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“Help Me Complete Tasks and Achieve Goals”

Supporting kids is an important role for parents. Young people are more likely to reach goals when parents and family members are there to provide support to help them get through tough situations, set boundaries and keep them heading in the right direction. As kids grow up, the type of support they need changes, but their need for family support doesn’t go away. 

However providing support is not doing things for them. The goal is to empower kids to do things for themselves. 

Research tells us that kids who have supportive parents are more likely to:

  • Maintain a higher GPA and adjust better in school
  • Have higher self-esteem and lower rates of depression
  • Have lower rates of substance abuse
  • Experience less stress or fewer emotional problems

 

Actions for Providing Support

Search Institute has identified these four actions that help families provide support:

  • Navigate: Guide me through hard situations and systems
  • Empower: Build my confidence to take charge of my life
  • Advocate: Stand up for me when I need it
  • Set boundaries: Put in place limits that keep me on track

 

Watch this short video to learn more about providing support:

 

How Well Do We Provide Support?

About eight out of ten U.S. parents report being  strong in providing support for their children, according to Search Institute surveys. Take this quiz to see how you support kids in your household.

How to Provide Support in Your Family

On our Keep Connected website, you’ll find lots of ways to provide support in your family, such as:

Check out all the free resources on our Keep Connected site. Find more in-depth research on family relationships on Search Institute’s research on families section.

This is part five of a five-part series on developmental relationships in families. To read other posts in the series, visit Express Care, Challenge Growth, Share Power and Expand Possibilities .

 

 

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