Second Wednesday Webinar

April 8, 2020

“Family Environment Instability: How Early Childhood Shapes Social Maladjustments Over Time”

Early family contexts can shape the trajectories of children’s adjustment throughout childhood. Families can provide a safe and stable base for children that is protective against adversity. However, when family environments are not stable (e.g., when parents/parent figures are moving in and out of the home), children may suffer. Join Dr. Elizabeth Karberg of Child Trends, as she explores how family instability in early childhood shapes children’s social (mal)adjustment over time. She will discuss (1) how families in America are changing and what are common contexts for children’s early family experiences, (2) whether instability in families is linked with children’s social outcomes, (3) Why instability in families is linked with children’s social outcomes, and (4) what this means for programming and interventions to support children’s positive development.

New Funding Forecast

More than $36 million has been forecast for Healthy Relationship Education, $24 million for Healthy Marriage, and $60 million for Responsible Fatherhood federal grants. Even though the details of the grants are not yet known, there are things you can do NOW that will help you to be ready without making any financial investments.

Promoting Positive Adolescent Health Behaviors and Outcomes: Thriving in the 21st Century

A committee of the National Academies was asked to identify the key elements that help make prevention or intervention programs effective in improving outcomes for youth. If researchers can identify program characteristics that are essential—as opposed to those that don’t affect out­comes and could be dropped—it could simplify and shorten the duration of programs and potentially enable their wider use.

Learn more.

Decoding The Teenage Brain

A recent interview with British neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, the author of the 2018 book Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain, begins with a caveat.

“I think it’s important to know before we start that up until 20 years ago, we really didn’t know that the brain changes at all after childhood,” she confides. “That’s what I was taught during my undergraduate degree. We now know that’s completely untrue.”

Learn more here.