Developmental Assets and Its Implications on Youth Development Among Public Sector Colleges in Lahore

Abstract

The primary objective of the study was to measure the association between developmental assets and youth development along with assessing the role of family, peer, neighborhood, community and schooling. Developmental assets signify personal, interpersonal and environmental strengths that enhance the health and educational outcomes of the youth. Similarly, youth development refers to the tendency of the young people to achieve higher in education and to actively participate in the community. Theoretical framework of the study is based on Ecological Model of Bronfenbrenner (1994) for understanding the role of family, peer, neighborhood, community and schooling in youth development. The researcher applied exploratory sequential design of mix method for the current study to explore the past familiarities and current trend of the youth development. In the first phase qualitative study was conducted with the aim to contextualize and explore the concepts of developmental assets and youth development in Pakistani context. Focus Group Discussions with the students, teachers and parents of students were conducted for the qualitative study. The qualitative findings of the study informed and established the development of the cross-sectional survey tool that was used on a large-scale population of the college students. In the second phase the quantitative study was conducted to see how the developmental assets are associated with youth development by using a cross sectional survey. The qualitative codes and themes were gathered from qualitative data and domain analysis technique was used for qualitative data analysis. The qualitative study concluded that both developmental assets and youth development has some cultural meanings. In the first instance the study found that role of siblings, positive health attributes and awareness about Information Communication Technologies are additional and substantive developmental assets in Pakistani society. Similarly, possession of leadership qualities and employability are important indicators of youth development in Pakistan. A cross sectional survey tool that was formed after the qualitative phase was used for the collection of quantitative data from college students. Ethical considerations were ensured before conducting the field work for the quantitative study. The objective of the quantitative phase was to see the relationship between developmental assets and youth development. The Quantitative data analysis was conducted by GGM model (Generalized Method of Moments). The quantitative study concluded that developmental assets are significantly associated with youth development. Overall, internal developmental assets are more valuable than the external developmental assets. The study concludes that the role of the schooling is at the highest level in defining the youth development. In addition to that the family, community and neighborhood also have substantive role to play in VI the development of the youth. Career selection, moral and financial help are found to be important aspects of family involvement and contribution towards youth development. The study argues that efforts can be made to promote healthy youth development by engaging them in community activities, healthy family relationship and supportive school environment.