Asset #36, Peaceful Conflict Resolution

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Asset Story Archive
11/02 Asset # 37, Personal Power

10/02 Asset #36, Peaceful Conflict Resolution

09/02 Asset #24, Bonding to School

08/02 Asset #7, Community Values Youth

07/02 Asset #38, Self-esteem

05/02 Asset #40, Positive View of Personal Future

04/02 Asset #31, Restraint

03/02 Asset #32, Planning and Decision Making

02/02 Asset #29, Honesty

Teach Young People to Resolve Conflicts Nonviolently

Are conflicts becoming a part of our everyday lives? Angry disputes seem to be pervading playgrounds, neighborhoods and roadways-not to mention international diplomacy. Is our society becoming more confrontational? How can we counteract this trend?

Researchers recently turned to a group that is not often asked to weigh in on our violent culture. The Youth & Violence: Colorado Students Speak Out for a More Civil Society study, released by The Colorado Trust and the Family and Work Institute, captures the experiences and perceptions of more than 1,000 5th-12th graders in Colorado. The study found alarming levels of violence-one in 12 youth experience extreme violence at least monthly. Overall, one in three experience physical violence and two out of three experience emotional violence (teasing, gossiping, excluding) at least monthly.

The youth offer ideas for addressing the violence, saying that while society tends to overlook emotional violence and focuses only on acts of extreme violence, the teasing and put-downs are also a serious problem and deserve attention. Not only does emotional violence hurt and diminish the victim's self-esteem, it can lead to physical and more extreme forms of violence.
The youth express the need for improving family and school life and for creating a more tolerant society. A number of youth talk about having to adhere to what's "in" to feel accepted, and that discrimination happens against those who are different.

The adult response to youth violence has been to act independently of youth to create systems for punishing offenders and assisting victims. But the youth are stressing the need for a proactive approach that includes their participation to ensure all young people feel supported, valued and respected in their homes and communities.

The statewide movement to build "developmental assets" in Colorado's young people, supported by Assets for Colorado Youth and a number of community-based efforts, gives every adult a role in ensuring young people thrive. Developmental assets are the supportive relationships, meaningful opportunities and positive values all young people need to succeed. Research by Search Institute shows that the more assets a young person has, the more likely he or she is to stay away from risk-taking behavior and choose positive paths.

Adults can be important role models for building Asset 35-peaceful conflict resolution. Staying calm, discussing the problem in a non-confrontational way, listening to the other points of view and finding ways to compromise-even using humor-are important strategies adults can teach and model for young people.

By helping young people learn to solve problems constructively-by building their assets-Coloradoans can make significant inroads into the violence young people experience.

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