Family Strengthening Programs

Families face numerous challenges to raising happy and healthy children. Major societal problems such as divorce, drugs, gangs, teen pregnancy, depression, suicide, and juvenile violence contribute to environments that are difficult for young people to navigate successfully. Parents work outside of their homes more now than ever before and have less time to spend with their children and to monitor and supervise activities. Single-parent homes are becoming more common. The proportion of children living in singleparent homes more than doubled between 1970 and 1997, with more than 28 percent of children living with one parent. School, once thought to be a safe haven for youth, has become a place where youth are exposed to increasing levels of violence. In recent studies, 70–80 percent of youth report having witnessed violence at their school within the last year.

In 1997, more than 2.8 million juvenile arrests were made for all types of offenses, an increase of 14 percent from 1993. More problematic is the fact that juveniles [Page 672]were involved in 17 percent of all violent crime index arrests in 1997. Drug use is a major health problem for youth. By twelfth grade, approximately 88 percent of youth have used alcohol, 37 percent have used marijuana, 85 percent have used cocaine, and 63 percent have smoked cigarettes. Girls are committing more juvenile offenses, with drug abuse violations up 132 percent and person offenses up 155 percent in the last ten years. Youth who are in extremely serious jeopardy are those with an incarcerated parent. They are five to six times more likely than their peers to be incarcerated eventually. More than ever before, it is imperative that parents have access to and employ the most effective parenting techniques.

Fortunately, social science has advanced to the point that people know what works for successful parents and families. It was only twenty years ago that people had limited knowledge about family-based prevention programs. Currently, scientists are conducting research to further refine prevention strategies, with funding from major research institutions such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Research has highlighted controversial effects such as “contagion effects” for youth participating in programs with other high-risk youth. These youths can hone their negative behaviors by establishing new friends and learning undesirable behaviors from their peers. Family programs can also be more expensive than programs in which only youth participate. The costs and benefits of this approach are being compared to other approaches, and preliminary data suggest that family programs are more effective than youth-only programs.