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Data Resources for Child/Youth Well-Being Data Models

A number of organizations and agencies have developed systems of data or sets of indicators for monitoring or describing the well-being of communities, with a focus on children and families.  These sets of indicators or data models can be used to describe a given community according to the particular interest or focus of the organization that developed the model. 

By clicking on one of the eight data models below, you will be taken to a list of linked relevant web sites and data archives:

  1. Communities that Care: Hawkins and Catalano Risk and Protective Factors
  2. Developmental Assets Approach: Search Institute
  3. KidsCount: Annie E. Casey Foundation (and Maine KidsCount: Maine Children’s Alliance)
  4. Maine Marks: Maine Children’s Cabinet
  5. Maine Office of Substance Abuse (OSA): Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey (MYDAUS) Indicators
  6. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Preventon: Risk and Protective Factors
  7. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS)
  8. Youth Suicide Prevention Risk Factors

 

1. Communities that Care: Hawkins and Catalano Risk and Protective Factors

http://casat.unr.edu/bestpractices/view.php?program=23

Academic Performance

Alienation and rebelliousnes

Association with Drug-Using Peers

Extreme Economic Deprivation

Neighborhood/Community Disorganization

Onset of Drug Use

2. Developmental Assets Approach: Search Institute

40 Developmental Indicators of Adolescent Well-Being (see website for other age categories)           
http://www.search-institute.org/assets/

EXTERNAL ASSETS

Support

  • Family support
    Family life provides high levels of love and support.
  • Positive family communication
    Young person and her or his parent(s) communicate positively, and young person is willing to seek advice and counsel from parent(s).
  • Other adult relationships
    Young person receives support from three or more nonparent adults.
  • Caring neighborhood
    Young person experiences caring neighbors.
  • Caring school climate
    School provides a caring, encouraging environment.
  • Parent involvement in schooling
    Parent(s) are actively involved in helping young person succeed in school.

Empowerment

  • Community values youth
    Young person perceives that adults in the community value youth.
  • Youth as resources
    Young people are given useful roles in the community.
  • Service to others
    Young person serves in the community one hour or more per week.
  • Safety
    Young person feels safe at home, at school, and in the neighborhood.

Boundaries and Expectations

  • Family boundaries
    Family has clear rules and consequences, and monitors the young person's whereabouts.
  • School boundaries
    School provides clear rules and consequences.
  • Neighborhood boundaries
    Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring young people's behavior.
  • Adult role models
    Parent(s) and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.
  • Positive peer influence
    Young person's best friends model responsible behavior.
  • High expectations
    Both parent(s) and teachers encourage the young person to do well.

Constructive Use of Time

  • Creative activities
    Young person spends three or more hours per week in lessons or practice in music, theater, or other arts.
  • Youth programs
    Young person spends three or more hours per week in sports, clubs, or organizations at school and/or in community organizations.
  • Religious community
    Young person spends one hour or more per week in activities in a religious institution.
  • Time at home
    Young person is out with friends "with nothing special to do" two or fewer nights per week.

INTERNAL ASSETS

Commitment to Learning

  • Achievement motivation
    Young person is motivated to do well in school.
  • School engagement
    Young person is actively engaged in learning.
  • Homework
    Young person reports doing at least one hour of homework every school day.
  • Bonding to school
    Young person cares about her or his school.
  • Reading for pleasure
    Young person reads for pleasure three or more hours per week.

Positive Values

  • Caring
    Young person places high value on helping other people.
  • Equality and social justice
    Young person places high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty.
  • Integrity
    Young person acts on convictions and stands up for her or his beliefs.
  • Honesty
    Young person "tells the truth even when it is not easy."
  • Responsibility
    Young person accepts and takes personal responsibility.
  • Restraint
    Young person believes it is important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs.

Social Competencies

  • Planning and decision making
    Young person knows how to plan ahead and make choices.
  • Interpersonal competence
    Young person has empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills.
  • Cultural competence
    Young person has knowledge of and comfort with people of different cultural/racial/ethnic backgrounds.
  • Resistance skills
    Young person can resist negative peer pressure and dangerous situations.
  • Peaceful conflict resolution
    Young person seeks to resolve conflict nonviolently.

Positive Identity

  • Personal power
    Young person feels he or she has control over "things that happen to me."
  • Self-esteem
    Young person reports having a high self-esteem.
  • Sense of purpose
    Young person reports that "my life has a purpose."
  • Positive view of personal future
    Young person is optimistic about her or his personal future.  

3. KidsCount

This  system contains data for over 75 measures  of child well-being

4. Maine Marks: Maine Children’s Cabinet

24 Measures of Child Well-Being (2005)
http://www.mainemarks.org/indicators2005/indi_main.htm

5. Maine Office of Substance Abuse (OSA): Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey (MYDAUS) Indicators

http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/bds/osa/data/mydaus/index.htm
           
Percentage of 8 th, 10th, 12thGraders Who Report 30-Day Use of Specific Substances, Maine versus the US, 2004

Past 30-Day Use of Substances by Grade, 2004

  • Smokeless tobacco (lifetime and past-month)
  • Alcohol (past-month)
  • Binge drinking (past two weeks)
  • Marijuana (lifetime and past-month)
  • LSD (lifetime and past-month)
  • Cocaine (lifetime and past-month)
  • Ecstasy (lifetime and past-month)
  • Stimulants (lifetime and past-month)
  • Heroin (lifetime and past-month)
  • Other illegal drugs (lifetime and past-month)

Risk Factors

  • Peer/Individual:
    • Rebelliousness
    • Early Initiation of Drug Use
    • Peers’ Drug Use
    • Sensation Seeking
    • Perceived Harm
  • Family:
    • Poor Family Management
    • Family History of  Antisocial Behavior
    • Parental Attitude Favorable to Drug Use
    • Parental Attitude Favorable to Antisocial Behavior
  • School:
    • Lower Academic Achievement
    • Low Commitment to School
  • Community:
    • Laws and Norms Favorable to Drug Use
    • Perceived Availability of Drugs
    • Perceived Availability of  Handguns

Protective Factors

  • Peer/Individual:
    • Social Skills
    • Belief in a Moral Order Religiosity
  • Family:
    • Family Attachment
    • Family Opportunities for Involvement
    • Family Rewards for Involvement
  • School:
    • School Opportunities for Involvement
    • School Rewards for Involvement
  • Community:
    • Community Opportunities for Involvement
    • Community Rewards for Involvement

6. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Risk and Protective Factors

Individual factors

  • Early antisocial behavior
  • Emotional factors such as high behavioral activation and low behavioral inhibition
  • Poor cognitive development
  • Low intelligence
  • Hyperactivity

Family factors

  • Parenting
  • Maltreatment
  • Family violence
  • Divorce
  • Parental psychopathology
  • Familial antisocial behaviors
  • Teenage parenthood
  • Family structure
  • Large family size

Peer factors

  • Association with deviant peers
  • Peer rejection

School and community factors

  • Failure to bond to school
  • Poor academic performance
  • Low academic aspirations
  • Living in a poor family
  • Neighborhood disadvantage
  • Disorganized neighborhoods
  • Concentration of delinquent peer groups
  • Access to weapons

Possible sources for indicator data:

7. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS)

http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/index.htm

Also see:

8. Youth Suicide Prevention Risk Factors

http://www.state.me.us/suicide/risk.htm

A joint effort of the Childhood Injury Prevention and Control Program in the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (formerly called the Bureau of Health), and the Office of Substance Abuse, both within the Department of Health and Human Services.

The indicators have been arranged using a risk and protective factor framework based on the Hawkins and Catalano model.

Community Domain

  • Youths living in poverty.
  • Divorce rates (involving children).
  • Licensed Mental Health care workers in geographic regions

Family Domain

  • Domestic Violence Assaults Parents against Children (UCR data).
  • Problems with interpersonal relationships (family, boy/girlfriend).
  • Serious or excessive family fights and conflicts.
  • Inadequate supervision.

Peer/Individual Domain

  • School dropout rates.
  • Drug and alcohol use/abuse.
  • Juvenile arrests for crimes against persons (UCR data).
  • Hospital admissions of youth for mental health issues (hospital discharge data).
  • Use of guns in association with assaults (UCR data).
  • Loss of self-esteem or negative anticipated outcomes.
  • Physical or sexual abuse.
  • Adolescent pregnancy.
  • Sexual orientation.
  • Driving while intoxicated.
  • Having unprotected sex.
  • School performance problems.

Outcome

  • Detailed plans for suicide.
  • Suicidal ideation, threats of suicide.
  • Attempted suicide.
  • Youth suicide.
  • Teen violent death rates