Diffusion of a developmental asset-building initiative in public schools.
OBJECTIVE
To identify characteristics that distinguish between school personnel who do and do not adopt asset-building behaviors in the formative stage of a countywide initiative.


METHODS
An anonymous questionnaire, assessing constructs from diffusion of innovation and social cognitive theories, was administered to 467 adult personnel in 3 school districts.


RESULTS
Discriminant analysis revealed that implementation of asset building was most closely related to rating the initiative high on trialability, relative advantage, compatibility, and observability and low on complexity.


CONCLUSIONS
Efforts to implement asset-building initiatives need to assess perceptions of adult personnel and should not assume that positive youth development will be widely supported in schools.
Lafferty
Carolyn K
CK
Mahoney Consulting Group, Wadsworth, OH, USA. cklafferty@hotmail.com
Mahoney
Colleen A
CA
Thombs
Dennis L
DL
D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005178:Faculty; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D012574:Schools; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires