MUNCIE — Families in Delaware County that are experiencing the struggles of raising teenagers soon will have the opportunity to attend workshops on such topics as stress management and peer pressure.
The series of classes for parents and for children ages 10-14 is provided by the Strengthening Families Program, which is being brought to the area by Purdue Extension.
While the program originated out of Iowa State University, it has been adopted globally, with the World Health Organization naming it the top program out of 6,000 others that are analyzed for long-term effects on substance use and misuse, according to the Purdue Extension website.
Amanda Bullion, a health and human science educator with Purdue Extension of Jay County, said while Strengthening Families is often marketed as a prevention program, it's really open to any family with teenagers.
"We do all of this pre-parenting when people find out that they're pregnant, or they're new parents. They read all the baby books and they do all of these things," Bullion said. "I think parenting teenagers is harder than parenting infants, and we do very little to learn how to parent our teens in our youth."
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