This report presents both a framework for understanding positive factors that contribute to the healthy development of young people, termed "developmental assets," and a portrait of 6th-to-12th-grade youth based on that framework. The report analyzes and interprets data from 99,462 youth in 213 communities collected during the 1996-97 school year. The first chapter gives background material about the assets and the young people surveyed. The second chapter gives in-depth information about each of the eight categories of assets, and chapter 3 examines the deficits and patterns of high-risk behavior that threaten to compromise healthy development. Chapter 4 builds links between the developmental assets and the risky behaviors and shows how assets promote eight indicators of thriving. Chapter 5 pulls the pieces together to suggest an overall goal for well-being, and suggests that all elements of society share the blame and the responsibility for the problems faced by young people today. Documenting the realities of young people's lives makes it possible to build a firm foundation for their futures. Four appendixes contain background information and detailed findings on assets, deficits, high-risk behavior patterns, and thriving indicators. (Contains 44 figures and 90 tables.) (SLD)