Exploring the relationship between youth assets and substance abuse among rural youths: An empirical process for community based planning

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between developmental assets and substance use behavior among rural youths in order to provide communities empirical findings useful in developing prevention strategies. Located within the domains of community, family, school, peer groups and the individual; youths assets are theorized to assist in preventing youths from engaging in high-risk behavior. In order to use empirical information to guide prevention strategies, rural communities must have a way to measure youth assets, and have access to localized research findings specific to their population.;There are major limitations in the field of youth development due to a lack of standardized instruments measuring the construct of assets, and a lack of published research addressing the relationship between assets and substance use among rural youths. The Youth Asset Survey (YAS) displays promise in its capacity to measure assets. Developed by the public health sector YAS has had limited research findings with previous studies restricted to urban areas in a mid-western state.;A survey containing the YAS and items related to the use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana was administered by three school districts to over 2000 youths living in a rural county in northeast Ohio. The large sample size provided ample opportunity to test the theoretical concepts related to developmental youth assets as well as providing prevention based strategic ideas to the local community.;A hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test the relationship between assets and substance use. Results from the analysis indicated that a strong and significant association exists between assets and use for all three substances. Asset scores doubled the predictive capacity of reported frequency use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana from a model containing only demographic variables. Peer Role Model and Responsible Choices were two assets providing the greatest impact on the capacity for the overall model to predict the reported frequency use for each of the three substances. Further, YAS displayed strong internal consistency and generated a parsimonious factor analytic structure. Prevention strategies for communities highlighted by peer leadership initiatives, and ideas for further research are discussed.