Every Sunday, my extended family gathers together for dinner, but one recent family dinner was particularly special because my youngest cousin just graduated high school. As I met my cousin’s girlfriend and other close friends, I offered him some helpful words of advice about relationships, jobs, and college—things I wish I had known at that age.
My conversation reminds me about the importance of relationships with family, friends, and mentors to adolescents’ lives. The relationship skills that boys and girls develop during adolescence can help youth make positive decisions about other aspects of their lives. Knowing how to establish and maintain positive relationships can make a difference as youth make decisions related to romantic relationships, friendships, school, and work.
Education about healthy adolescent romantic relationships has been getting more attention by the federal government. In fact, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) recently released a new funding announcement for healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs, and identified at-risk youth as one of their target populations. At-risk youth can include high school dropouts, youth in or aging out of foster care, youth involved in the juvenile justice system, and runaway and homeless youth. Not only do at-risk youth face greater challenges in their transition to adulthood (e.g., lack of support for education, housing, health care, employment), but they often have difficulties establishing and maintaining positive and healthy relationships with friends, adults, and romantic partners.
[For more of this story, written by Artemis Benedetti, go to http://www.childtrends.org/how...-family-and-friends/]
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