Regardless of its validity, many adults share a belief that today s youth face an inauspicious future. Drugs, sex, violence, disintegration of the nuclear family, technology that replaces interpersonal relationships that s what you hear in the news. The media, through its dramatization of the dangers and risks children confront and pose, have created a well-established image of disenfranchised, hostile, and often-destructive children and adolescents. This image ignores the many children who are thriving as well as the possibility of positive outcomes for children and youth.

With...