Norwegian girls report more resources and opportunities than boys

High school girls in Norway report more developmental assets compared to high school boys. The higher the number of assets reported, the higher the academic achievement score as well. These findings can give an insight as to how schools (and other youth contexts) can promote academic achievement in both genders, which will have implications for the youth as well as economic development. Today only 79% of girls and 68% of boys finish high school within five years in Norway. That means a third of students drop out before finishing high school. Academic achievement does not only has implications for the individual, but it also has economic implications for the society. Students that graduate from high school often has a better qualification for success and achievements later in life, compared to those who drop out. Dropouts generally have a lower quality of life, which can result in higher unemployment, more economic strain, lower income and higher use of welfare services. These immediate and enduring negative outcomes underline how important it is to promote academic achievement among young people. Positive youth development (PYD) initiatives may contribute to promote academic achievement as well as protect against these effects and reduce the possible societal cost.

Positive Youth Development

From a PYD perspective, an interaction between youth strengths and contextual resources will promote thriving and other positive outcomes, such as academic achievement. The home, school and neighbourhood will therefore be important contexts in a youth’s development depending on the resources and opportunities they offer. Peter Benson and the Search Institute in Minneapolis, USA proposed 40 developmental assets, where 20 are internal (i.e., youth strengths) and 20 external (i.e., contextual resources). These assets are skills, opportunities, relationships and values that can promote thriving and resilience, as well as decrease the likelihood of risk behaviors. Experiencing a higher level of these assets, will enable youth to thrive.

The present study looked at the relationship between developmental assets and academic achievement in Norwegian high school students. The role of gender in relation to the developmental assets were also studied. The participants of the study were 591 students attending a public high school in Hordaland, Norway, where 55% were females.

The findings indicated that there were gender differences in the report of developmental assets. Girls reported more of all measured assets, except positive identity, where boys reported higher. For both girls and boys, higher scores on developmental assets also meant higher score on academic achievement.

Promoting Academic Achievement 

From the results, schools can be of special importance in promoting academic achievement in both genders. This can be done by focusing on promoting developmental assets. Since most dropouts are males, an important intervention step would be for schools to introduce strategies that also target the developmental needs of young males and other groups of students who tend to report few assets. This is important as students who experience challenges in other youth contexts can still have access to the resources and opportunities that can set them on a trajectory for success.