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Rating: 
Summary: Skip It
Review: I found the listing of the Assets in the book what Young Children Need To Succeed trite and not very illuminating. Whereas it was too obvious and cursory to be useful, it was a nice pat on the back and a boost of support for making me feel like I was doing the right thing anyway. So I was hoping that this book which was touted as the research behind the assets would be more substantive and useful. As someone who is accustomed to reading credible research books and articles in the sciences and social sciences, this book was complete rubbish. From a pscyhology and educational standpoint, this book is not a credible source. It adds nothing more than what you will find in the books that list the assets (The what children need to survive books.) and even those books are not as useful as others in the market but then as an advocate for children, I don't really think anyone should need a book to remind them to respect and support ones' own children and all of the children in our various communitites.
Rating:
Summary: Skip It
Review: I read this book as a class requirement and I loved it. True, there may be some gaps in the research, but the point is clear: We must have a mindset that youth are valuable and worth investing time in and these 40 assets provide you with a framework and a mindset that will help you help youth around you. These may not be the absolute 40 things that work (they never claim to be) but they sure are things every child/youth can benefit from: caring adults, postive peer influence, achievement motivation, etc. I highly recommend this for any parent, teacher, or anyone that works with youth on a regular basis.
Rating: 
Summary: If only everyone could have the assets
Review: I read this book as a class requirement and I loved it. True, there may be some gaps in the research, but the point is clear: We must have a mindset that youth are valuable and worth investing time in and these 40 assets provide you with a framework and a mindset that will help you help youth around you. These may not be the absolute 40 things that work (they never claim to be) but they sure are things every child/youth can benefit from: caring adults, postive peer influence, achievement motivation, etc. I highly recommend this for any parent, teacher, or anyone that works with youth on a regular basis.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and useful synthesis, but flawed paradigm
Review: So many people think they know what's wrong with young people today, but Developmental Assets by Scales and Leffert creates the real picture of our kids--a few are giving the whole generation a bad name. These experienced authors do this in an amazing way--meticulous reading of 1200 studies about adolescents and culling out the best 800 to tell us what is settled research and knowledge about how to encourage kids to grow up healthy and responsible in today's society.mroper
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and useful synthesis, but flawed paradigm
Review: The Search Institute's "developmental assets" model is flawed, arbitrary, incomplete, etc., but in this book that ersatz "youth development research institute" gets the benefit of some pretty good scholarship by at least one respected scholar (Nancy Leffert has an established track record publishing on child/youth development issues in a variety of good journals). In this volume, the 40 developmental "assets" that the Search Institute has identified as essential through survey instruments are [somewhat belatedly] linked to real research on youth psychology, sociology, etc. The result is a useful literature review, clearly written and better edited than many similar volumes. Ironically, this book actually helps illuminate many of the gaps in the Search Institute's "assets" model--in some chapters, the authors allow that evidence to back up some of the "assets" is slim or that the research suggests there are things missing from the model. Advice: read this for its lucid summary of youth-related research; forget the assets "packaging."
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