What You Need to Know About Youth Violence Prevention

What Can Parents Do

How does resilience enhance healthy development?
What can parents do to foster resilience and healthy development?

We want all our children to develop in healthy ways, both physically and emotionally. It is not enough just to protect our children from taking part in violent behaviors. Research on resilience—the capacity to rebound in the face of adversity—provides us with important information on the strengths that individuals, families, schools, and communities call upon to promote health and healing.

HOW DOES RESILIENCE ENHANCE HEALTHY DEVELOPEMENT?

Davis (1999) discusses important characteristics of resilience. These qualities appear to work as protective factors to help us navigate the curves of life's pathways:

good health and easy temperament;
secure attachment to others and basic trust;
cognitive and emotional intelligence, language acquisition and reading, capacity to plan, self-efficacy, self-understanding, and adequate cognitive appraisal;
emotional regulation, ability to delay gratification, realistically high self-esteem, creativity, and sense of humor;
ability and opportunity to contribute; and
belief that one's own life matters.

WHAT CAN PARENTS DO TO FOSTER RESILIENCE AND HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT?

Many protective factors have been found to promote healthy development and resilience among young people. Collected here from a number of sources (see References and Resources) are some evidence-based steps parents can take to help their children develop with resilience and good mental health:

Give your children love and attention every day.
Show your children appropriate behaviors by the way you act.
Listen to and talk with your children–about anything–to develop an open, trusting relationship.
Reward your child for good behavior or a job well done.
Establish clear and consistent limits and rules.
Do not hit your children.
Know where your children are, what they are doing, and with whom.
Communicate with teachers and be involved in your children’s school.
Set high expectations for your children.
Create opportunities for your children to be contributing members of the family and community.
Know your children well enough to discern the warning signs of unusual behavior.
Know when to intervene to protect your children.
Get help if you think you need it.
Make sure your children do not have access to guns, drugs, or alcohol.
Teach your children ways to avoid becoming either a victim of violence or a bully.
Learn ways to avoid conflict in the family; learn about and use anger-control techniques, if necessary.
Monitor the media to which your children are exposed.
Encourage your children’s understanding of your family’s cultural traditions and values.

As part of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Violence Prevention grant program, CMHS has developed the 15+ Make Time to Listen, Take Time to Talk Campaign. This communications campaign encourages many of the steps listed above, because research has shown that children whose parents are highly involved with them attain higher levels of education and economic self-sufficiency than do children whose parents are not highly involved. Parental involvement with adolescents is also associated with lower levels of delinquency and better psychological well-being. The need to strengthen the role of parents in American families is now identified by the media, national organizations, and Federal agencies as a national priority. For a free brochure, a conversation starter card game, and other helpful information from the 15+ Make Time to Listen, Take Time to Talk campaign, go to http://www.mentalhealth.samhsa.gov or call 800-789-2647.

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