Indicator: Youth Feeling Supported In Their Family

Priority or Priorities: Early Childhood Development, ACES/Resiliency
Initiative(s): Strengthening Families, Trauma-Informed System of Care (THRIVE), Communities for Children and Youth: Mentoring for children and youth through college/community partnerships, Promote and Support Universal Home Visiting Services 7, 8, 10
Outcome (s): Families recognizing the rewards and responsibilities of raising children

Why This is Important

A basic responsibility of parents and a family is to provide one another and their children with love and support. Young people who recognize these types of assets in their lives are less likely to engage in risky behaviors. Especially for younger adolescents, parental caring and values are often cited as the most important reason why a young person does not experiment with alcohol and other drugs.

Where We Stand

This indicator has remained essentially unchanged over the past five periods, for 2005, 83% of youth agree/strongly agree that they feel useful and important in their families. Also similar to past periods are results on related questions:

• 89% of all youth respondents agree/strongly agree that their parents give them help and
  support when they need it;
• 89% of all youth respondents agree/strongly agree that their parents often tell them that
  they love them; and
• 82% of all youth respondents agree/strongly agree that there are clear rules about what
  I can and cannot do in my family.

One of the Search Institutes developmental assets for youth is “Family Support,” which involves family life providing high levels of love and support. In 2003, the Search Institute surveyed 6 th to 12th grade youth nationally and found that 68% experienced this asset. In addition, asset 11, “Family Boundaries,” examines families use of clear rules and consequences and monitoring of the young person’s whereabouts. In 2003, 46% of responding
6th to12th grade youth experienced this asset.

Data Source and Context

This Maine Marks indicator is adapted from the work of the Search Institute (www.search-institute.org) and their research into developmental assets of young people. The developmental assets framework is popular with many who work in the field of youth development. The data source for this indicator is a statewide random digit dial telephone survey of Maine youth in grades 9 – 12 conducted by Critical Insights, a strategic marketing research firm in Portland, Maine. A total of 402 youth participated in the interviews for this 2005 report, interviews were completed by January 2006. The youth were asked the following question: “How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements; (a) My parents give me help and support when I need it, (b) My parents often tell me that they love me, (c) In my family, I feel useful and important, and (d) In my family, there are clear rules about what I can and cannot do.” Due to funding limitations, surveys were not conducted in 2003.

NOTE: For all years, only the data in the “all” column is statistically representative of youth in this age group statewide; the gender and grade level breakdowns are provided for descriptive purposes only and are not representative of all Maine youth in this age group.

National data comes from the Search Institute Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors Survey. This 2003 survey reached approximately 150,000 6th to12th grade youth in 202 communities across the United States. Complete results and explanation can be found at
http://www.search-institute.org/research/assets/assetfreqs.html.