When families make the news, it is often for negative reasons such as violence or abuse. Negative perceptions of low-income families tend to be especially strong. However, families are critical to the positive development of children and youth, as well as to problems that may affect that development. Thus, it is important to examine not just the…

Drawing on data from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health, the authors examined the relationships of parents and children living with them between the ages of 6 and 17 by analyzing parent-child closeness, the degree to which parents share ideas and talk about things that matter with their children and parents' acquaintance with their…

Adolescents are influenced by a variety of social factors and institutions. Prior research confirms what many of us know instinctively: that parents can be one of the strongest influences in adolescents' lives. For example, higher levels of parental involvement in their adolescents' lives are linked with lower levels of delinquency, violent…