Indicator: Perception of Youth as Community Assets

Priority or Priorities:  ACES/Resiliency
Initiative(s): Asset building schools and communities
Outcome (s): Communities promoting and modeling clear standards of behavior

Why This is Important

There is a common wisdom that adults view adolescents negatively. Such a negative perception may influence adults to be less supportive of youth’s needs. Believing that young people are assets to a community is one way a community keeps children at the heart of decision-making.

Where We Stand

*For 2005, data is being collected differently for this indicator. For the years 2001 and 2004, this question was asked specifically to those with children in the household under the age of 18. Those results are still presented in the chart with an asterisk*. For 2005, the intention is to provide a more broad based measure that may tell a story that calls attention to all parts of our communities. This year the question was added to a bi-annual Tracking Survey © conducted by Critical Insights, a market research firm in Portland, Maine. This survey targets a more broad population of adult residents in Maine.

On this indicator, respondents are asked, “How much to you agree or disagree with the following: Young people in my community are more of an asset to the community than aburden.” For 2005, 86% of the respondents either “strongly agreed” or “agreed” with thisstatement.

Data Source and Context

As mentioned above, for 2005 this indicator has a different data source. These respondents are not exclusively households with children ages 18 and younger. This indicator was the result of a purchased item (question) that was part of the Tracking Survey © conducted by Critical Insights one of their bi-annual survey efforts in November 2005. This public opinion survey had 601 respondents with only 30% of all respondents having children ages 18 and younger in the household.