What are Developmental Assets?

Developmental assets are said to be the positive relationships, standards, opportunities and skill that every young person needs in order to grow up into a caring and responsible adult.

According to Mirowsky, as many as 40 developmental assets have been identified as developmental nutrients which all young people need. These are tangible, rational, positive experiences and qualities that are essential to bringing up successful young people. (Mirowsky, J, 2003: 16, 17)

In this paper, we are going to measure three major assets namely caring school climate, achievement motivation and cultural competence.  All these are related to positive youth development. They bring about school success and also ensure protection from behavior that may risk the youth’s health. The assets bring out the school as the major supporter.

1. Caring School Climate

This is a caring environment provided by the school that is encouraging to the young people. It makes the young people feel comfortable and wanted, hence keeps them away from risky behavior such as fighting and quarrelling.

To strengthen this asset, the school should ensure that the younger children are not bullied by the elder ones. The school administration should put in place a programme of mentoring relationships where each of the elder students has a young one to look after.

It should also put in place policies to ensure the wellbeing of the students.. When dealing with child harassment cases, it should avoid showing anger or disappointment but instead listen to the students’ point of view. (Metha, A, 2007:10)

2.  Achievement Motivation

Young people are usually motivated to do well in school in order to achieve their desired goals as well as compete with their colleagues. It helps to avoid idleness which leads to heath risks such as alcoholism and drug addiction.

To encourage motivation, the school should initiate rewards to the top performers while making sure to encourage the low performers with small tokens to boost their ambition. To make learning enjoyable, co curricular activities like games should be incorporated in the school programme.

3. Cultural Competence

This is the knowledge of people of different cultural and the love to make friends of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Young people meet a variety of friends with whom they interact and feel comfortable with. (Ross, C, 2003:24)

This should be encouraged as it helps young people to appreciate the personal views of other people as well as the background of people of different ethnic groups and cultures, hence kills tribalism and racism.

To encourage this asset, the school should organize cultural events and ensure that there are frequent multicultural experiences for the students. It should integrate value development, service learning and cultural interrelationships into the curriculum. (Mirowsky, J, 2003: 28)

Existentialism

This is a modern philosophy that lays emphasis on the dominance of individual existence. It is the idea that thought, beliefs and ideas are created by the individual. According to it, each person has the liberty to become whatever he wants, and has the responsibility to use that liberty suitably.

In relation to existentialism, developmental assets shape the young people to give them a one can mindset of responsibility and rational thinking. It changes their attitude towards education and they become participants in the development of education as well as their own development.

The assets help students to develop good communication skills as they interact with their peers and also as they share different experiences. Finally, the development assets help the young people to express themselves and clearly state their desires while on the other hand understanding and appreciating the different views of other people.