Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth. How Communities Contribute to Positive Youth Development.

Summarizes survey research of 90,000 9-12th grade students from 112 communities about their perceptions of their communities' strengths and how these factors contribute to youth development. Discusses community and youth characteristics, at risk behaviors, community strength measurements, youth assets, and implications for various individuals and organizations that affect youth development. Key findings include: (1) communities vary considerably in their success in preventing at risk behavior and providing a nurturing environment; (2) institutions at the community level are the source of the most powerful strengths in promoting community health; (3) a healthy community benefits both youth with high assets and those with fewer personal assets; (4) family factors do not differ much between the healthiest and least healthy communities; (5) only when most youth experience a community strength does it become a strong predictor of community health; and (6) individual community strengths can be added one by one to produce a powerful impact as a whole. Includes statistical tables and graphs.