Browse

This book examines the legal, psychological, and cultural issues relevant to understanding antisocial behavior in adolescence. Based on personal research and a broad analysis of recent work in the field, the book identifies the factors that are common in cases of delinquency. The discussion considers the long-term effects of social issues such as poverty as well as psychological issues such as the high levels of stress and anxiety suffered during childhood by many delinquents. The book shows how a failure to meet the developmental needs of children—at both the family level and at a broader social and political level—is at the core of the problem of juvenile delinquency. It concludes with an inquiry into how best to prevent delinquency, arguing that programs that address the developmental needs of children are more effective than policing, juvenile courts, or incarceration.

This book examines why some people are resistant to change, even when it seems to promise a change for the better. Drawing on a lifetime of clinical experience as well as wide readings of world literature, the book shows how early childhood relationships with parents can lead to a powerful conviction that change means loss. The book continues previous explorations into the consequences of early psychological injury and loss. In the examples of real patients and in the lives and work of such figures as Edna St. Vincent Millay, William Wordsworth, and Henrik Ibsen, it looks at the different ways in which unconscious impressions connected with early experiences and fantasies about parents are integrated into individual lives. The book shows the difficulties that have been encountered with patients in raising these memories to the conscious level where they can be known and owned; and it also shows, in a survey of literary figures, how these memories can become part of the creative process. The book offers a deeply humane reflection on the values and limitations of therapy, on memory and the lingering effects of the past, and on the possibility of recognizing the promise of the future.

This book is an illuminating study of the complex relationship between children and media in the digital age. Now, as never before, young people are surrounded by media, thanks to the sophistication and portability of the technology that puts it literally in the palms of their hands. Drawing on data and empirical research that cross many fields and continents, this book examines the role of media in the lives of children from birth through adolescence, addressing the complex issues of how media affect the young and what adults can do to encourage responsible use in an age of selfies, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The book looks at both the sunny and the dark side of media use by today's youth, including why and how their preferences change throughout childhood, whether digital gaming is harmful or helpful, the effects of placing tablets and smartphones in the hands of toddlers, the susceptibility of young people to online advertising, the legitimacy of parental concerns about media multitasking, and more.

Some children are prone to a particular kind of aggression when they are with their peers. For these children, any harm done to them—even something as inconsequential as a jostle in the lunch line—is perceived as intentional. Their style of social information processing, termed “hostile attributional bias,” increases the likelihood of retaliating with excessive and inappropriate physical aggression. In this book, parents and professionals who work with children will learn what can be done to better understand and control children's aggression. Beginning with a review of the literature, the author underscores the substantial risks of long-term problems for elementary-school-age children who demonstrate aggressive behavior. Then, drawing on her work as founder of a successful school intervention program, the BrainPower Program, the author describes methods for reducing children's peer-directed aggression. She concludes with a discussion of the importance of broad social contexts in supporting nonaggressive behavior.