Emerging evidence suggests that positive youth development is a viable endeavor to undertake to help prevent problem behavior, and efforts to measure these assets among youth have been undertaken with some success. However, college educators have not considered the potential role of asset replacement within the college setting, nor have efforts been undertaken to develop valid and reliable instruments that may provide a baseline for the development of possible asset replacement strategies or interventions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and investigate such baseline measures to initiate dialogue as to whether asset replacement theory is a worthwhile and feasible endeavor for colleges and universities undertake. This research details ten development asset measures originally developed and tested among adolescents, and modified for appropriate testing among 540 randomly selected emerging adults.
The sample was randomly split to produce an exploratory and confirmatory sample. Parallel analysis confirmed the 8 theorized constructs (Family Communication, Peer Role Models, Future Aspirations, Community Involvement, Responsible Choices, Non-parental Adult Role Models, Spirituality/Religion, Cultural Respect/Life). Exploratory factor loadings ranged from .75 to .92 indicating that the items were highly saturated in each latent construct. Utilizing structural equation modeling methods, the fully correlated factor structure was fit to the confirmatory sample, revealing the model fit the data responsibly well, χ2(n=226, 296) = 556.76, CFI=.91, TLI = .89, RMSEA = .062 (CI90: .054-.070).
Analyses suggest colleges and university should consider asset replacement theory as potential pathway to producing better health outcomes among emerging adults. The identified constructs performed better among college students than among adolescents. The psychometrically sound developmental asset measures produced by this research provide those interested in engaging in asset replacement valid and reliable measures to investigate other populations. Implications toward their potential uses will be discussed.