The need for child care has been documented nationally through state and national efforts, publications, and demographic studies by public, private, and federal agencies and organizations that serve the interests of children and families.

Communicating positively with young children helps them develop confidence, feelings of self‑worth, and good relationships with others. It also helps make life with young children more pleasant for children and parents.

Helping children learn to handle their angry feelings can be a frustrating problem for most parents and teachers.

Discipline is one of the biggest problems that every parent faces. You probably have wondered: “Was I too harsh?” “Did I do the right thing when I spanked Thomas?” “Am I being too easy on my children?” or “What on earth am I going to do now!”

Effective discipline helps children learn to control their behavior so that they act according to their ideas of what is right and wrong, not because they fear punishment. For example, they are honest because they think it is wrong to be dishonest, not because they are afraid of getting caught.

Sometimes parents are forced to take action despite all their efforts to prevent misbehavior. They may have tried changing the setting, using more “do’s” than “don’t’s,” checked on the child’s health needs, and still be faced with quarreling, misbehaving children.

It is easier on the parent and the child to keep misbehavior from happening than to deal with it afterward.

Children misbehave for many reasons. Once you understand why they misbehave, it is easier to know what to do about it. Ask yourself, “Why are they acting this way? What are they trying to gain by misbehaving?”

Most brothers and sisters argue and fight and most parents feel it is their duty to find out who is guilty of starting the conflict and then punishing him or her.

Healthy families are able to maintain a consistent level of involvement with one another, yet at the same time, not become too involved in each other’s lives. Therefore, the focus is on how much, and in what ways, family members show their interest and investment in each other.

The ways in which family members emotionally respond to each other reveals a lot about the quality of their relationships.

Family patterns of behavior are often handed down from one generation to the next. For example, have you ever caught yourself saying or doing something your parents did and wondered why you were doing it?

Effective communication is an important characteristic of strong, healthy families. Research identifies communication as an essential building block of strong marital, parent-child, and sibling relationships.

Roles play an extremely important part in healthy family functioning. Most researchers agree that the establishment of clear roles within a family is directly connected to a family’s ability to deal with day-to-day life, unforeseen crises, and the
normal changes that occur in families over time.

Problem-solving is the family’s ability to resolve problems on a level that maintains effective family functioning.

Guiding the behavior of young children involves establishing mutual respect and expecting cooperation. Effective
discipline is positive and child focused. It encourages self-control and appropriate behavior. Through effective
discipline, children can learn to make positive choices, learn problem-solving skills, and learn values of respect
and responsibility.

What consequences can electronic media use have on children? The consequences are wide-ranging and can be both positive and negative.

In March 1999, and January, May, and August of 2000, CSREES/USDA funded the Adolescent Growth and Development Training (AGDT), “Moving Ahead Together: What Works for Youth, What Works for You?”[AGDT CSREES/USDA training]. Forty-two teams of Cooperative Extension personnel from 37 states and the territory of Guam attended these trainings

The National Youth at Risk Programs Sustainability Study was designed to examine the sustainability of Youth at Risk projects initially funded through the USDA/CSREES CYFAR (Children, Youth, and Families at risk) Initiative. The current report focuses on 94 Youth at Risk (YAR) projects four years after their initial grant ended and represents the latest in a series of reports focused on the sustainability of these projects.

The central questions addressed in this brief report are: What is the current status of Youth at Risk projects originally funded by this USDA initiative? What are the dominant ways that projects have continued? What are the past and present roles of Cooperative Extension in supporting community-based projects?

The National Youth at Risk Program Sustainability Study is an analysis of 94 community- based projects funded from 1991 to 1998 by the Children, Youth and Families At Risk (CYFAR) Initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES).