Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

In The Courage to Be Chaste, the priest-psychologist BenedictGroeschel writes, “Sexual self-control is often theweakest link in an individual’s self-control system.” 42 Thisis not true only with respect to youth; adults also oftensuffer from the lack of self-discipline in this importantarea of their lives.Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s most admired citizens,had 13 virtues that he sought to develop throughouthis life. Chastity was one of them. Some have argued thathe never quite mastered it, but he believed in its importanceand strove to improve in this area.Young people need to know thatsexual self-discipline can be verychallenging but very rewarding.Unfortunately, youth see many adults who are not eventrying to achieve self-discipline in the sexual domain oftheir lives. Young persons should not see adults’ shortcomingsas a license to repeat those same errors in theirown lives. Instead, they need our help in reflecting on thepain caused by those errors and in finding the pathwaysto avoid making those mistakes themselves as they seek tobuild a positive future.About sex, our core message to young people must bethis: Self-discipline in the sexual domain of your life canbe very challenging but very rewarding—to you, to thoseyou love and those that love you, and to society in general.OUTCOME 6:Self-Disciplined PersonPromising Practice 3:Implement a community-wideapproach to building6 developmental assets.Because unhealthy adolescent behavior impacts the welfareof the wider community as well as the lives of individualteens, many communities have taken steps to maximizethe likelihood that young people will develop theself-discipline to make positive choices rather than negativeones.CHAPTER 5: Fostering the 8 Strengths of Character—Outcome 6Over the past 30 years, the work of the Minneapolis-basedSearch Institute (www.search-institute.org) has been aleading example of a community-wide approach. TheSearch Institute names 40 “developmental assets.” Twentyof these are “external assets,” positive experiences youngpeople receive from their environment. Twenty are “internalassets,” inner strengths of the young person, includingmany that relate to self-discipline.The external assets are divided into four categories: (1)support (including family love, other supportive adult relationships,and a caring school climate); (2) empowerment(safety and having useful roles in the community); (3)boundaries and expectations (including clear family rules,positive adult role models, and positive peer influence);and (4) constructive use of time (including involvement increative activities, youth programs, and a religious community).The internal assets are also grouped into four categories:(1) commitment to learning (school engagement, achievementmotivation); (2) positive values (caring, integrity,social justice, and the belief that it is important not to besexually active or use alcohol or other drugs); (3) socialcompetencies (including decision-making and conflict resolutionskills); and (4) positive identity (including a positiveview of one’s future).The Search Institute’s research has shown that young peoplediffer greatly in the extent to which they possess thesedevelopmental assets. For example, one study of morethan 99,000 youth in grades 6-12 from 213 cities andtowns across America revealed the following distribution:◆ 20% of youth reported 0-10 assets◆ 42% reported 11-20 assets◆ 30% reported 21-30 assets◆ 8% reported 31-40 assets.The incidence of adolescent risk behavior varies dramaticallyas a function of how many assets a young personreports. In a 1998 research article for Applied DevelopmentalScience, Search researchers documented that low (0-10)asset youth are more likely than high (31-40) asset youthto:◆ use alcohol (53% vs. 3%)◆ smoke tobacco (45% vs. 1%)◆ have used illicit drugs at least 3 or more times in thepast year (45% vs. 1%)◆ have had sexual intercourse at least 3 or more times(42% vs. 1%)◆ report frequent depression or to have made a suicideattempt (40% vs. 4%)◆ engage in at least 3 acts of violence in the past year(61% vs. 6%)173Smart & Good High Schools