Helping America's Youth
By Phillippe B. Cunningham, PhD
 During his 2005 State of the Union address, President Bush asked First Lady Laura Bush to lead a nation-wide initiative called
"Helping America's Youth." This initiative is designed to help at-risk children and teens reach their full potential by connecting
them with family, school and community.
This initiative originated out of an overarching concern that many of America's youth are at high risk of not making a successful
transition into adulthood. They are living in unsafe neighborhoods, lacking nurturance, structure and support, and engaging in
risky behaviors (e.g., cigarette smoking, drug use, early sexual activity, dropping out of school). Many of America's youth are
staring at a lifetime of poverty and failure. But, it is not just "high risk" youth that are in trouble. America's youth are
academically lagging behind children from other industrialized nations. In 2003, U.S. students' average score in science literacy
was lower than 18 other countries; our students scored lower than their counterparts in 25 other countries in problem solving; and
in mathematics literacy, U.S. students scored lower than their counterparts in 20 other countries. If America's youth are to
successfully compete in a global economy, we must remove impediments to their development such as poverty, inadequate health care,
ineffective and inadequate schools, and risky behavior.
As part of the Helping America's Youth initiative, the First Lady held a conference in October on the grounds of Howard University
that brought together more than 500 parents, civic leaders, faith-based community service providers, researchers, child advocates
and child development experts. The conference was designed to review problems facing our youth, and to discuss and recommend possible solutions.
My colleagues and I at the Family Services Research Center at MUSC, (directed by Scott W. Henggeler, PhD) have devoted our scientific
careers to developing, validating and disseminating clinically-effective mental health and substance abuse services for youth with
serious clinical problems and their families. Our faculty was honored to participate in the First Lady's conference, not because
it would validate our work, but because the conference held promise to serve as a catalyst for putting the health and welfare of
America's youth on the national agenda. Such promise has yet to be realized either nationally or locally.
As I mentioned in my brief comments at the First Lady's conference, public policy must be informed by the realization that helping
children means helping their families. This will require three actions:
- Be brave enough to stop doing what does not work. Many programs that may have curb appeal have no empirical evidence and are
unlikely to work because they fail to address the known causes of the problem. These programs may include removing youth to special
schools or other institutional placements and using tactics touted as "silver bullets," and strategies that are politically popular,
such as character education, or Scared Straight. The single best predictor of youth engaging in antisocial behavior (e.g., drug use,
violence) is association with deviant peers.
- Do what is proven to work in helping youth. For example, successful violence prevention programs share several important
characteristics. They have targeted the known causes and correlates of the behavior; they have demonstrated a significant deterrent
effect; they have demonstrated effectiveness via rigorous experimental designs (e.g., random assignment); and they have sustained
effects over time. Some of the more successful programs that target antisocial behavior include Multisystemic Therapy, Prenatal and
Infancy Home Visitation by Nurses, Behavioral Parent Training, Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care, and Functional Family Therapy.
- Let researchers who are good stewards of taxpayer dollars (National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health,
National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) produce scientific evidence to help influence policies related to the prevention
and reduction of serious behavior problems in youth.
In my opinion, it is only through these steps that we can overcome some of the obstacles facing our children and help them fulfill the promise of
successful, productive lives. We owe it to our children to recognize when there are problems that need to be addressed, to identify solutions that
work (based on scientific evidence), and to support them along the way. The future of our country depends on it. Together with the First Lady, my
colleague and I are committed to this cause. More information about this subject is available at
www.helpingamericasyouth.gov.
Dr. Cunningham is an associate professor and researcher at MUSC's Family Services Research Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences. He can be reached at cunninpd@musc.edu.
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