Resources

When families make the news, it is often for negative reasons such as violence or abuse. However, families are critical to the positive development of children and youth, as well as to problems that may affect development. This Child Trends brief, Exploring The Links Between Family Strengths and Adolescent Outcomes, finds that family strengths are associated with significantly better outcomes for adolescents in both lower-income and higher-income families. Family strengths include emotional/subjective strengths (such as close and caring parents); behavioral/concrete strengths (for example, parental monitoring and parent involvement); and passive parenting strengths (for instance, positive parental role modeling).