Nourishing Your Child's Assets

With each passing year, you no doubt take stock of the nutrients you're providing your child. Is your child getting enough fruits and vegetables? Are those weekly pizzas and Pop-Tarts putting her on a path to obesity? Does he need a multivitamin to make up for a sketchy diet?

But what about your child's developmental nutrients? What assets or strengths are nourishing your child at home, in school and out in the community, contributing right now to a healthy future?

 

The Search Institute® is a nonprofit organization that has been exploring that very question for the past 50 years. Originally founded with a focus on youth in religious settings, its mission today is broader to do research; offer networking, training and support; and provide other resources that help promote health and competency in children and youth from all walks of life.

To provide a framework for parents, schools, and communities, the Search Institute® has developed a list of 40 Developmental Assets® that are strongly correlated with positive, healthy behaviors, including success in school and reduced involvement with drugs, alcohol, or criminal activity. The more assets these youth possess, the more successful their development tends to be.

 

What do these assets have to do with learning? They appear to play a significant role in academic achievement for students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Research shows that students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds with high levels of assets were about 5 to 12 times as likely to be successful in school as those with few assets. In fact, the higher the students' asset levels, the higher their GPA.

 

What are these assets that are so essential to our children's all-around success? Here is the list developed by the Search Institute for elementary-age children, ages 6-11. You can find separate, but similar, lists for younger and older age groups at the Search Institute Web site.

 

External Assets Support Family support Positive family communication Other adult relationships Caring neighborhood Caring out-of-home climate Parent involvement in out-of-home situations   Empowerment Community values children Children are given useful roles Service to others Safety Boundaries and expectations Family boundaries Out-of-home boundaries Neighborhood boundaries Adult role models Positive peer interaction and influence Appropriate expectations for growth   Constructive use of time Creative activities Out-of-home activities Religious community Positive, supervised time at home

Internal Assets Commitment to learning Achievement expectation and motivation Children are engaged in learning Stimulating activity and homework Enjoyment of learning and bonding to school Reading for pleasure Positive values Caring Equality and social justice Integrity Honesty Responsibility Healthy lifestyle and sexual attitudes Social competencies Planning and decision making Interpersonal skills Cultural competence Resistance skills Peaceful conflict resolution Positive identity Personal power Self-esteem Sense of purpose Positive view of personal future

The sad truth is that the average youth surveyed in the United States experiences only half of these assets. Of the two million youths surveyed by the Search Institute since 1989, almost 60 percent had 20 or fewer of the 40 Developmental Assets®.

What can you do as a parent to promote these strengths in your child? First, it may help to remember that you can't do it all by yourself. Your child needs a web of support to be successful; teachers and coaches, aunts and uncles, neighbors and mentors, friends and shopkeepers. There is, indeed, something to the adage, "It takes a village."


Then take a look at the lists of Developmental Assets® and find a few to focus on first. Here are samples of concrete action steps you can take to help build your child's assets:

Building Support

• Encourage children's passions and interests.
• Answer their questions. If you do not know, admit it and work together to find out the answer.
• When children and adults disagree, encourage adults to show they still care.
• Volunteer at your child's school.

Empowering Your Child

• Encourage children to write letters about issues that are important to them to the editor of your local paper.
• Ask children what they like and do not like about their daily routines. Make changes to improve them.
• Provide opportunities for your child to plan a family activity or dinner.

Setting Limits and Having Expectations

• Encourage schools, neighbors, organizations, and communities to have consistent boundaries and consequences so children know how to act in different settings.
• Be firm about boundaries that keep kids safe. Don't negotiate with these boundaries.
• Challenge children to do their best in school, and help them whenever you can.

Encouraging Constructive Use of Time

• Allow children to have one or two regular out-of-home activities that are led by caring adults.
• Teach children to balance their time so they gradually learn how not to get too busy or too bored.
• Volunteer in programs and activities for children, such as sports, clubs, religious activities, music, or others.

Spark a Commitment to Learning

• Set daily homework guidelines for children and provide a place for them to study.
• Let children read to you every day as they learn to read. Show them that you are excited and proud about their reading.
• Help children find ways to learn more about subjects that really interest them.
• Plan an "educational" side trip during family vacations to connect the child to history.

Build Positive Values

• Have children develop care packages for the local homeless or battered woman's shelter for the children living in the shelter.
• Have the children write thank-you notes or show their appreciation in some other way whenever they receive gifts.
• Encourage families to participate in service activities together.
• Talk to children about specific examples of people acting on their values.

Develop Social Competencies

• Encourage children to use words -- rather than just actions -- to communicate.
• Encourage children to develop more skills in areas that interest them.
• Find ways for children to spend time with people who look, act, think, and talk in different ways.

Affirm Positive Identity

• When children are facing problems or difficult times, help them think of all the possible ways they could deal with the situation. Then help them pick what they want to do.
• Encourage children to find inspirational, positive role models.
• Talk with children about what gives your life meaning and a sense of purpose.

 

Use these ideas as a great starting point for family discussions!
 

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Copyright ©1997, 2006 Search Institute; www.search-institute.org. All Rights Reserved. The following are registered trademarks of Search Institute: Search Institute® and Developmental Assets®. The 40 Developmental Assets® may be reproduced for educational, noncommercial uses only.