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Don't Forget the Families

November 25, 2015

In the midst of growing national interest in strengthening children’s “soft” or social-emotional skills as critical for learning, work, and life, a new study from Search Institute highlights the power of family relationships as a critical, but often neglected, factor in the development of character strengths in children. Titled Don’t Forget the Families, the study of 1,085 parenting adults of 3- to 13-year-olds from across the United States found that the quality of parent-child relationships is 10 times more powerful than demographics (race, ethnicity, family composition, and family income) in predicting whether children are developing critical character strengths they need for success in school and life.

These strengths include being motivated to learn, being responsible, and caring for others.

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About the Author

Search Institute

For more than 50 years, Search Institute® has been a leader and partner for organizations around the world in discovering what kids need to succeed. Our research, resources, and expertise help our partners in organizations, schools, and community coalitions solve critical challenges in the lives of young people.

We focus on deepening understanding and working with partners to improve the lives of young people in three critical areas:

Developmental Assets®, Search Institute’s framework of strengths and supports, which has become the most widely recognized and most frequently cited approach to positive youth development in the world.
Developmental Relationships, those relationships that help young people attain the psychological and social skills needed for success in education and in life.
Developmental Communities, a focus on creating contexts and settings that attend to young people’s developmental needs and are aligned for collective impact.

Family Engagement Social and Emotional Learning

The 5 Promises

The 5 Promises represent conditions children need to achieve adult success. The collective work of the Alliance involves keeping these promises to America’s youth. This article relates to the promises highlighted below: