When the Commission on Children At Risk--a group of 33 children's doctors, research scientists, mental health and youth service professionals--presented to the Nation its report on the crises of deteriorating mental and behavioral health of children in the US, the 83-page report was entitled "Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities." The basic conclusion of the report was that the principal reason why growing numbers of US children are failing to flourish is a lack of positive connectedness--close connections to other people and deep connections to moral and spiritual meaning. According to scholars at the National Research Council, at least one of every four adolescents in the United States is currently at serious risk of not achieving productive adulthood. Another study states that 21 percent of American children ages nine to 17 have a diagnosable mental or addictive disorder associated with at least minimum impairment. Despite the increased ability to treat depression today, US children as a group are reporting more anxiety than did children who were psychiatric patients in the 1950s. This is noteworthy during a time when there have been broad improvements in the material well-being of children. A recent Annie E. Casey Foundation report on child well-being found that 8 of 11 material and demographic indicators--such as living in poverty, living with a household head who is a high school dropout, etc.--have been steadily increasing since 1975. But despite this, young people in America not only appear to be experiencing sharp increases in mental illness and stress and emotional problems, but also suffer from increasing rates of related behavioral problems such as substance abuse, school dropout, interpersonal violence, premature sexual intercourse, and teenage sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. This report goes on to present a "new" case for authoritative communities as the solution for this crisis termed "Relationship Trauma." And the solution, while presented as "new" in this report, has been the foundation for pioneers of positive youth development models through centuries past. (Contains 1 figure.)