Children at risk often grow up without a parental figure . In spite of being at risk, such children can flourish when they can find their own strentgh or a role-model figure who can notice their strenght.
After translating Lea Waters's scale on base parenting strengths to Hebrew, we conducted the current study , trying to identify the paths toward flourishing. Participants were children parents, volunteer mentors (in the study of Big brother Big sister) and musical teachers in the study of Music for Social Change.
Measurements includes happiness, satisfaction from life, positive and negative affect, self-efficacy, and base parenting strength.
The lecture presents the study outcomes and draws a theoretical model emphasizes the path from risk to flourishing through children’s engagement of the self-components of positive affect, self-efficacy, and awareness of one's own strengths and through the environmental component of base parenting strength (or mentors or teachers when the child did not have parents) as crucial to help children flourish. Thus, in children facing high risk, finding the positive forces in themselves to lean on – and having a strong adult figure who notice their strengths – can help them find a path toward flourishing.