The majority of secondary school-age children in Scotland do not look up to their parents and have no clear ground rules at home, according to a large-scale survey carried out by the YMCA.

The majority of secondary school-age children in Scotland do not look up to their parents and have no clear ground rules at home, according to a large-scale survey carried out by the YMCA.

The youth charity analysed the well-being of young people using a measure of assets and deficits which was previously used to assess three million young people in the United States. This is the first time the technique, developed by Minnesota's Search Institute, has been employed in Europe.

Funded by Lloyds TSB, the YMCA spent £47,000 researching the views of 5200 youngsters in Perth and Glasgow, who responded to 156 questions.

The results show that 68% of Scots aged 11-17 say their family life provides high levels of love and support and 72% of young people are optimistic about their own future.

However, most do not look up to their parents or other adults - only 21% said their parents or other adults they knew provided a model of responsible behaviour. The majority - 60% - look instead to their peers as role models.

While 55% of young people say that their school provides clear rules and boundaries, and their behaviour is monitored in the community by neighbours and others, barely a quarter (27%) say they have to abide by clear rules and consequences in their family, and that their parents keep track of where they are.

The report also reveals high levels of anti-social and risky behaviour by young Scots. One in four boys confesses to having shoplifted once or more in the last 12 months and 49% of boys had hit someone in the past year.

The scale of youth drinking may no longer be a big surprise, but it was confirmed by the study, which found that 35% of young people reported that they had been drunk at least once within the last 30 days.

Girls were just as likely to have been drunk as boys, and some 17% of S1 pupils made this claim, rising to 65% in S6. One in four 12 and 13-year-olds said they had been drunk recently.

On illicit drugs, more than one in 10 (11%) had used marijuana in the last year, 9% had inhaled substances to get high, and 5% had tried harder drugs.

An average 13% said they had sexual intercourse three or more times. The latter figure rose from 10% among S3 pupils to 37% of those in S6.

The study included "lie detector" questions to eliminate the effects of boasting or exaggeration from respondents. The size of the sample and consistency of the findings also suggest they are reliable, according to researchers.

The YMCA is keen to stress that the survey is not about schools, and the fact that it was carried out in schools is just a reflection of the fact that they are by far the easiest places to carry out research with large numbers of young people. In any case, the picture which emerged is remarkably consistent across schools in the same area and between young people in the predominantly urban setting of the Glasgow schools and Perthshire's more rural catchment.

In fact, the YMCA wants to engage the public at large in the findings of the huge study. The Search Institute developed the Developmental Assets model to help determine what resources teenagers need in order to develop into successful, well adjusted adults.

At a conference in Perth tomorrow, the YMCA will formally announce the findings of the Scottish research and explore the implications for communities across the country. Staff from the four Glasgow and six Perthshire schools which participated, are likely to be present, along with some pupils. Meanwhile staff from local authority departments, police, universities, social work chiefs and parent council members will be among those discussing ways of responding to the findings.

The approach is founded on the belief that by improving the factors within and around young people which support resilience, social problems can be tackled and reduced. This underpins the Minnesota institute's approach and is undoubtedly true, according to Ian Marr, chief executive of Perth YMCA.

"The higher the value of these assets young people have, the less likely they are to be involved in risk taking behaviour. It becomes a virtuous circle rather than a negative tailspin," he explains.

"This is a well refined tool and shows how a whole community can work to support and nurture its young people."

Marr knows that many of the statistics in the study look shocking, but he points to positives. On average, 60% of young people say they are motivated to do well in school, and 57% say "my life has a purpose". Young people come across as principled and altruistic.

But the six "worst" results - the developmental strengths which were acknowledged by fewest young people - are all "external". That means we can do something about them, Marr says. For example, while 30% of young people claim to be engaged in some sort of community work for an hour a week at least, only 14% say adults in their community value young people.

"In the US, when they reveal the results of similar surveys, a lot of adults are shocked and come forward. You can dramatically change attitudes in a community and change the place of young people in that community."

While communities could do a lot more to make young people feel engaged, Marr says, there are also questions about the role of parents. The fact that barely a quarter of young people say they are set clear boundaries at home is a worry, especially when they rub up against firmer discipline at school. "What does that say about families? We in youth work see this all the time - if a young person lives in a family without clear rules then comes into school, it is very confusing. How do they deal with that? Do they just end up being excluded?"

Regarding the anti-social behaviour identified in the survey, Marr says it is important not to overreact. Knowing young people's assets enables you to address problem behaviour, he says.

In the US, the findings have been used in a variety of ways. Teachers at Benold middle school in Texas carried out an exercise in which each staff member wrote down the names of all the pupils with whom they had a good relationship with and knew a bit about, and stuck them to the wall in the gym hall.

At the end of the session, they discovered that the names of 50% of pupils in the school simply did not appear. Over the next three months, staff were allocated names and asked to build a relationship with at least some of those who didn't feature. "This was a simple exercise, with no budgetary implications. And it changed the nature and atmosphere of that school," Marr says.

The crux is that the survey sheds light on how the whole community can support and nurture its young people, he says. "Young people are in transition and we often make the mistake of seeing them as mini-adults. How they make that transition is through their relationships with peers and adults. The onus is on adults in the community to build those relationships and to work at it."

Finally, Marr urges those who are sceptical about young people's qualities not to believe the hype about issues such as youth crime. The reality is he says that 92% of young people never have formal contact with the police, and of the 8% that do, only 1% have repeated contact. "The widespread perceptions the community have about youth crime are almost the exact reverse of the truth," he says.

40 Developmental Assets takes place at Dewars Centre, Perth, tomorrow.