Dads and Daughters : How to Inspire, Understand, and Support Your Daughter When She's Growing Up SoFast

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring Dads to Step Up
Review: This is a very important book. As parents, we would all risk life and limb to protect our children against a physical threat. But I sometimes feel powerless to prepare my daughter to face the advertising/body image onslaught that she faces (and that also poses a mental and physical threat to her). Kelly's book is very concrete in what we can as fathers, both in our day to day relationships with the girls in our lives --as well as in terms of political action against the advertising industry.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring Dads to Step Up
Review: This is a very important book. As parents, we would all risk life and limb to protect our children against a physical threat. But I sometimes feel powerless to prepare my daughter to face the advertising/body image onslaught that she faces (and that also poses a mental and physical threat to her). Kelly's book is very concrete in what we can as fathers, both in our day to day relationships with the girls in our lives --as well as in terms of political action against the advertising industry.

Rating:
Summary: Well intentioned pop psycholgy, not based in research
Review: This is a well-intentioned book that does include some good advice and anecdotes, and probably there are parents who would benefit overall from reading it if this was the only resource available. However it is essentially a pop psychology book that is not grounded in the scientific research on child development. For example, the author's overly simplistic discussion of eating disorders, including exaggerated prevalence statistics, without a complimentary focus on childhood obesity, a much more prevalent problem. Not to minimize the seriousness of eating disorders, but exaggerating their prevalences does no good. According to the Academy for Eating Disorders, "Approximately 0.5% to 1.0% of late adolescent or adult women meet criteria for the diagnosis of Anorexia nervosa, and approximately 1.0% to 2.0% of late adolescent and adult women meet criteria for the diagnosis of Bulimia nervosa." Not 10%, Joe. Another naive discussion is of self-esteem building, without recognizing that self esteem is usually domain specific, and that unwarranted self esteem is often associated with increased risk behavior. Again, not to minimize the value of strong self esteem, but it should be promoted through caring relationships, high expectations, and meaningful opportunities, not slogans and mantras. I could go on with specific criticisms, but instead I would like to suggest two alternatives that are much better based in the scientific research. A great starting point is a 62-page book available for no charge from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, titled "Adventures in Parenting." This can be downloaded from the NICHD website, or a free printed copy can be requested. And an excellent book for parents of teens would be Steinberg and Levine's "You and Your Adolescent," available from Amazon. Steinberg is the nation's leading adolescence researcher, and it's a real treasure to have a book from him that is oriented to parents rather than an academic audience.