Discusses the fifteen qualities that researchers have discovered are almost always present in healthy families, and explains how these qualities can be developed.

Everything that parents need to survive and thrive in the 21st Century. Marriage, children and family have been lifelong priorities for Charles Swindoll. Based on his extensive study of both the Old and New Testaments, Chuck has drawn together those timeless insights for building close and rewarding family relationships. Following a biblical exploration of God's purpose and plans for families, readers are equipped with all the tools necessary to grow strong healthy families. Chuck then takes a clear-eyed look at those areas where parents and families often experience difficulties. In typical Swindoll fashion, these discussions are frank and direct but always leave the reader filled with hope and encouragement. Selected Chapters: This Is not your Grandfather's Family Practical Advice on Making a Marriage Stick Cultivating a Life of Self-Worth The Best Kept Secret of Wise Parenting Increasing the Priority of Your Family Staying Young as Your Family Grows Older Danger Signs of Domestic Erosion Restoring Relationships After You've Blown It Affirming and Encouraging Words to Dads Secret Struggles...Family Troubles From Resentment to Rebellion Final Words to Families Then and Now

What does it look like to parent well in today’s world? In today’s complex world, parenting is a tough job regardless of whether your child is a baby or a teenager. Beyond the difficulties of navigating the changing world we live in, there are also the daily frictions of imperfect people sharing a home together. In 7 Traits of Effective Parenting, Daniel P. Huerta offers hope and parenting guidance for you to become a thriving parent. Based on extensive research, Huerta presents a collection of seven powerful character traits designed to help parents grow and thrive as they take on the task of nurturing and raising kids. Parents will be encouraged to navigate family life with grace and love so that their kids ultimately see God’s transformative power, love, and influence. In this book, parents will learn the necessity of adaptability the foundational nature of respect the importance of intentionality why parenting requires steadfast love and connection to set healthy boundaries how to keep imperfections from hurting your relationship with your kids

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Strong, functional families do exist today. But if you want jto establish healthy patterns in your own family, you'll need to learn how to recognize and apply the qualities they share. Gary Chapman introduces them in Five Signs of a Functional Family.

This open access book examines the triangle between family, gender, and health in Europe from a demographic perspective. It helps to understand patterns and trends in each of the three components separately, as well as their interdependencies. It overcomes the widely observable specialization in demographic research, which usually involves researchers studying either family or fertility processes or focusing on health and mortality. Coverage looks at new family and partnership forms among the young and middle-aged, their relationship with health, and the pathways through which they act. Among the old, lifelong family biography and present family situation are explored. Evidence is provided that partners advancing in age start to resemble each other more closely in terms of health, with the health of the partner being a crucial factor of an individual’s own health. Gender-specific health outcomes and pathways are central in the designs of the studies and the discussion of the results. The book compares twelve European countries reflecting different welfare state regimes and offers country-specific studies conducted in Austria, Germany, Italy - all populations which have received less attention in the past - and Sweden. As a result, readers discover the role of different concepts of family and health as well as comparisons within European countries and ethnic groups. It will be an insightful resource for students, academics, policy makers, and researchers that will help define future research in terms of gender and public health.

Author Dolores Curran conducts a question and answer session with a live audience about the 15 qualities shared by healthy families.