Monday is National Family
By Bill Nobles

On Monday, Sept. 24, we commemorate the backbone of our country's social structure - the family - as we celebrate National Family Day.

The definition of "family" is continually widening and reshaping itself, but one element remains constant: children need caring adults to provide them with guidance and love.

Families are at the center of healthy youth development. While a young person's teachers, coaches and peers can have a large influence, a young person's family interaction can make the most difference to her or his success.

Assets for Colorado Youth, an organization focusing on positive youth development, is working to ensure young people have the essential "developmental assets" they need to succeed. The research-based list of 40 assets provides all adults with a role to play in giving young people the support, positive experiences and values that help them to grow up responsible, caring and confident.

Families are a critical source of a youth's developmental assets. The following are just a few of the assets that originate from the family:

• Family life provides high levels of love and support
• A young person and her or his parents communicate positively, and a young person is willing to seek advice and counsel from parents
• Parents are actively involved in helping the young person succeed in school
• Family has clear rules and consequences and monitors the young person's whereabouts
• Parents and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.

Recent findings regarding the factors involved in teen drug and alcohol abuse from the CASA National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse confirm the importance of these family-related assets. The survey found that parents who consistently take 10 or more of the following 12 actions have teens at substantially lower risk of smoking, drinking and illegal drug use:

• Monitor what their teens watch on TV
• Monitor what they do on the Internet
• Put restrictions on the music CDs they buy
• Know where their teens are after school and on weekends
• Expect to be and are told the truth by their teens about where they are going
• Are "very aware" of their teen's academic performance
• Impose a curfew
• Make clear they would be "extremely upset" if their teen used marijuana
• Eat dinner with their teens six or seven times per week
• Turn off the TV during dinner
• Assign their teen regular chores
• Have an adult present when the teen returns from school.

These actions are powerful in shaping youth behavior. For example, survey results point out that teens who regularly eat dinner with their families are one-and-a-half times less likely to engage in substance abuse than teens who do not.

In honor of National Family Day, parents can reaffirm the positive influence they have in guiding their child to make wise decisions and choose positive paths.

For more information on the developmental assents that help young people succeed, call the Archuleta County Extension Office at 264-5931.