Firm foundations: strength-based approaches to adolescent chronic disease.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Chronic disease management is an increasingly important aspect of caring for adolescents. Strength-based approaches hold tremendous promise in the face of current challenges. Recent clinical innovations and research findings that provide evidence of the efficacy of strength-based approaches and represent a fundamental evolution in the clinical approach to adolescent care are reviewed.

RECENT FINDINGS: Resilience and positive youth development are important conceptual frameworks in adolescent health, which have recently been brought into the clinic setting in the form of the strength-based approach to care. In parallel, studies of motivational interviewing, a strength-based technique with known efficacy in behavioral change, have begun to demonstrate clinical efficacy in various adolescent chronic disease applications. The coupling of a strength-based approach with motivational interviewing holds promise for not only modifying end behaviors but also helping teens to develop strengths and assets to promote general well-being and healthy development. This distinction in goals might be described as the difference between being transiently problem-free and durably problem-resistant.

SUMMARY: Strength-based approaches, including motivational interviewing, hold tremendous potential for equipping providers to address the rapidly increasing burden of chronic disease in adolescents.