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The Developmental Assets Profile

Developmental Assets Overview

The Developmental Assets are 40 common sense, positive experiences and qualities that help influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible 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.

Research on Developmental Assets

Search Institute is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. Over the past 20 years, Search Institute has surveyed nearly three million youth about how they experience the 40 Developmental Assets?a research-based framework that identifies basic building blocks of human development. They have found clear relationships between youth outcomes and asset levels in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.

Developmental Assets are powerfully related to a range of outcomes among children and youth. Low levels of assets are related to increased risk for negative outcomes including academic underachievement and school problems; alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use; precocious sexual activity; and antisocial behavior and violence. High levels of assets are related to positive outcomes including academic achievement, leadership, thriving, and well being. Assets are crucial for the healthy development of all youth, regardless of their community size, geographic region, gender, economic status, race, or ethnicity.

The Developmental Assets Profile

The Developmental Assets Profile (DAP) provides an assessment of the Developmental Asset categories for youth ages 11-18. Based on Search Institute?s Developmental Assets framework, the DAP provides a quick, simple, valid, and reliable self-report of the Developmental Asset categories currently being experienced by adolescents. The DAP provides a way to document, quantify, and portray adolescents? reports of the types and levels of Developmental Assets working in their lives.

The DAP was not designed to yield information about the presence or absence of each of the 40 Developmental Assets. Instead, the DAP yields quantitative scores on eight asset categories, as well as five context areas. The DAP can be a useful descriptive tool in a wide range of settings including schools, mental health practices, family services organizations, and youth programs; and for diverse purposes including individual assessment, research, and program evaluation.

The Developmental Assets framework includes both external and internal assets. External assets are positive experiences, relationships, and encouragement and support young people receive from peers, parents, teachers, neighbors, and other adults in the community. They include positive role models, boundaries and expectations, as well as young people?s constructive use of time. Internal assets are characteristics and behaviors that reflect positive personal and psychological development in young people. They include strengths such as positive values, positive identity, social competencies, and commitment to learning.

Scoring and Reporting DAP Results

There are two alternative ways of scoring and portraying reported assets. The DAP yields quantitative scores on eight asset categories, as well as five context areas. Of 58 items, 26 tap external assets, and the remaining 32 tap internal assets.

On the external asset side, the DAP scales are:


1. Support - support from parents, family and other adults; parent-adolescent communication; advice and help from parents; helpful neighbors; and caring school environment.
2. Empowerment - feeling safe at home, at school and in the neighborhood; feeling valued; and having useful jobs and roles.
3. Boundaries and Expectations?having good role models; clear rules at home and school; encouragement from parents and teachers; and monitoring by family and neighbors.
4. Constructive Use of Time - participation in religious or spiritual activity; involvement in a sport, club, or group; creative activities; and quality time at home.

On the internal asset side, the DAP scales are:


5. Commitment to Learning - enjoys reading and learning; caring about school; doing homework; and being encouraged to try new things.
6. Positive Values - standing up for one?s beliefs; taking responsibility; avoiding alcohol, tobacco and drugs; valuing honesty; healthy behaviors; being encouraged to help others; and helping, respecting, and serving others.
7. Social Competencies - building friendships; properly expressing feelings; planning ahead; resisting negative peer pressure; being sensitive to and accepting others; and resolving conflicts peacefully.
8. Positive Identity - optimism; locus of control; and self-esteem.

The 58 items can also be grouped according to five context areas. The context areas scales are:

1. Personal Assets - individual psychological and behavioral strengths such as self esteem, valuing honesty, taking responsibility, planning ahead, managing frustration, enjoying reading, and feeling in control of one?s life.
2. Social Assets - assets based on social relationships with one or more people outside of the family, such as friendships, positive peer and adult role models, resisting pressure from others, resolving conflicts peacefully, being sensitive to others, and feeling valued by others.
3. Family Assets - positive family communication and support, clear family rules, quality time at home, advice and encouragement from parents, and feeling safe at home.
4. School Assets - clear and fair school rules, encouragement from teachers, a caring school environment, feeling safe at school, caring about school, being motivated to learn, and being actively engaged in reading and learning.
5. Community Assets - activities and involvements in the larger community such as sports, clubs, groups and religious activities, creative activities such as music and the arts, having good neighbors, accepting others, and helping in the community.