The term "toughlove" (or tough love) describes a style of caring in which a person or a group reasserts power over another person for whom he or she is responsible. In its most common use today, the term describes the means by which parents of abusive, delinquent, or drug-abusing children can regain parental control. Toughlove is also the name of a self-help program for these parents and their children.

Toughlove, the self-help program, was developed by Phyllis and David York in 1980. They found that rescuing their daughter, who engaged in highly destructive behavior, did more harm than good. Instead, they permitted natural and logical consequences to correct their daughter's behavior while they sought emotional support from their friends. They wrote and published Toughlove (1980) and founded an organization called the Toughlove Support Network (which is described in their later book, published in 1984). The network's mission is to promote what...