Orchestra Outreach

Principles of Youth Development, Risk and Resiliency

Who is an "at-risk" student?

Race and class are significant factors (Yohalem and Pittman, 2001), but they are not the only ones.  There are specific risks that differ with social environments that are described by two authors from the Teachers College at Columbia University, Suniya Luthar and Shawn Latendresse.  Adolescents who are from affluent families have a significantly higher incidence of stress, depression, and substance abuse.  Comparatively, inner city youth (often poor minorities) tend to feel socially excluded from the mainstream (Yohalem and Pittman, 2001) and admire self-destructive patterns of behavior within their social groups (Luthar and Latendresse, 2002).  Risk is not limited to one subset of youth culture.  In their own ways, all children experience situations that put them at risk for developmental difficulties.  The issue, therefore, is not in isolating pathologies or circumstances that cause problems, but is in determining what elements in the environment support resilience and positive development.  Out of many, I will focus on the two I find to be primary and most accessible to participants in music related settings.  For a much larger list and discussion of Developmental Assets , please see the Search Institute 's website.