Measuring Deficits and Assets: How We Track Youth Development Now, and How We Should Track It

Abstract

This paper provides a framework for discussing the ways in which we currently study the development of our young people and the purposes to which we put the information we gather about them. We argue that the data we now collect give us at best inadequate and often misleading information about young people; that, in fact, our dominant approach to data collectionlearning what is wrong with young peopleis fundamen- tally flawed. This approach fails to investigate the factors in a young person's life that we know lead to healthy development. We conclude with a proposed redefinition of how we should measure youth devel- opment from the perspective of young people, adults, organizations and the community at large.