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FrameWorks UK

Child and Adolescent Development

FrameWorks has the world’s largest body of framing research on children and adolescents. It is used around the world to create change.

This research provides an overarching framing strategy to effectively communicate about a wide range of issues that affect children and young people.

Certain assumptions about children, youth, and families come up again and again.

To communicate effectively, advocates need to be able to navigate these dominant beliefs.

The tested frames come from research on six continents and have pushed policy in progressive directions at local, state, national, and international levels. Join this global narrative shift effort by exploring these resources.

Featured Work

high school friends brainstorming
Toolkit

Reframing Adolescence and Adolescent Development

This toolkit is a resource for communicators who want to change the narrative about adolescence and adolescent development.
Report

Collective Caregiving: A Frame for Talking About What Kids and Families Need to Thrive

We all love our kids. We often love our neighbors', friends', and coworkers' kids. So why haven't we, in the U.S., built systems that support all of our kids? If we want to build demand for...
Report

Talking About Racism in Child and Family Advocacy

As the field seeks to lead a more public conversation about the impacts of racism on children and families—and about how racism structures the systems that children and families interact...

All work

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Report

Framing Children’s Oral Health for Public Attention and Support

This FrameWorks MessageMemo assesses the communications environment that affects the success or failure of children’s health advocates to communicate effectively about children’s oral health.
Report

A Developmental Perspective: An Analysis of Qualitative Research Exploring Views of Youth

This report on a series of focus groups discovers how adults in the state of Minnesota view adolescence in general and youth development programs in specific.
Report

Making the Public Case for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention: A FrameWorks Message Memo

This message memo synthesizes the first set of qualitative research findings and recommends strategies to communicate more effectively about child abuse and neglect.
Report

Moving the Public Beyond Familiar Understandings of Early Childhood Development

This study examined public reactions to dozens of terms that are often used to explain important scientific insights into early childhood development.
Report

How the News Frames Child Maltreatment: Unintended Consequences

A report summarizing some of the major patterns in news coverage of child maltreatment – the key narratives, frames and causal stories that are conveyed to the public on the issue.
Report

Two Cognitive Obstacles to Preventing Child Abuse: The “Other-Mind” Mistake and the “Family Bubble”

A report on a series of cognitive interviews that identifies two common mistakes in thinking that the public makes about child abuse prevention, and recommendations on how to overcome them.
Report

Developing Community Connections: Qualitative Research Regarding Framing Policies

A report of findings from focus groups designed to test the impact of four frames about child abuse and neglect: Child Abuse, Parenting, Child Development, and Community.
Report

Discipline and Development: A Meta-Analysis of Public Perceptions of Parents, Parenting, Child Development and Child Abuse

A report reviewing PCA America’s research on child abuse, as well as existing, publicly available opinion research regarding parenting, child development, child abuse and discipline, and the...
Report

Testing Metaphors for Key Concepts in Early Childhood Development

This study reports on the development and testing of explanatory metaphors that translate the science of early childhood development into language that is more accessible to the public and...
Report

Simplifying Early Childhood Development: Findings from Cognitive Analysis and Phone Interviews

In the research reported on here, cognitive analysis of this general schema reveals several basic features which stand in the way of child advocates’ messaging.
Report

Hearts Souls and Minds: An Analysis of Qualitative Research Regarding Communicating School Readiness and other Child Development Policies

This analysis is based upon qualitative research, specifically 12 focus groups. Focus groups are open-end, structured conversations among 8-10 people, typically lasting about 2 hours.
Report

Promoting School Readiness and Early Child Development: Findings from Cognitive Elicitations

This report explains findings from research that investigated whether the concept of "school readiness," a frame widely promoted by advocates and experts, can be effective at engaging public...