Did you survive Christmas? Get what you wanted? Have some time to catch up with loved ones and friends? If you did all of that, you truly had a good holiday.

Next up: New Year's. Time to make resolutions, take stock of where you are and where you want to be. Quite a cold splash of water after Christmas merriment, but that's probably a good thing.

On a daily basis, we are all inundated with information. We get bits of knowledge from near and far, some relevant, others just plain background noise. Unfortunately, most of the things that make news are the sensational, tragic and bad. It seems more and more, perhaps because of the sheer volume of information, that the worst seems to bubble to the top.

It always has been easier to be negative than positive, and good news, quite often is seen as a cop-out, somehow of lesser value than bad news.

Nothing could be more wrong. I firmly believe that we need to balance the equation wherever and whenever we can. Recently, I came across an article by Stephen Wallace, national chairman and chief executive officer of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) that discussed our adolescents, which have always worried our society.

The upshot of the opinion piece was that the kids are really doing pretty well, and if parents choose to engage their children on all levels, it gets even better.

A survey of more than 2,700 middle and high school students revealed that most young people have a positive sense of self: feeling good about their progress on the key developmental tasks of establishing an identity, achieving independence, and building meaningful relationships with peers.

The study shows that the majority of teens feel happy almost every day and perceive themselves as friendly (77 percent), honest (72 percent), and smart (72 percent). Similarly, more than six in ten say they can handle change well and are liked by others.

SADD's research, published under the title Teens Today, shows that "most teens say their relationships with their parents make them feel good about themselves (82 percent), their parents respect them (68 percent), and they feel close to their parents (60 percent). Additionally, an online survey of 1,250 adults and teens conducted by Opinion Research Corporation revealed that up to 67 percent of America's young people say they actually want to spend more time with their parents."

Nope, not a misprint. Your children want more of your time. Even during the "turbulent" transitional years of adolescence, teens seem to value time with their family above all else.

According to Wallace, young people who spend time with their parents, talk with them, and feel close to them are overwhelmingly less likely to drink (62 percent vs. 43 percent) or to use other drugs (87 percent vs. 77 percent) than are those who don't.

On top of all of this, the report shows that many teens who do not have good communication with their parents say they wish they did.

Results from other studies reinforce the value of family time and support. For example, a September, 2007 report from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University states that, compared to teens who have frequent family dinners (five or more per week), those who have infrequent family dinners (two or fewer) are three and a half times more likely to have abused prescription drugs, three times more likely to have used marijuana, and one and a half times more likely to have drunk alcohol.

Tufts University Professor Richard M. Lerner, in his book The Good Teen, says that after studying 4,000 adolescents found ample existence among young people of what he calls the "five Cs": competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring. These may coalesce, says Lerner, in a sixth C, contribution.

It's like my dad used to say: you get what you give.

Reading the opinion piece made me feel better about where we are heading as a society. I hope it makes you feel better as well.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.