Family-Strengthening Approaches for the Prevention of Youth Problem Behaviors

Posted: September 3rd, 2013

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Family-Strengthening Approaches for the Prevention of Youth Problem Behaviors

Author Background

1. The lead author of the article is Karol L. Kumpfer.
2. She is a leading researcher at the Department of Health Promotion and Education at the University of Utah.
3. She has a classroom teaching experience of seven years.
4. Her main area of research is education research and promotion, and she works to strengthen family initiatives in America.
5. The other author is Rose Alvarado who works in the same department and who has classroom teaching experience of ten years.

Summary

The article highlights on effective parenting strategies and their positive impact of reducing problematic adolescent behaviors. This article is a review of effective interventions in family matters targeting stages ranging from pre birth to the adolescent stage. Where the article has identified issues or problems related to adolescent behaviors, the authors have endeavored to provide informed solutions and recommendations.

Opinion Statement

It is in my opinion that this article is resolute and attends to problems and controversies in family structures and goes on to provide recommendations for approaching these problems. The points made are:

1. Parents have inadequate knowledge on managing families. This is important because it identifies one of the major problem relating bad adolescent behaviors.
2. The second point is a highlight on youth problematic behaviors. The importance of this point is that it allows identification of behavior change among adolescents.
3. The third point is the recommendations on proper approaches made to problematic behaviors among adolescents.

Strengths

1. One strength this article provides revolves around the proper ways of parenting and family management in an informed manner.
2. The other strength is that it provides informed solutions and recommendations designed to tackle youth problem behaviors.

Weaknesses

1. One major weakness of this article is that it does not highlight on the issues that may lead to youth problem behaviors. If the authors endeavored to make this provision, parents and guardians would have an added advantage of addressing these problems first to prevent the onset of youth problem behaviors.
2. The other disadvantage is that the article does not fully inform on the recommendations and solutions aimed at preventing youth problem behaviors.

Strength Summary

The group felt that the classroom teachers could use this article for its strengths on preventing youth problems. These strengths include the provision of proper ways of parenting and family management in well-informed criteria. The other advantage the group felt could be useful to classroom teachers is the ways of identifying early behavioral changes among youth to predict problematic behaviors. The article describes approaches/interventions that have successfully made differences in problem behaviors. This is a hopeful approach for parents who may feel like the severity children’s behavioral disorders are beyond their control. The article critically explained the complicated issues in comparing and evaluating the research. Another strength the group thought would be useful to classroom teachers is effective interventions in family matters targeting stages ranging from pre birth to the adolescent stage early detection of problematic behavior among children can warrant efficient approaches to control before the onset of puberty.

Weakness Summary

Among the weaknesses that the group felt would be an important resource to classroom teachers include the inadequate information on the issues that may lead to youth problem behaviors. If Kumpfer and Alvarado had endeavored to provide information on these issues, both classroom teachers and guardians would have an added advantage of addressing these problems first to prevent the onset of youth problem behaviors. The article was a bit confusing because it gave a lot of information about details related to the research challenges. It was important to mention, but it detracted from the message about which methods were proven to be effective. It seemed to be written for researchers, not parents or teachers. It does not seem useful for teachers except to imply that if schools offered research-bases programs for parents, they could help their students prevent and improve behaviors. The other weakness the group felt would become useful to classroom teachers is that the article does not fully inform on the recommendations and solutions aimed at preventing youth problem behaviors.