Abstract: Since its emergence in 1990s, the Positive youth development (PYD) perspective has promoted the innovation and application of developmental psychology to a large extent. The developmental assets approach has become acknowledged as one of the most widespread and influential frameworks for understanding and strengthening positive youth development. Developmental assets are defined as a set of interrelated experiences, relationships, skills, and values that are known to enhance a broad range of youth outcomes, and are assumed to operate similarly for all youth. Under the framework of the developmental assets (DAF), this article introduces: 1) the concept of developmental assets and the construction of the DAF; 2) the foundation of construction and development of this model; 3) major hypothesis of this framework and corresponding research evidence; 4) future research directions and potential application of this model.

Key words: Positive youth development, promoting factors of development, developmental assets, hypothesis based on the framework of developmental assets