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Summary: TEN TIPS FOR PARENTS : Understanding your teen's behavior
Review: 1- All teenagers take risks as a normal part of growing up. Risk-taking is the tool an adolescent uses to define and develop his or her identity, and healthy risk-taking is a valuable experience.2- Healthy adolescent risk taking behaviors which tend to have a positive impact on an adolescent's developement can include participation in sports, the development of artistic and creative abilities, volunteer activities, travel, running for school office, making new friends, constructive contributions to the family or community, and others. Inherent in all these activities is the possibility of failure. Parents must recognize and support their child with this. 3- Negative risk-taking behaviors which can be dangerous for adolescents include drinking, smoking, drug use, reckless driving, unsafe sexual activity, disordered eating, self mutilation, running away, stealing, gang activity, and others. 4- Unhealthy adolescent risk-taking may appear to be "rebelion"--an angry gesture directed specifically at parents. However, risk-taking, wether healthy or unhealthy is simply part of the teen's struggle to test out an identity by providing self-definition and separation from others, including parents. 5- Some adolescent behaviors are deceptive -- a teen may genuinely try to take a healthy risk that evolves into a more dangerous behavior. For exemple, many adolescents girls fail to recognize the trap of dieting and fall into a pattern of disordered eating, sometimes even developing a full eating disorder. Parents need to be well informed in order to help their adolescent with such struggles. 6- "Red Flags" which help identify dangerous adolescent risk-taking can include psychological problems such as persistent depression or anxiety which goes beyond more typical adolescent "moodiness" ; problems at school; engaging in illegal activities; and clusters of unhealthy risk-taking behaviors (e.g., smoking, drinking and driving recklessly might be happening at the same time, as might disordered eating, self-mutilation, or running away and stealing). 7- Since adolescents need to take risks, parents need to help them find healthy opportunities to do so. Healthy risk-taking, not only important in itself, can help prevent unhealthy risk-taking. 8- Adolescents often offer subtle clues about their negative risk-taking through what they say about the behaviors of friends and family, including parents. Parents often stay silent about their own histories of risk-taking and experimenting, but it can be important to find ways to share this information with adolecents in order to serve as role models, to let teens know that mistakes are not fatal and to encourage making healthier choices than those the parents may have made during his or her own adolescence. 9- Adolescents look to their parents for advice and modeling about how to assess positive and negative risks. Parents need to help their teens learn how to evaluate risks and anticipate the consequences of their choices, and develop strategies for diverting their energy into healthier activities when necessary. 10- Parents need to pay attention to their own current patterns of risk-taking as well. Teenagers are watching, and imitating, wether they acknowledge it or not.
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Summary: amazingly informative
Review: Dr. Lynn Ponton has been treating adolescents for many years and through this book has attempted to chronicle the key lives and issues that have influenced her views of teenager psychology. Presenting a range of often likeable characters, Dr. Ponton does an excellent job of showing the intelligence and resilience of her patients while at the same time demonstrating how parents can feel angry and confused about how to parent their teen. The book illustrates all the main issues surrounding adolescents, eating disorders, drugs/alcohol, sex, and abuse, as well as analyzing the complexity of mother/son, mother/daughter, father/son, and father/daughter relationships. If I had to offer one criticism of this book, it would be that Dr. Ponton's language (particularly at the beginning of the book) tends to be extremely clinical and often presents a layer to wade through to find her point. Although we live in the era of the pseudo-psychological talk show, and some of the language will be familiar, parents and teens seeking answers to a problem may find this quality of the book off-putting. Conversely, I think this book would be of intense interest for other therapists who are interested in seeing various past and current adolescent theory put into practice by a skilled practioner. The stories of the teens and their families are compelling to all audiences, however, and I cautiously recommend this book to a large audience.
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Summary: An Excellent Resource - Rather Technical
Review: Dr. Lynn Ponton has been treating adolescents for many years and through this book has attempted to chronicle the key lives and issues that have influenced her views of teenager psychology. Presenting a range of often likeable characters, Dr. Ponton does an excellent job of showing the intelligence and resilience of her patients while at the same time demonstrating how parents can feel angry and confused about how to parent their teen. The book illustrates all the main issues surrounding adolescents, eating disorders, drugs/alcohol, sex, and abuse, as well as analyzing the complexity of mother/son, mother/daughter, father/son, and father/daughter relationships. If I had to offer one criticism of this book, it would be that Dr. Ponton's language (particularly at the beginning of the book) tends to be extremely clinical and often presents a layer to wade through to find her point. Although we live in the era of the pseudo-psychological talk show, and some of the language will be familiar, parents and teens seeking answers to a problem may find this quality of the book off-putting. Conversely, I think this book would be of intense interest for other therapists who are interested in seeing various past and current adolescent theory put into practice by a skilled practioner. The stories of the teens and their families are compelling to all audiences, however, and I cautiously recommend this book to a large audience.
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Summary: Outstanding perspective on needs and motives of adolescents
Review: Dr. Ponton writes an unusual book that gives voice to troubled teens and their families, using their engaging stories to teach about contemporary adolescence. As the reader eavesdrops on these lives through absorbing narrative, accounts of therapy, thoughtful reflection and application to relevant issues, and analyses of family interactions, important facts and facets of adolescent development and devlopmental issues are learned almost effortlessly. The book is engaging and at times exciting, as we come to know these teens and their struggles. The variety of teens and adolescent problems profiled is impressive--from the general need to explore and define the self (Jill) to gang involvement and aggression (Evan and Cecilia), from drugs and sexual activity to self-mutilation, depression and anorexia nervosa. Readers also learn about mental health services, and how therapy helps adolescents and families grow and change. This is a terrific book for parents, educators, any mental health field worker, or teens themselves! I used this book as a supplemental reader to a course I taught in adolescent development at a major university where I am a doctoral student in clinical psychology. Students loved it, and several bought copies as gifts for their parents or other family members. I will be using it again for a section of Adolescent Development I will be teaching in spring semester, 1999.
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Summary: Important read for parents
Review: I found this book to be very interesting and easy to read and recommend it to other parents. Dr. Ponton uses colorful examples from her work with teens to explain the motivations behind some of the dangerous and not so dangerous things our kids do. Moreover, she makes the important argument that teenage risk taking is a normal part of development in our culture. I felt like I was in better shape to relate to and understand my teenager after reading the book. Her other book on adolescent sexuality is also good.
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Summary: amazingly informative
Review: I loved this book- although a little technical, it provided a wealth of information about how parents and teens should intereact around the topic of risk taking. I have found it useful in talking to my own teenage daughters.
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Summary: A diamond in the rough. This book must be read!
Review: The author weaves her creative skills of writing and her intellectual skills into the "Mona Lisa" of books. It pulls you in, in the first paragraph.
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Summary: The most provacative,well written book I have read in years.
Review: The content of this book was so thought-provoking and informative about adolescence that I wanted to give it to my teenage daughter to read. The stories aout the teens are exciting, helping me understand my teenage years and my daughters'. This book should be read by every parent and teenager!
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Summary: "Excellent, enjoyable and well written, overall smashing"
Review: This book was like a box of chocolates, so many great and spiffy stories to read and I didn't know which to choose. I advise anybody with free time and an intrest in teenagers or just an intrest in finding out about the meaning of adolesence to read this great book!
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