In Scaffold Parenting, Raising Resilient, Self-Reliant and Secure Kids in an Age of Anxiety, world-renowned child psychiatrist Dr. Harold Koplewicz introduces the powerful and clinically tested idea that the deliberate build-up and then gradual loosening of parental support is the single most effective way to encourage kids to climb higher, try new things, grow from mistakes, and develop character and strength. Explaining the building blocks of an effective scaffold from infancy through young adulthood, he expertly guides parents through the strategies for raising empowered, capable people.
Just as sturdy scaffolding is necessary when erecting a building and will come down when the structure grows stable, good parenting provides children with steady and warm emotional nourishment on the path toward independence. Never-ending parental problem-solving and involvement can have the opposite effect, enabling fragility and anxiety over time.
BIO:
Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, is the founding president and medical director of the Child Mind Insitute, the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health. One of the nation’s top child and adolescent psychiatrists, Dr. Koplewicz was the founding director of the NYU Child Study Center from 1997 to 2009 and director of the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research from 2006 to 2011. Dr. Koplewicz served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology for 25 years, and he is the author of several books, including Scaffold Parenting: Raising Resilient, Self-Reliant, and Secure Kids in an Age of Anxiety (Harmony Books, 2021).
The Child Mind Institute, which Dr. Koplewicz founded in 2009, has reached nearly 64,000 children through clinical care, research evaluations, and school-based programs, and they have delivered mental health resources to over 1.8 million students. Researchers in over 3,350 cities worldwide have published articles using the organization’s open science data sets, and their award-winning website, childmind.org, has brought accessible information to more than 100 million parents, teachers, and mental health professionals worldwide. In 2023, they inaugurated the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute.
Dr. Koplewicz’s many awards and honors include the 2002 Catcher in the Rye Award from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and WebMD’s 2014 Health Heroes Activist Award. In 2020, he received the Dominick P. Purpura Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has been repeatedly recognized in America’s Top Doctors, Best Doctors in America, and New York Magazine’s “Best Doctors.”
Eraka Bath, MD, is a Professor and Vice Chair for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Department of Psychiatry, and Assistant Dean for Faculty Initiatives in the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Office of Inclusive Excellence. Board certified in child and adolescent, adult, and forensic psychiatry, she has a long-standing interest in community mental health and has committed her career to advancing health equity for ethnoracially minoritized, and structurally marginalized youth and families, with specialized focus on youth impacted by the foster care and juvenile legal systems. She has dedicated her time to working with structurally vulnerable populations and consults regularly with the court system. She has been the court-appointed psychiatrist to the Los Angeles County Juvenile Mental Health Court since 2007 and has collaborated with the Los Angeles County Department of Probation and Court systems on developing programs and policies and training workforce related mental health disorders and juvenile competency to stand trial. Her portfolio of research has included funding from the National Institutes of Health, Los Angeles County Department of Probation and private foundations. She teaches on structural racism and antiracism, its impacts on mental health and biomedical research and workforce development, juvenile law, child welfare, sex trafficking and trauma. Her current research involves using community participatory models to increase engagement in behavioral and reproductive health with for girls with histories of commercial sexual exploitation and those involved in the child welfare and juvenile legal system.