By Dr. J. Stephen Hazel, Dr. Jean Bragg Schumaker, Dr. James A. Sherman, and Dr. Jan Sheldon
ASSET is a video-based training package that includes two DVDs, a 174-page leader's guide, and a set of reproducible program materials.
The training approach combines on-screen modeling scenes, group discussions, role plays, and homework assignments to teach adolescents the skills they need for successful social interactions.
ASSET features 32 realistic scenes of adolescents modeling appropriate and inappropriate behaviors with peers, parents, teachers, and other adults. Peer narrators introduce each scene, discuss what went right or wrong, and suggest additional ways of handling the situations. Eight areas are targeted as 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.