Center garners $7 million grant to build childhood resiliency

Within 10 years, researchers at ASU’s Prevention Research Center plan to change the “legacy of divorce” in the United States. They also intend to help children better deal with one of the most traumatic events that can occur in their lives: the death of a parent.

The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded the center a $7 million grant to adapt two model programs that have been scientifically proven to prevent behavioral and mental health problems in children and families experiencing these high-stress situations.

The Prevention Research Center’s “New Beginnings” program, launched in 1992, proved that positive parenting strategies – such as effective listening, maintaining positive routines, being clear and consistent in discipline, and minimizing conflict between parents – and teaching children coping skills can have a dramatic effect on children’s development after divorce. The team will pilot-test “New Beginnings” with families going through the court system in Maricopa County, Ariz., and Seattle. They then will launch a multiple-site experimental study. Developing a national model of its family bereavement program will be the second initiative supported by the grant, and will be done in collaboration with researchers from the W. P. Carey School of Business and
community agencies.

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