BC Council for Families

The purpose of this literature and program review is to provide a base of evidence to support the development of an effective “parenting for prevention” project for British Columbia.

The scope of this review involves an examination of several areas of importance to support the healthy development of youth aged 7-12.

This review includes current evidence in the following areas:

1. what we know about the development of children in middle childhood, substance use and other risk behaviours;
2. the varied complexities of today’s families and the impact of family structure on the development of children;
3. what we know about parenting and the impact of family on risk behaviours, including substance use; and
4. what we know about effective prevention programming for parents of youth 7-12.

For the purposes of this review, an examination of recent research in the above areas was conducted to
determine what the current base of evidence reveals regarding effective parenting of middle childhood
youth.