Helping Kids Succeed – Alaskan Style!

Practical Suggestions for Building Assets in Your Child

Asset # 15- Positive Peer Influence

		Traditional Ways to Promote Asset # 15 Encourage young people to help each other with their tasks. This helps them learn to cooperate with each other. — Shishmaref Don't put down your children's friends - because you are putting down your own child. Instead have other kids over to spend time in your home with you. —Teller
To Build Asset # 15 Parents and Extended Family Can . . . Discuss peer influence and friendship within the family. Talk about it without lecturing, and give thoughtful feedback to kids' concerns. Be an "askable parent" about all kinds of behavior. — Eagle River Have your children bring their friends to your home. Let them benefit from being around the responsible role models and positive setting you offer. — Anchorage Share your expectations for behavior with your children's friends, especially if your standards are different from their own or their family's. Respond positively when they honor your boundaries. — Whittier Share some of your own experiences with good and bad peer influence. Share a time when you had to let go of an unhealthy friendship. Share a time when you influenced a friend in a way you later regretted. — Juneau
	CARD Game The purpose of this game is to encourage constructive communication between adults and youth. The questions are based on the Asset-Building framework outlined in the book, Helping Kids Succeed - Alaskan Style. The card game is available for $3.00 for Alaskan residents and $6.00 for non-Alaskan residents. Please contact Alaska ICE to order.

Asset # 15 — Positive Peer Influence

Children's best friends model responsible behavior. They are a good influence. They do well at school and stay away from risky behaviors such as alcohol and other drug use.

60% of youth surveyed by Search Institute have this asset in their lives.*

*Based on Search Institute surveys of almost 100,000 6th to 12th grade youth throughout the United States

What are Assets?

Assets are 40 key building blocks to help kids succeed. Like a dream catcher, assets are the supporting threads in a young person's life that can keep away harm and invite goodness.

	Words of Wisdom By Derek Peterson In January of this year, I was presenting an Assets TOPPS in Dillingham. The participants were each coming to understand the asset building language from their own, unique perspective and set of experiences. On the afternoon of the second day, one thoughtful father made an observation. He commented how he sees many "cliques" of teens within his community. He noticed how they have staked out their own "turf" and how positive teens tend to run in positive peer groups and teens who are more likely to use alcohol and drugs run in a group of like minded souls. As an adult, he understands the impact that these teens have on each other. One group seems to propel each other with high expectations and standards, while the other group seems to pull each other toward the floor. This thoughtful adult wondered aloud about building bridges between these groups of youth. How do we go about building bridges? Why doesn't it happen more naturally? What is the number of teens necessary to make a "critical mass" large enough for their behaviors to have impact? When a bridge is built, what are the chances for positive youth to be impacted in negative ways? Does "one bad apple" really spoil the whole bunch? As we discussed these issues, we all gained a deeper insight into asset building. It is one thing to know the right thing to do for children and youth. It is an entirely different thing to begin to do it. There are risks involved, even though they may be imaginary. What is your comfort level with "bridge building?" What can you do to begin?
		News You Can Use It is commonly known that a teen's friends have a strong influence on his/her behavior. Because humans tend to be "normative" and often blend into the norms that we find ourselves surrounded by, we need to be aware of the group norms and behaviors that effect us. Too often, teens have not yet developed the insights necessary to understand the gravitational pull of these norms and behaviors - either positive or negative - upon their lives. Research has shown that the asset of Positive Peer Influence is associated with the following: Development of Social Maturity; Increased Altruism: Increased Self-Efficacy; Increased Self-Esteem; Higher Academic Achievement; Increased School Competence; Higher Educational Aspirations; Increased Involvement in Sports; A Buffering Effect on Depressive Symptoms; and Decreased Alcohol Use.
This newsletter and other asset resources are produced by the Association of Alaska School Boards’ Alaska Initiative for Community Engagement (Alaska ICE) 316 West 11th Street Juneau, Alaska 99801 Tel: (907) 586-1486 Fax: (907) 586-1450 Email: alaskaice@aasb.org