Conceptualizing and Modeling Individual and Ecological Asset Components of Thriving in Early Adolescence

Abstract

Using two randomly selected separate subsamples of 50,000 middle or high school students drawn from the 1999 to 2000 Search Institute Profiles of Student Life Attitudes and Behavior survey, firstand second-order factors of items assessing internal and external assets were identified. In both samples, first-order exploratory factor analyses produced 14 scales with conceptual integrity and adequate reliability, although differences were found between the middle and high school samples (e.g., further differentiation of scales). The factors in the middle school sample loaded on two second-order constructs, representing individual and ecological assets. These second-order factors accounted for unique variance in an index of thriving. The concept of developmental assets and the role of these assets in early adolescent development are discussed.