Tag: protective factors

+RESILIENCY AND DARING: CONSIDERING DEVELOPMENTAL ASSETS OVER THE LIFESPAN

alchemynow6 Comments

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Last week I received via email some comments on the first two chapters of the book my daughter and I are working on from a woman in the little writer’s group in our town that I have been attending recently.  While I appreciated her thoughts and the time she took to both read what I had sent to her and to respond, my immediate response was, “No.  You are ‘wrong’ and I am ‘right’.  I have the right to write my story my way.”

What did my response mean to me?  Most importantly, that two little chapters are NOTHING compared to what I need to write.  Next, my response showed me that this book will not likely be like any book written as a ‘child abuse memoir’ that has ever been written before.  This book needs to be written MY WAY!

My way is going to be, I realized as I read this woman’s comments, as daring a book as is the story it is going to tell.

Reading this woman’s comments fanned the fading tiny spark of my own belief that this book can be written.  Essentially, I DARED again to turn in the direction of the hope of my heart.

Yet what is so important to me about this single small word – DARE?

“To be sufficiently courageous to….”

“To have sufficient courage….”

“To challenge to perform an action especially as a proof of courage…”

“To confront boldly…”

“To have the courage to contend against, venture, or try….”

Origin of DARE

Middle English dar (1st & 3d singular present indicative), from Old English dear; akin to Old High German gitar (1st & 3d singular present indicative) dare, Greek tharsos courage

First Known Use (in Modern English): before 12th century

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Nothing in these definitions of the word DARE refer to the END RESULT of courage, boldness, daring.

This word is, to me, about something that happens entirely on the INSIDE of a person.   It speaks of attitude.  It speaks of the use of a person’s life force.  And most definitely it implies to me that a DECISION has to be made to utilize one’s life force in a direction that is meant to “perform an action” that will “contend against, venture, or try” against a CHALLENGE.

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Challenges in our environment disturb us and require some kind of an action from us.  But when does our response slip into the category of being a DARING response?

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Putting the bulk of these thoughts aside for the moment, I just know that I can FEEL the call for daring INSIDE of my body.  I feel it right now in response to the information I have recently posted:

+IMPORTANT INFORMATION: ASSETS KIDS NEED (AND WHAT ABOUT ABUSED KIDS???)

+RESILIENCY: LOOKING AT PROTECTIVE FACTORS

This is really scary ‘stuff’ for me to look at, to ponder, to think about – and facing MYSELF as I face this information takes DARING for me.

Do I dare know how much of what I needed during the first 18 years of my life was missing?  Do I dare add onto that the true knowledge of how terrifying my home environment was?  Do I dare know how brutally chaotic and insanely violating and violent my home environment was?

Do I dare to know that not only were nearly ALL of the Developmental Assets described as so vitally important throughout the developmental stages of childhood missing (and the asset information is NOT even speaking about the fundamentally and critically important stages of earliest development in infancy and toddlerhood) – but that horrendous abuse and trauma existed INSTEAD?

Do I dare to know what happened to me in consequence to those horrors?  Do I dare to understand that what is being shown at this link has changed my entire LIFE across my lifespan as I have continued to suffer suffer suffer and struggle struggle struggle against what have always seemed to be invisible monsters?

Take a look at this info:

Protecting Youth from High-Risk Behaviors

Assets have tremendous power to protect youth from many different harmful or unhealthy choices. To illustrate this power, these charts show that youth with the most assets are least likely to engage in four different patterns of high-risk behavior, based on surveys of almost 150,000 6th- to 12th-grade youth in 202 communities across the United States in calendar year 2003. CLICK HERE TO SEE CHART

Looking into protective factors is making my insides shudder, creep and crawl!  This research being presented is being put in the context of negative consequence to adolescents.  IT DOESN’T STOP THERE!  It doesn’t REMOTELY stop there!

Adolescents who are troubled and in trouble, as described in these charts, these ‘Developmental Assets’ deprived young people no doubt started out in life missing huge pieces of goodness in their lives – and as a result will pass through their teen years and right on into their adulthood STILL missing these huge chunks of goodness!

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As I began my ‘resiliency’ investigations yesterday I began at an important place:  I survived 18 years in hell, I came out a good person, and I did not abuse my children.

Today I add – a big – AND?????

AND I began life at terrible risk – right along with the Developmental Asset deprived young people presented as lines in the graphs and charts at THIS PAGE.

And I kept right on going – going – until I reached age 60 having survived advanced aggressive breast cancer that I firmly believe was triggered by terrible traumatic stress during my development.  I am receiving full SS disability for the stress related consequences of being a Developmental Asset deprived person.  I am single with no hope of a secure attachment relationship to a mate (after 2 failed marriages).  I am still and have always struggled in poverty.

I could go on and on with the list of the lifelong consequences I see TODAY as being directly linked not only to the terrible traumatic abuse of my first 18 years, but also to the lack of the presence of most of these assets because nobody else gave them to me when my parents could not.

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All this could seem terribly depressing to me right now – except I possess something of my own to fight back against all the trauma, all the deprivations, even against all the continuing consequences the light of this new protective-factor information I am finding is teaching me about.

I have DARING and in my daring I created the resiliency to not only survive, but to continue to seek to understand my self in my life.  I ALSO care enough to dare to consider what is happening to children everywhere!

Who is meeting the true needs of children in our communities worldwide?  What can I do to help them?  Daring to learn what they need as I learn about what I NEEDED and didn’t receive (and still need and don’t have) is the step I am taking today – painful as my discoveries may be.

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+IMPORTANT INFORMATION: ASSETS KIDS NEED (AND WHAT ABOUT ABUSED KIDS???)

alchemynowLeave a comment

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As I mentioned in my post this morning —

+RESILIENCY: LOOKING AT PROTECTIVE FACTORS

I am beginning to look at the positive influences in my insanely abusive home of origin.  It is really hard for me to even put those two phrases together in one sentence, let alone in one thought.

But in order to answer in my book questions like those I mentioned in my last post (above) I cannot spare this stage in my research.  So, here goes with MORE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT INFORMATION!

For blog readers here who were abused as infant-children please join me in looking at information presented below in new and creative ways.  WE DID SURVIVE hell and become terrific people!

How, exactly, did this happen??

I will be spending time with my proverbial fine-tooth comb going through the information presented here to discover what I need to know about my childhood so I can reasonably answer this question!

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How Are Your Community’s Young People Doing?

Search Institute’s research on Developmental Assets is conducted one community at a time. To see how your young people are doing, commission an asset-based portrait of your community’s young people

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Below you can find several different lists of Developmental Assets®. Each is tailored for a specific age group or language:

40 Developmental Assets for Adolescents (ages 12-18) – – (see below in this post) –
View   Download   Download in Spanish

40 Developmental Assets for Middle Childhood (ages 8-12)
View   Download   Download in Spanish

NEW! 40 Developmental Assets for Grades K–3 (ages 5-9)
View   Download   Download in Spanish

40 Developmental Assets for Early Childhood (ages 3-5)
View   Download   Download in Spanish

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40 Developmental Assets for Adolescents

What are Developmental Assets?

The Developmental Assets® are 40 common sense, positive experiences and qualities that help influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible, successful adults.  Because of its basis in youth development, resiliency, and prevention research and its proven effectiveness, the Developmental Assets framework has become one of the most widely used approach to positive youth development in the United States.
Read the list of assets
Watch the Introduction to Developmental Assets video
Download a web-based introduction to Developmental Assets

Background on the Developmental Assets

Since its creation in 1990, Search Institute’s framework of Developmental Assets has become the most widely used approach to positive youth development in the United States. The assets are grounded in extensive research in youth development, resiliency, and prevention. They represent the relationships, opportunities, and personal qualities that young people need to avoid risks and to thrive.

The Power of Assets

The 40 Developmental Assets represent everyday wisdom about positive experiences and characteristics for young people. Search Institute research has found that these assets are powerful influences on adolescent behavior—both protecting young people from many different risky behaviors, and promoting positive attitudes and actions.

Who needs them? Why are they important?

Over time, studies of more than 2.2 million young people consistently show that the more assets 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.  Research has proven that youth with the most assets are least likely to engage in four different patterns of high-risk behavior, including problem alcohol use, violence, illicit drug use, and sexual activity. The same kind of impact is evident with many other problem behaviors, including tobacco use, depression and attempted suicide, antisocial behavior, school problems, driving and alcohol, and gambling.  Read the study and the results.

The positive power of assets is evident across all cultural and socioeconomic groups of youth, and there is also evidence that assets have the same kind of power for younger children. Furthermore, levels of assets are better predictors of high-risk involvement and thriving than poverty or being from a single-parent family.

The average young person experiences fewer than half of the 40 assets, and boys experience an average of three fewer assets than girls.

How to get started building assets

There are many ways you can start building assets for the children and youth around you. Whether they’re in your family, school, or community, Search Institute has resources you can use to create a better world for kids.

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Search Institute has identified the following building blocks of healthy development—known as Developmental Assets—that help young children grow up healthy, caring, and responsible.

This particular list is intended for adolescents (age 12-18). If you’d like to see the lists for other age groups, you can find them on the Developmental Assets Lists page.

For more information on the assets and the research behind them, see the Developmental Assets or Developmental Assets Research page (same as links presented above).

EXTERNAL ASSETS

Support

  • Family Support | Family life provides high levels of love and support.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Positive Family Communication | Young person and her or his parent(s) communicate positively, and young person is willing to seek advice and counsel from parents.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Other Adult Relationships | Young person receives support from three or more nonparent adults.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Caring Neighborhood | Young person experiences caring neighbors.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Caring School Climate | School provides a caring, encouraging environment.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Parent Involvement in Schooling | Parent(s) are actively involved in helping the child succeed in school.

Empowerment

  • Community Values Youth | Young person perceives that adults in the community value youth.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Youth as Resources | Young people are given useful roles in the community.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Service to Others | Young person serves in the community one hour or more per week.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Safety | Young person feels safe at home, school, and in the neighborhood.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION

Boundaries and Expectations

  • Family Boundaries | Family has clear rules and consequences and monitors the young person’s whereabouts.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • School Boundaries | School provides clear rules and consequences.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Neighborhood Boundaries | Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring young people’s behavior.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Adult Role Models | Parent(s) and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Positive Peer Influence | Young person’s best friends model responsible behavior.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • High Expectations | Both parent(s) and teachers encourage the young person to do well.

Constructive Use of Time

  • Creative Activities | Young person spends three or more hours per week in lessons or practice in music, theater, or other arts.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Youth Programs | Young person spends three or more hours per week in sports, clubs, or organizations at school and/or in community organizations.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Religious Community | Young person spends one hour or more per week in activities in a religious institution.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Time at Home | Young person is out with friends “with nothing special to do” two or fewer nights per week.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION

INTERNAL ASSETS

Commitment to Learning

  • Achievement Motivation | Young person is motivated to do well in school.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • School Engagement | Young person is actively engaged in learning.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Homework | Young person reports doing at least one hour of homework every school day.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Bonding to School | Young person cares about her or his school.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Reading for Pleasure | Young person reads for pleasure three or more hours per week.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION

Positive Values

  • Caring | Young Person places high value on helping other people.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Equality and Social Justice | Young person places high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Integrity | Young person acts on convictions and stands up for her or his beliefs.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Honesty | Young person “tells the truth even when it is not easy.”   SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Responsibility | Young person accepts and takes personal responsibility.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Restraint | Young person believes it is important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION

Social Competencies

  • Planning and Decision Making | Young person knows how to plan ahead and make choices.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Interpersonal Competence | Young person has empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Cultural Competence | Young person has knowledge of and comfort with people of different cultural/racial/ethnic backgrounds.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Resistance Skills | Young person can resist negative peer pressure and dangerous situations.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Peaceful Conflict Resolution | Young person seeks to resolve conflict nonviolently.  SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION

Positive Identity

  • Personal Power | Young person feels he or she has control over “things that happen to me.”
    SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Self-Esteem | Young person reports having a high self-esteem.
    SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Sense of Purpose | Young person reports that “my life has a purpose.”
    SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION
  • Positive View of Personal Future | Young person is optimistic about her or his personal future.
    SHOW ME HOW TO TAKE ACTION

This list is an educational tool. It is not intended to be nor is it appropriate as a scientific measure of the developmental assets of individuals.
Copyright © 1997, 2007 by Search Institute. All rights reserved. This chart may be reproduced for educational, noncommercial use only (with this copyright line). No other use is permitted without prior permission from Search Institute, 615 First Avenue N.E., Suite 125, Minneapolis, MN 55413; 800-888-7828. See Search Institute’s Permissions Guidelines and Request Form.

The following are registered trademarks of Search Institute: Search Institute®, Developmental Assets® and Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth®.

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Free Asset Resources –

Watch this great primer on the Assets and their power to make a difference.

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Developmental Assets Research

The framework of Developmental Assets is grounded in extensive research on what kids need to succeed. Since 1989, Search Institute has been studying the assets in the lives of young people. To date, about three million young people have been surveyed in thousands of communities across North America. Read more about the research behind this framework.

The Current State of Assets Among U. S. Adolescents

The Asset Approach provides an easy-to-use overview of the assets to help you introduce this approach to other leaders, parents, youth, and other stakeholders in your community. Also available in Spanish.

Assets in Real Life

Beginning in 1997, Search Institute launched a revolutionary longitudinal study of asset building in the St. Louis Park School District of St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

What is Successful Development?

Developmental Assets help youth develop successfully . . . but what does that mean? This study took a look at different methods of defining successful development and relevant indicators.

Developmental Assets: Not Just for Adolescents

Search Institute’s framework of Developmental Assets was developed based on the research on adolescents in the United States. However, the basic strength-based approach and framework is consistent with research on what kids need to succeed throughout childhood—and probably into adulthood. Search Institute continues to deepen its research and framework to be relevant for all ages of young people.

The Applicability of Assets

Many people wonder if the research on assets is applicable to young people from different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Research shows that the assets are beneficial to all youth, regardless of these factors.

Other Research Publications on Developmental Assets

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Click here to read or to Leave a Comment »

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endnote:

How Many Assets Do Young People Have?

While the assets are powerful shapers of young people’s lives and choices, too few young people experience many of these assets, based on surveys of almost 150,000 6th- to 12th-grade youth in 202 communities across the Unites States in calendar year 2003.

The Gap in Assets Among Youth

While there is no “magic number” of assets young people should have, our data indicate that 31 is a worthy, though challenging, benchmark for experiencing their positive effects most strongly. Yet, as this chart shows, only 8 percent of youth have 31 or more assets. More than half have 20 or fewer assets.  Click here: http://www.search-institute.org/research/assets/asset-levels

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Developmental Assets Research

The framework of Developmental Assets is grounded in extensive research on what kids need to succeed. Since 1989, Search Institute has been studying the assets in the lives of young people. To date, about three million young people have been surveyed in thousands of communities across North America. Read more about the research behind this framework.

The Current State of Assets Among U. S. Adolescents

The Asset Approach provides an easy-to-use overview of the assets to help you introduce this approach to other leaders, parents, youth, and other stakeholders in your community. Also available in Spanish.

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This is a very powerful illustration — risk-taking vs. thriving behaviors and # of assets:

Protecting Youth from High-Risk Behaviors

Assets have tremendous power to protect youth from many different harmful or unhealthy choices. To illustrate this power, these charts show that youth with the most assets are least likely to engage in four different patterns of high-risk behavior, based on surveys of almost 150,000 6th- to 12th-grade youth in 202 communities across the United States in calendar year 2003. CLICK HERE TO SEE CHART

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That pattern held true for the Fargo-Moorhead (North Dakota-Minnesoata) data collected in 2007 – (pg. 20-21): http://www.ndsu.edu/sdc/publications/reports/UnitedWay_2010ChildNeedsCassClay.pdf
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+RESILIENCY: LOOKING AT PROTECTIVE FACTORS

alchemynowLeave a comment

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I expect to be writing a series of posts about my explorations into what experts seem to call PROTECTIVE FACTORS.   These factors appear to be the supporting tree trunk for what these experts refer to as RESILIENCY within infants, children, families, adults and societies.  I will be studying information such as that presented on this post so that I can think more clearly about the conditions in the bigger picture that existed within my severely abusive home of origin.

How did my parents’ 6 children survive and grow into fine human beings?  How did I, the chosen target child for my mentally ill mother’s ongoing pervasive and terrible abuse not only survive, but NOT abuse my own children?

There MUST have been some Protective Factors in our family.  I need to know what they were and how LACK of many of these factors must have powerfully interacted with the Protective Factors that WERE present. At first glance at the information presented below I cannot begin to imagine that the family I grew up in had ANY of these factors present — and yet some combination of them MUST have been there.  This study of mine on this topic will take some time!!

So, here is my beginning —

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A child welfare site offers this:  what are the protective factors?

The five Protective Factors are the foundation of the Strengthening Families approach. Extensive evidence supports the common-sense notion that when these Protective Factors are present and robust in a family, the likelihood of abuse and neglect diminish. Research also shows that these are the factors that create healthy environments for the optimal development of all children.

Parental Resilience

No one can eliminate stress from parenting, but building parental resilience can affect how a parent deals with stress.  Parental resilience is the ability to constructively cope with and bounce back from all types of challenges.  It is about creatively solving problems, building trusting relationships, maintaining a positive attitude, and seeking help when it is needed.

Social Connections

Friends, family members, neighbors, and other members of a community provide emotional support and concrete assistance to parents.  Social connections help parents build networks of support that serve multiple purposes: they can help parents develop and reinforce community norms around childrearing, provide assistance in times of need, and serve as a resource for parenting information or help solving problems.  Because isolation is a common risk factor for abuse and neglect, parents who are isolated need support in building positive friendships.

Concrete Support in Times of Need

Parents need access to the types of concrete supports and services that can minimize the stress of difficult situations, such as a family crisis, a condition such as substance abuse, or stress associated with lack of resources.  Building this Protective Factor is about helping to ensure the basic needs of a family, such as food, clothing, and shelter, are met, and well as connecting parents and children to services, especially those that have a stigma associated with them, like domestic violence shelter or substance abuse counseling, in times of crisis.

Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development

Having accurate information about raising young children and appropriate expectations for their behavior help parents better understand and care for children.  It is important that information is available when parents need it, that is, when it is relevant to their life and their child. Parents whose own families used harsh discipline techniques or parents of children with developmental or behavior problems or special needs require extra support in building this Protective Factor.

Social and Emotional Competence of Children

A child’s ability to interact positively with others, to self-regulate, and to effectively communicate his or her emotions has a great impact on the parent-child relationship.  Children with challenging behaviors are more likely to be abused, so early identification and work with them helps keep their development on track and keeps them safe.  Also, children who have experienced or witnessed violence need a safe environment that offers opportunities to develop normally.

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There is a pdf file from Strengthening Families through Early Care and Education at this link that describes how their programs are designed to help families build these five protective factors into their lives and into their family.

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From the Child Welfare Information Gateway website –

Risk & Protective Factors

Find research on the risk factors that contribute to child abuse and neglect, including characteristics of parents or caregivers, families, children, and communities that increase risk. Also find research on protective factors that promote safe and supportive families and resilience in children.

Risk and Protective Factors for Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Across the Life Cycle (PDF – 193 KB)
National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (2009)
Lists risk and protective factors at the individual, family, and school/community levels for depression, anxiety, substance abuse, schizophrenia, and conduct disorders.

Related Topics

Preventing child abuse & neglect
Responding to child abuse & neglect

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Note:  If the two active links in the first paragraph of this post go dormant and are no longer active – please just Google search those terms to find information — using Protective Factors in one search and Resiliency in another search.

SEE ALSO:

+IMPORTANT INFORMATION: ASSETS KIDS NEED (AND WHAT ABOUT ABUSED KIDS???)

Click here to read or to Leave a Comment »