10.1177/109019810427233432JuneHealth Education & Behavior (June 2005)Kegler et al. / Youth Assets and Community Resources Relationships Among Youth Assets and Neighborhood and Community Resources

Recent research suggests that a youth development framework emphasizing youth assets may be a promis-ing intervention strategy for preventing adolescent risk behaviors. Understanding how neighborhood and com-munity resources relate to youth assets may aid in identifying environmental strategies to complement individu-ally oriented asset-building interventions. In this study, 1,350 randomly selected inner-city youth and their parents (paired interviews) were interviewed in person. After controlling for demographic characteristics of youth and parents using multivariate logistic regression, parental perception of neighborhood safety was associ-ated with the nonparental adult role model asset, peer role model asset, and for African American youth, the community involvement asset. City services and neighborhood services were associated with use of time (groups/sports) and use of time (religion), respectively. Psychological sense of community was associated with community involvement for Native American youth. Findings suggest that neighborhood and community-level influences should be considered when designing youth development interventions to reduce risk behaviors