Brief
Intended for prevention practitioners, this brief promotes the use of a positive youth development framework that addresses both risk and protective factors to address alcohol abuse and suicide among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) adolescents. It begins by providing an overview of the scope of these related problems in Indian Country and identifying four key factors that have been shown to protect AI/AN youth: attachment with caring adults, mastery and self-control, a sense of belonging, and spirituality. These factors are discussed and illustrative examples of positive youth…
Brief
Parenting is an important job, yet its demands and responsibilities can sometimes lead to high levels of anxiety and frustration. Because parental functioning is one of the critical factors determining whether children flourish, it is important to examine stress that can jeopardize effective parenting. Very little research has examined the prevalence of parental aggravation, whether it has changed over time, or how it may vary across states. In this brief, we examine data on this measure collected from two nationally representative surveys: the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF),…
Brief
Healthy marriage relationship skills education programs serving unmarried parents aim to help these couples improve their relationships, with the ultimate aim of supporting family stability and promoting child well-being. A central goal of these programs is to promote fathers' sustained, active engagement in their children's lives. Data from Mathematica's evaluation of the Building Strong Families (BSF) program allow us to deter-mine which families that enrolled in a set of healthy marriage programs were at greatest risk of having fathers with very limited involvement with their young…
Brief
This brief seeks to identify patterns and transitions during emerging adulthood to obtain a better understanding of the likelihood that young adults will experience a lower-risk transition to adulthood. Panel data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health was analyzed (Add Health, N=12,166), using person-centered analyses, to examine the odds of youth engaging in lower-risk patterns/trajectories, specifically, minimal problems with heavy alcohol use, illicit drug use, criminal behavior, and financial hardship. Lower risk transitions were defined as avoiding or overcoming…
