Our kids are more than their problems—let’s act like it | Kris Anderson Moore | TEDxFoggyBottom

Dr. Kristin Anderson Moore states that society should measure children's success by positive indicators like curiosity, empathy, resilience, and healthy relationships, not just by the absence of problems such as crime or school dropout. She explains that for children to flourish, they require supportive environments, caring adults, and programs that build on young people's strengths rather than relying on punishment or fear. Drawing on programs like Domus Kids, she shows that positive relationships and a sense of being loved lead to better long-term outcomes for children and adolescents.

Kristin Anderson Moore, Ph.D., is Senior Scholar and Past President at Child Trends. She is a social psychologist and has worked at Child Trends for more than 40 years. She studies trends in child and family well-being, positive youth development, education and employment programs, teen pregnancy and parenthood, family structure, poverty, and the effects of public policies and programs on children.

She has worked to share knowledge with practitioners, funders, journalists, and policymakers. Dr. Moore has helped develop constructs and measures for numerous surveys, including the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten and Birth Cohorts, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 197 Cohor, the National Survey of Children, and the National Survey of Children Heath. She was a founding member of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and currently serves on the Upstream Program Committee. She has been a member of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Advisory Council and served on the Census Scientific Advisory Committee. Dr. Moore headed Child Trends as President from 1992 to 2006, before she chose to return to full-time research. She has published more than 160 journal articles and books, as well as numerous research briefs and blogs, and is widely cited.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx