ASSET is a video-based training package that features 32 scenes of adolescents modeling both appropriate and inappropriate social behaviors with peers, parents, and teachers.
Each video segment contains four vignettes that focus on a specific skill area. These areas have been selected as critical to social development by psychologists, educators, parents, and teenagers themselves.
The training approach targets eight skill areas critical to adolescent social development:
Segment 1: Giving Positive Feedback—Thanking or complimenting others.
Segment 2: Giving Negative Feedback—Expressing criticism or disappointment in a calm, nonthreatening manner.
Segment 3: Accepting Negative Feedback—Listening calmly to criticism, asking permission to tell your side of the story.
Segment 4: Resisting Peer Pressure—Saying no, giving a personal reason, suggesting alternative activities.
Segment 5: Problem Solving—Identifying problems, considering consequences, determining possible solutions.
Segment 6: Negotiation—Resolving conflicts with others, suggesting solutions, asking for alternatives, learning to compromise.
Segment 7: Following Instructions—Listening carefully, acknowledging, clarifying, following through.
Segment 8: Conversation—Interacting with others, introducing yourself, initiating and maintaining a conversation.
A diverse group of young people serve as ASSET’s peer narrators. They introduce each scene, discuss what went right or wrong, and suggest additional ways of handling the situations.
The complete program includes two DVDs and a 184-page leader’s guide with program materials. Reproducible program materials are also available as a download.
