More on youth development and the 40 Developmental Assets needed by 12 to 18 year olds, as described by the Search Institute.

1) Personal Power: when teens feel they have control over "things that happen to me."
The most important piece of the self-esteem puzzle is personal power—the sense your youngster gets from knowing they can have an effect on their world. Its important to find ways for your teen to set a goal and then successfully achieve it.

Help your teen learn to brainstorm and choose solutions to problems so that they learns to be empowered.

This is the fourth blog in a series exploring the benefits of eating meals together as a family.

A report from the University of Florida says that one of the real benefits of family meals is the opportunity for conversation, and is even associated with better nutritional quality. The report also reveals that eating together as a family is surprisingly associated with creating developmental assets for the family members and leads to fewer risky behaviors.

Simply put, eating together as a family could be a part of an effective strategy for preventing dangerous behaviors among youth. Take a look:

A previous blog looked at girls and drugs, and another blog examined how drugs impair judgment and can influence the sexual decisions of young girls. Both of these posts noted that many people tend to consider drug use among kids to be a boys' issue, but evidence shows that girls are even more at risk in some ways.

We hear quite a bit about self-esteem. So, what is it?

• Is it a good thing? 
•  Is it necessary? 
•  Where does it come from?

Many psychologists have done research on self-esteem, developing theories about what it is and where it comes from. One of these researchers, the famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow, developed a concept called the "hierarchy of needs."