CSU hosts talk about effects of nurturing environments on families

Internationally renowned behavioral scientist Anthony Biglan will speak in Fort Collins April 28 on the effects that nurturing environments have on human well-being.

Biglan’s talk, hosted by the Colorado State University Prevention Research Center in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Columbine Room of the Lincoln Center. His new book, The Nurture Effect: How the Science of Human Behavior Can Improve Our Lives & Our World, tells about the tremendous progress that behavioral scientists have made in preventing costly psychological and behavioral problems and promoting well-being by helping to make families, schools and communities more nurturing.

Biglan shares in his book how three decades of scientific discoveries have led us to know enough to ensure that virtually every young person arrives at adulthood with the skills, values, and health behaviors to thrive in today’s society. A unifying principle across these scientific discoveries and a method for wide-ranging social improvement focuses on creating more nurturing environments. Biglan will describe how this research can lead to action, in which groups of parents, teachers, advocates, and policymakers join together locally and nationally to create a science-guided social movement that prioritizes the creation of nurturing environments at home, in school, at work, and in our communities.

Biglan is a senior scientist at the Oregon Research Institute, and has been conducting research on the development and prevention of child and adolescent problem behavior for the past 30 years. In recent years, his work has focused on comprehensive interventions that have the potential to prevent a wide range of child and adolescent problems.

There is no charge to attend the talk, but space is limited and guests are asked to register online at http://col.st/6ihWa, by emailing BiglanLecture@colostate.edu, or calling 970-491-5558.

Biglan will also be speaking on Monday, April 27, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Butcher Auditorium at the University of Colorado Boulder. That event is free, but seating is limited. Visit http://bit.ly/1JIh1nX to learn more and register.

Colorado’s prevention science community has made Biglan’s visit possible, with support from the Colorado State University Prevention Research Center and the University of Colorado Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.

The Department of Human Development and Family Studies is in CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.

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