Since 1999, the nonprofit FrameWorks Institute has investigated how Americans think about social issues--from children and youth to education and race--and how scientists, policy experts, and advocates can do a better job of engaging the public in solutions. FrameWorks Institute's empirical approach integrates essential constructs from the cognitive and social sciences to investigate the worldviews and patterns of thinking that ordinary people enlist when considering social problems. The goal of this approach is to deliver communications strategies that are grounded in research and have the potential to change the public debate if they are effectively deployed.

This volume focuses on the theory, research, and practice of FrameWorks' decade of work in evidence-based communications strategies for child and youth issues. The articles explain where this approach is situated within the broader conversation on communications for social change; why an iterative, multimethod process is necessary to determine the communications strategies that will elevate the public dimensions of children's and youth's developmental trajectories; and how experts and advocates are applying these evidence-based communications strategies to their work on behalf of children and youth.

This is the 124th volume of New Directions for Youth Development, the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series dedicated to bringing together everyone concerned with helping young people, including scholars, practitioners, and people from different disciplines and professions. The result is a unique resource presenting thoughtful, multi-faceted approaches to helping our youth develop into responsible, stable, well-rounded citizens.