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Parents & Caregivers

Relationships en Español

Learning how to build healthy relationships is an important part of growing up. Talk to your daughter about the issues she may face in building relationships. Be a good role model for her. The resources in this section cover a range of topics, including healthy dating, building relationships in the community, helping your daughter deal with divorce or a move, and helping her find a mentor. Tools for your daughter include quizzes on safety and relationships and interactive tips for handling fights with sisters or brothers.

Featured articles

1. Children and Family Moves
2. Community Service: A Family's Guide to Getting Involved
3. Helping Your Child Through a Divorce
4. Sibling Rivalry
5. Tips for Divorcing Parents

Web sites

1.  4Parents.gov - Your children need you to guide them in making smart choices about their health and future. 4Parents.gov is a guide to help you and your pre-teen or mid teen discuss important, yet difficult, issues about healthy choices, abstinence, sex and relationships.
2.   girlshealth.gov: Relationships - We have created the girlshealth.gov section on relationships to help adolescent girls learn more about some of the unique health issues and social situations they will encounter during the teen years. This section provides information, resources, and links to help your daughter learn more about relationships.
3. Can We Talk? - From the National Education Association Health Information Network, this program is designed to help parents talk with their children about healthy relationships and sexuality, including the prevention of pregnancy, HIV/STDs, drug abuse, and violence.
4. Talking with Kids About Tough Issues - This web site from the Kaiser Family Foundation and Children Now is aimed at fostering communication between parents/caregivers and children. The site covers topics ranging from sex to violence and from HIV/AIDS to drugs and alcohol.

Publications

1.   Communication Tips from Girl Power! - Learn new communication tips from Girl Power! – a web site that is all about helping young women make the most of their lives. The web site offers health information and support for young women and their positive values, and tips for the adults in their lives.
   
   http://www.girlpower.gov/adultswhocare/athome/communication/commtips.htm
2.   Helping Your Child Become a Responsible Citizen - This booklet provides information on the values and skills that make up character and good citizenship, and what you can do to help your child develop a strong character.
   
   http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/citizen/index.html
3.   A Parent's Guide to Teen Dating Violence: 10 Questions to Start the Conversation (Copyright © Liz Claiborne, Inc.) (PDF – 100KB) - This guide, from Liz Claiborne’s “Love is Not Abuse,” helps parents open the lines of communication about dating violence.
   
   http://loveisnotabuse.com/pdf/10questions_hand.pdf
4. Find a Mentor: Talking to a Parent or Guardian (Copyright © MENTOR) - This publication explains how every child can benefit from a mentor and that parents and mentors can have separate but important roles in a child’s life.
   
   http://www.mentoring.org/caring_adults/find_a_mentor/talking_to_a_parent.php
5.   How to Talk to Your Children About Developing Healthy Relationships (Copyright © Liz Claiborne, Inc.) (PDF – 79KB) - This on-line handbook is part of “Love is Not Abuse,” a public awareness and educational campaign sponsored by Liz Claiborne, Inc.
   
   http://loveisnotabuse.com/pdf/handbook.pdf
6.   Parent Power: What Parents Need to Know and Do to Help Prevent Teen Pregnancy (Copyright © NCPTP) (PDF – 374KB) - This publication provides parents with information on parental influence and offers parents practical things they can do to help their children delay sexual activity and avoid teen pregnancy.
   
   http://www.teenpregnancy.org/resources/reading/pdf/ParentPowerEnglish.pdf
7. Preparing Your Kids for Dating (Copyright © National Fatherhood Initiative) - This web pages lists some important tips for parents about preparing their kids (and themselves!) for when their child starts dating.
   
   http://www.fatherhood.org/de020708.asp
8. Teen Dating Violence Fact Sheet (Copyright © NCVC) - This fact sheet describes what dating violence is, the incidence of teen dating violence, it's victims, dating violence and the law, and who can help.
   
   http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/AGP.Net/Components/documentViewer/Download.aspxnz%3FDocumentID%3D38057
9. What Parents Can Do (Copyright © APA) - On television, across the internet, in movies, and clothing stores, girls are constantly receiving the message that they should be "sexy." This fact sheet contains tips for parents on how to teach girls to value themselves for who they are, rather than how they look.
   
   http://www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualizationpar.html

Organizations

1.   Administration for Children and Families
   
   http://www.acf.dhhs.gov
2.   Office of Population Affairs, OPHS, OS, HHS
   
   http://www.hhs.gov/opa/
3. American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
   
   http://www.aamft.org/index.asp
4. Children's Rights Council
   
   http://www.gocrc.com/
5. Kids Health
   
   http://kidshealth.org/
6. Points of Light Foundation
   
   http://pointsoflight.org/

 

= This article, publication, web site, or organization is from the U.S. government.

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Content last updated November 11, 2007

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