Amalfi Coast where to stay family with college age

When are you going? That makes a difference for recommendations. Summer, Fall, Spring?
Mode of transportation? Train and coming from where? Budget? Amalfi can be expensive. Sorrento is a good option for visiting the Amalfi Coast but most advice can best be given after a little more info. Thanks!

If you wish to visit Naples, Herculaneum, and Pompeii, you can stay in Sorrento, which is not actually on the Amalfi Coast, or on the Amalfi Coast side, you can reach those locations somewhat easily from the mainland end villages--Minori to Salerno. From the Amalfi side, you can visit Paestum to see some remarkably intact Greek temples.
The other main activity is just traveling among the villages, by boat or hiking, by bus when you must.
You might want to share how many days you have, departure and arrival points, and time of year. If you have enough days, I prefer splitting the stay--transport convenience for a few days, leisure time in a pretty village for the others. It just depends on what you prefer.

Month of year and year?

A recent discussion that included "night life":
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/sorrento-vs-positano-for-3-night-stay-in-april

We will be going in May. Would prefer a hotel/resort . Looking for recommendations for lodging and excursions

if your kids are going to want to hang on the beach, I believe the beaches in that region are pretty rocky and not necessarily what one thinks of

What you want to do--day trips and such--is the most important factor in choosing a base because of transport issues. Nail that down first, then look at hotels. There are really not a ton of them, so it is easy to plug your parameters into Booking.com or whatever accommodation search you like.
You choose the area for a reason-- what is it that you are interested in doing? Pompeii? Capri?

I haven't much to add to valadelphia, except to recommend staying in Salerno instead of one of the villages. Salerno has a large (for the AC) sandy beach and a seaside promenade just a block or two from the well-preserved historic center, which is a 10 minute walk to the train station (with highspeed trains to Naples, Rome and points north) and to the buses and ferries that travel the AC. It's an easy day trip by bus or train to Paestum, Take the fast train to Naples for the wonderful National Archaeology Museum and see an interesting bit of the city using the RS guidebook's walking tour. You can also take a local train to modern Pompeii and short taxi ride to visit the ancient city. On the edge of the historic center there's a modern pedestrian mall with some good bars, cafes and shopping.

This has three Newsboard links in it that might be helpful

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/sorrento-campania

Sorrento or Salerno. Both have access to the Amalfi towns via ferry, (which is a wonderful way to see the coast) and offer a lot on their own. Salerno, as mentioned above, has good access to trains going in all directions.

If you can make it work within budget stay in Positano.
Those with lesser opinions of Positano go there on a daytrip

During May the ferries will be running as well as the bus giving Positano good connections ; has the nicest beach and plenty to explore in town so your college age kids will not be bored as they would be in one of the smaller towns

The OP's post was from February for a May trip. Pretty sure they made their reservations some time ago.