strength-building relationships with children and adolescents, both within families and in neighborhoods.

• Mobilize young people. Mobilize young people to use their power as asset builders and change agents.

• Activate sectors. Activate all sectors of the community—such as schools, congregations, youth, businesses, human services, and

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Introduction

Figure 1. Five Circles of Action Strategies

health-care organizations—to create an asset-building culture and to contribute fully to young people’s healthy development.

• Invigorate programs. Invigorate, expand, and enhance programs to become more asset rich and to be accessible to all children and youth.

• Influence civic decisions. Influence decision makers and opinion leaders to leverage financial, media, and policy resources in support of this positive transformation of communities and society.

The developmental assets framework for middle childhood, like the foundational framework for adolescence from which it is derived and with which it is fully aligned, is designed to provide a focus for those strategies. Collectively, efforts to build young people’s assets through those five action strategies are intended to have a powerful positive impact on young people’s well-being, as well as on families, schools and other organizations, programs, policies, neighborhoods, and a community’s overall quality of life.

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Introduction

Risk Behaviors, Resilience, and Thriving Defined Although developmental assets are the focus of this book, we occasionally refer to “risk behaviors,” “resilience,” and especially “thriving,” or indicators of optimal development in middle childhood. Risk behaviors in middle childhood include alcohol, tobacco, and other illicit drug use; antisocial behavior; physical agression/violence; and frequent sadness. Resilience refers to children who function at adequate levels despite facing adversity and vulnerability; resilient children “overcome the odds” against them to function acceptably in their families, schools, peer groups, and community settings. Thriving, however, suggests a state of well-being that goes beyond the level of being “acceptable” or “adequate.” Thriving suggests optimal development and that a child is on the path to a hopeful future.

Adolescents who report higher levels of developmental assets also report fewer risk behaviors, more resilience, and greater thriving outcomes, and we hypothesize the same relationships exist during middle childhood.

Thriving is a less commonly discussed topic than risk behaviors in the developmental literature, but we give it strong emphasis in this book. The following table presents the broad thriving dimensions that we include in the term “thriving” and that are measured in the Me and My World survey for children in grades 4–6.

Thriving Indicators, with Definitions School success

Child gets mostly B’s or good/above-average marks on report card.

Helps others

Child helps friends, neighbors, or others on one or more days per week.

Values diversity

Child’s parents teach the importance of having friends and playing with peers who are different from the child.

Delays gratification

Child can wait for a larger reward later, rather than needing to obtain a smaller reward immediately.

Coregulation

Child often helps parents make decisions about things the child cares about.

Coping skills

Child regularly uses active coping skills to deal with problems.

Life satisfaction

Child is satisfied with her or his life.

The Framework of Developmental Assets The lens we use to look at middle childhood is the developmental assets framework developed by Search Institute. Developmental assets are relationships,

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Introduction

opportunities, values, and skills that are building blocks for young people’s successful growth in the physical, social, emotional, moral, spiritual, cognitive, and psychological arenas. Since 1990, more than 1,000 communities have requested Search Institute to survey students in grades 6 through 12 (now totaling more than 1.5 million students) in order to understand their experience of these developmental assets and to stimulate strategies for enhancing the relationships, opportunities, values, and skills that young people need to “succeed.” An adolescent succeeds developmentally if he or she meets three broad criteria: • Engages minimally (if at all) in patterns of negative risk-taking behavior, such as alcohol and other drug use (some taking of “risks,” is, of course, developmentally appropriate and necessary, such as risking honesty with a friend or risking embarrassment in trying out a new activity or skill); • Is resilient in the face of challenges; and • Engages in positive actions that suggest not just adequate development but optimal development or thriving, such as regularly helping others and valuing racial/ethnic diversity.

Our focus on middle childhood in this book arises from the conviction that positive development in middle childhood keeps or puts children on a path to experiencing this kind of “successful” adolescence.

Search Institute’s original developmental assets framework emerged from analysis of the research literature on adolescent development, problem prevention, youth resilience, and related areas (see Benson, 1997; Benson, Leffert, Scales, & Blyth, 1998). The framework originally identified 30 assets, but was modified to encompass 40 assets in the mid-1990s on the basis of further literature review, focus group results, and analysis of surveys measuring students’ experience of the assets. The 40 assets are grouped for ease of communication into internal and external asset areas, within each of which are four separate asset categories. External assets are those that adults (and, to a lesser extent, peers) provide for young people, including the categories of support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, and constructive use of time. The internal assets are composed of the values, skills, and self-perceptions young people develop gradually in order to become self-regulating, and include the categories of commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity.

Our efforts to conceptualize the terrain of developmental strengths in young people have been strengthened by several findings of developmental scholars and practitioners that we summarize here and detail more fully elsewhere (Benson, Scales, & Mannes, 2003). First, research and evaluation studies have

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Introduction

suggested that programmatic approaches narrowly aimed at reducing and/or preventing risk behaviors (the prevailing paradigm of youth research, policy, and services in the past several decades) are less effective than more comprehensive approaches rooted in meeting the broad developmental needs of young people (Roeser, 2001; Roth, Brooks-Gunn, Murray, & Foster, 1998; Schorr, 1993).

Second, a burgeoning number of studies show that context—specifically, the interactions and embeddedness of individuals within multiple, layered, and overlapping environments constituting the totality of their lives—creates complex and diverse developmental paths (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Lerner, 1998). An important corollary to this ecological theory is that individuals (even infants) are influenced not simply by their environments but by actually having a hand in constructing those environments. An example of this reciprocal interaction is the effect of children’s behavior on the parenting they receive, as well as the number and kind of other adults who may be attracted to children and offer them support and nurture (Mannes, 2001; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).

These learnings about developmental systems and the relative ineffectiveness of narrowly targeted problem-prevention strategies have led to increased debate about what constitute the markers of healthy development in young people (other than avoidance of harm and risk), and to an increased interest in the contributions that diverse contexts—family, school, peer, and community— make to development. These observations have led researchers and practitioners away from focusing primarily on problem prevention, and toward identifying and promoting the sources of positive development.

A variety of terms have been used over the past 75 years to name what children and youth require for positive development, including the execution of “developmental tasks,” the resolving of “developmental crises,” and the meeting of “developmental needs” (Masten & Curtis, 2000; Sroufe, 1979). For example, Sroufe (1979) characterized developmental tasks such as the management of tension and exploration and mastery as “organizational issues” in that patterns of adaptation are organized around these salient developmental issues. Regardless of terminology, these concepts have helped shape children’s environments in various settings. Examples include the establishment of standards for “developmentally appropriate practice” in programs for young children (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997) and the creation of “developmentally responsive” middle-level schools for young adolescents (National Middle School Association, 2003).

Search Institute’s developmental assets framework has emerged from a melding of these traditional and contemporary strands of both theory and empirical research in developmental psychology. In terms of the preceding discussion, developmental assets may be seen as the “nutrients” that permit the accomplish-

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Introduction

ment of developmental tasks, resolution of developmental crises, and meeting of developmental needs.

Evidence of the validity of the framework’s content for adolescents is provided in a comprehensive review and synthesis of more than 800 research studies (Scales & Leffert, 1999) that demonstrate the considerable degree to which the developmental importance of the asset constructs is broadly supported in the scientific literature. A series of studies involving large samples of students in grades 6 through 12 has also shown that the assets young people experience across multiple contexts of family, school, peers, and community are related to lowered high-risk behavior and increased youth “thriving” or optimal development (Benson, Scales, Leffert, & Roehlkepartain, 1999; Leffert, Benson, Scales, Sharma, Drake, & Blyth, 1998; Scales, Benson, Leffert, & Blyth, 2000). In short, the more assets adolescents report having—and the more they experience them across all parts of their lives—the less they engage in patterns of alcohol or other drug use, antisocial behavior, violence, and other high-risk behaviors. In addition, the more assets they have, the more they report succeeding at school, helping others, valuing diversity, and other indications that they are not merely avoiding problems but also thriving.

The research we discuss in this book strongly suggests that the same patterns extensively documented for adolescents pertain to children in middle childhood: The more developmental assets they experience, the better their odds of not just “doing okay” in their present and future but of thriving, of being the very best unique persons they can be. Thus, the developmental assets framework seems validly to describe a broad array of relationships, opportunities, values, and skills that promote a healthy middle childhood and increase the odds of a successful adolescence.

The general developmental assets framework also seems to have utility in describing positive development in early childhood (K–3). Although early childhood is not the focus of this book, it is important to understand the general stability of these positive developmental processes throughout the first two decades of life. Assets and the developmental issues we focus on do not simply appear in middle childhood, but rather emerge from accumulated experiences in the prior years. Thus, to set the stage for our presentation of the middle childhood assets framework, we first describe the mixture of developmental continuity and stage uniqueness that characterizes the years from early childhood through middle childhood and adolescence. We then briefly examine asset development in the early childhood period in order to lay the groundwork for considering middle childhood in more depth.

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About the Authors Peter C. Scales, Ph.D., is Senior Fellow in the Office of the President at Search Institute. A developmental psychologist, he has been for more than 25 years recognized as one of the nation’s leading authorities on children, youth, and families; adolescent health and sexuality education; effective schools; and healthy communities. Among his honors, Dr. Scales received a 1988 U.S. Administration for Children, Youth, and Families’ Commissioner Award for “outstanding efforts in child abuse prevention and a spirit which is an inspiration to others.”

He has authored or co-authored more than 250 articles, chapters, and books, including The Sexual Adolescent: Communicating with Teenagers about Sex, Great Places to Learn: How Asset-Building Schools Help Students Succeed, and Developmental Assets: A Synthesis of the Scientific Research on Adolescent Development.

His latest book is Other People’s Kids: Social Expectations and American Adults’ Involvement with Children and Adolescents (Kluwer/Plenum).

Arturo Sesma, Jr., is an applied developmental researcher at Search Institute.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his doctorate from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota.

Brent Bolstrom, a research assistant at Search Institute, earned his bachelor of arts degree with honors in psychology from St. Olaf College. Mr. Bolstrom’s research interests lie around the contexts that contribute to healthy youth development, various indicators of resilience in development, and the protective factors that buffer against adversity and stress during childhood and adolescence. Other scientific work he is involved in at Search Institute includes multiple facets of the development of Me and My World: A Search Institute Survey of Developmental Assets in Grades 4–6, and two multi-year projects, Positive Youth Development: Advancing the Field’s Intellectual and Scientific Foundations, and Exploring the Science and Theology of Spiritual Development During Childhood and Adolescence.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT/PSYCHOLOGY

C

• How the scientific literature yields developmentally appropriate definitions of the developmental assets for children in the upper elementary years; • The similarities and differences among developmental assets in middle childhood, early childhood, and adolescence; • Research findings on the impact of the assets on children’s well-being, including variations in findings among different populations; and • Data on children’s experiences of the assets from field tests of Search Institute’s new assets survey for 4th–6th graders, Me and My World.

Coming into Their Own offers powerful evidence that adults should start building developmental assets for young people before they reach adolescence. This groundbreaking book sets the stage for fresh efforts in promoting positive child development.

Peter C. Scales, A r t u r o S e s m a , J r. , and Brent Bolstrom

Coming into Their O wn How Developmental Assets

Search Institute

“This book makes an excellent contribution to the field of developmental psychology, extending the developmental assets framework into middle childhood and clearly reviewing and consolidating a wealth of empirical research on this developmental period. It will be an invaluable resource for scholars and practitioners alike.”

Daniel M. Hyson, Ph.D. School Psychologist, Minnesota Independent School District 196

Coming into Their O wn

harting new territory in developmental psychology, Peter C. Scales, Ph.D., Arturo Sesma, Jr., Ph.D., and Brent J. Bolstrom explore Search Institute’s framework of forty developmental assets and describe its relevance during middle childhood. In the 1999 volume Developmental Assets: A Synthesis of the Scientific Research on Adolescent Development, researchers at Search Institute showed how these positive relationships, skills, opportunities, and values promote healthy, responsible, caring, and contributing adolescents and young adults. Now the authors review scientific reports and articles to document how and why these forty developmental assets carry significance even earlier in a child’s life. Coming into Their Own: How Developmental Assets Promote Positive Growth in Middle Childhood introduces a subtly revised framework of developmental assets for children in grades 4–6 and dedicates a chapter to each asset category (support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, constructive use of time, commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity). Each chapter illustrates:

Scales/Sesma/Bolstrom

Research Insights on Developmental Assets in Middle Childhood

Promote Positive Growth in Middle Childhood