Parenting is attracting more professional and political attention now than ever before. More and more parents need the support of others to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to choose what would be best for their children. A variety of professionals are often involved in contributing to the assessment of parenting and/or setting up programmes for enhancing it. This important guide provides practical information for setting up assessment and parenting programmes for a range of professionals, dealing with parenting issues in historical, socio-economic, gender and ethnic contexts. In this comprehensive book, a team of multi-disciplinary experts offers practical solutions to a variety of challenges faced by parents, and professionals devoted to helping the parents. The chapters explore parenting in relation to common, specific problems such as, hyperactivity in children, behaviour problems, learning difficulties, and stepfamily situations. Enhancing Parenting Skills is essential reading for a range of professionals, including health visitors, social workers, psychologists, probation officers, education welfare officers, teachers, general practitioners and paediatricians. It is also a useful text for students on professional courses such as Social Work, Family Therapy, and Family and Education.

Bullying is one of the most destructive but common social practices that young people experience in schools, and one of the most difficult for teachers to manage successfully. Sexual bullying is even more difficult to deal with.
Most adults can recall the important part sexual reputation played in the hierarchies of peer-group popularity during secondary schooling. The significance of this formative period of our sexual identities seems obvious, but is largely ignored by education policy makers and rarely appears in staff training programmes.
This book draws together a number of theories on gender, adolescent behaviour and schooling to examine social interactions in four comprehensive schools. The original research underpinning this book comprises of group and individual interviews with the pupils, case-studies and classroom-practitioner observations over a seven-year period.
This book will stimulate interest amongst all concerned with pupil welfare and social change.

This book is an ethnographic study of a comprehensive school in the south of England. It explores the views of teachers, Asian parents and their children concerning education and schooling. Young people between the ages of 13 and 18 were studied at home and at school and their experiences form the main focus of the study.
The experiences of fifty Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian families - mostly of Muslim faith - are studied with a view to discovering what parents expect from their children's school and how the teachers perceive their own role with regard to their students. These young people are the first generation of Asians to be educated in Britain. Their location in terms of their social class positions, gender and ethnicity are inextricably bound together. They describe how they see their past and their future. This is the first study to take account of boys and girls in order to capture the complexity of their lived experiences.

Based on research about after-school experiences and dilemmas conducted over a four-year period with employed parents and their children, this book draws on the stories these parents and children told--often using their actual words--to emphasize the wide variety of children's after-school arrangements, children's movement over time in and out of different arrangements, and the importance to children of multiple facets of their after-school arrangements, not simply the presence or absence of an adult caretaker. The book also emphasizes that children are not randomly assigned to after-school arrangements. Rather, parents and children struggle to reach optimal solutions to what are often difficult child care dilemmas. To understand these dilemmas, and the diverse strategies that families adopt, one must attend to the individual situations of children as family members understand them.
This book was written to contribute to the development of new family and work policies and practices by illuminating the difficulties families face and their consequences for children. Written for psychologists, sociologists, and other social scientists who study families, maternal employment, child care, or child development, it will also be useful for parents, educators, community leaders, and public policymakers concerned about the well being of children whose parents are employed.

Epidemiological surveys have provided key information about the prevalence and degree of seriousness at different ages of a wide array of problem behaviors such as delinquency, substance use, early sexual involvement, and mental health disorders. Knowledge of the extent of these problems and changes in their course over time is important. In its absence, interventions and health planning in general can be difficult. Understanding which risk and protective factors are relevant to which problem behaviors is also essential for the formulation of theories that constitute the basis of intervention. This book draws on the results of the major Pittsburgh Youth Study complemented by follow-up tracking of juvenile court records for more than six years, to address the following questions: *What is the prevalence and age of onset of delinquency, substance use, and early sexual behavior for three samples of boys age 8, 11, and 14? What are the average mental health problems for these ages? How strong are the relationships among these problem behaviors in each of the samples? *Which variables best explain individual differences among the boys in their manifestations of delinquency, substance use, early sexual behavior, and mental health problems? To what extent do explanatory factors vary with age? How accurately can boys with different outcomes be identified by risk scores based on hierarchical multiple regressions? *To what extent are explanatory factors associated with one outcome that are also associated with other outcomes? Are explanatory factors that are especially characteristic of a multiproblem group of boys--who display many different problem behaviors--different from explanatory factors associated with boys with few problems? *Do the results fit a general theory of juvenile problem behaviors, or is a differentiated theory more applicable?

Using the examples of attachment theory and language development, part one of this book elaborates a cultural approach to early development. Part two considers children's emerging capacities for empathy, perspective taking and social understanding, exploring how young children negotiate, talk about and play out relationship themes. The way children learn through relationships is examined in Part three - which covers topics such as "scaffolding" learning, and how children learn to collaborate with each other. Part four returns to the issue of cultural variation, asking how far textbook accounts of early social relationships reflect particular cultural beliefs and practices, and taking examples from such diverse contexts as Cameroon, Guatemala, Italy, Japan and the United States.

Each year more than 50,000 children and adolescents receive mental health treatment in residential and inpatient settings such as hospitals, group homes, and residential treatment centers. How is a decision made to disrupt a child's or teen's environment and place him or her in a program? What factors should be considered? What kinds of treatment are offered in these settings? How cost-effective and productive are these programs? Suggesting guidelines for how and when to use these special services, Treating Children and Adolescents in Residential and Inpatient Settings provides a useful assessment of current therapeutic models and inpatient/residential treatment options. The authors review the findings of published program evaluations and discuss effective alternatives to residential placement, such as part-time day and community-based treatment. The book also includes a list of relevant resources that both professionals and parents will find helpful, including information on locating professional and advocacy organizations, publications, and assessment materials. Referring a child or teen to an intensive residential or inpatient treatment program is a major decision that affects the whole family. Treating Children and Adolescents in Residential and Inpatient Settings will help both professionals and parents make better informed decisions about institutionalizing children and adolescents. Likewise, students, researchers, and scholars in clinical/counseling psychology, developmental psychology, nursing, behavioral psychology, and social work will find interesting and pertinent information in this volume.

The formation of identity in adolescence is the most central concept in psychological and sociological studies of young people. Most theories to date assume that adolesence share the same conditions under which their identities are formed. Personality Development in Adolescence is a collection of work by leading researchers that considers different contexts affecting personality and identity development. Three main contexts are considered: cultural, family and life-span development.
Of central importance to developmental psychologists, this collection will also be valuable to social workers, teachers, nurses and all those whose work involves young people

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The problems of studying families arise from the difficulty in studying systems where there are multiple elements interacting with each other and with the child. How should this system be described? Still other problems relate to indirect effects; namely the influence of a particular dyad's interaction on the child when the child is not a member of the dyad. While all agree that the mother-father relationship has important bearing on the child's development, exactly how to study this--especially using observational techniques--remains a problem. While progress in studying the family has been slow, there is no question that an increase in interest in the family systems, as opposed to the mother-child relationship, is taking place. This has resulted in an increase in research on families and their effects.
This volume, by leading figures in child development on families, attests to the growing sophistication of the conceptualization and measurement techniques for getting at family processes. The third in a series that aims to address topics relevant to the developmental problems and developmental disabilities of retardation, this volume is divided into two parts. Section 1 presents basic family processes and approaches for describing family dynamics. It deals with these issues from a broad perspective, including studying families at dinner, families in different cultural contexts, and the understanding of family in nonhuman primates. Section 2 looks at family processes in the service of studying families at-risk. The risk factors include poverty, malnutrition, and developmental delay and retardation. The study of family processes in these contexts provides data on family dynamics as well as how these dynamics impact on the children's developing competence. This volume will be informative for researchers, clinicians, and educators from a variety of disciplines and settings. The editors' aim is to bring a greater clarity to issues concerning the family life of children and highlight new research and possibilities for intervention.

In the burgeoning research literature on adolescents, the relative paucity of work examining ethnic variations in developmental processes is a glaring gap, particularly because approximately one third of American young people now come from an ethnic minority background. A primary factor in this research imbalance has been the lack of training in methods and research instruments needed to properly study ethnically diverse populations. This book was developed in response to this need.
Its chief objective is to present recent theoretical, conceptual, and methodological advances in the study of ethnicity and development during adolescence. The chapters address fundamental and enduring issues concerning the incorporation of ethnicity into research designs. Topics such as demographics, "ethnicity-friendly" research paradigms, and practical challenges that arise throughout the research cycle are addressed by scholars who have "been there" and learned how to successfully study the effects of race and ethnicity on developmental processes and outcomes. Established scholars and newcomers to research, working both in academic and applied settings with adolescents as their focus, will find this book a valuable resource.

Recently, the roles of fathers and husbands in families have been recognized as important issues. They appear in legislation aimed at deadbeat dads, social movements including the Million Man March and Promise Keepers, in the development of advocacy groups, and in think tanks. Therefore, contemporary research on men in family relationships has very mixed results. Some studies show that fathers have small effects on child development and in preventing antisocial behavior, whereas others suggest no effects. Other research claims that the primary importance of men in families is in their role as providers. Although some studies state that the husbands' and fathers' most vital work occurs in new families, others indicate that it is when their offspring reach adolescence. Confusing the issue even further, labor market trends predict that men's family roles may diminish. Based on the presentations and discussions from a recent national symposium on men in families held at The Pennsylvania State University, this book addresses these issues.
This is the only book that deals with men's involvement in families in a comprehensive way. Although several books focus on fathers alone or on a broader family perspective, this is the first book that deals with a variety of family roles on an interdisciplinary basis. Although most of the writers are psychologists or sociologists, there are key figures in history and anthropology who also make important contributions. As such, this volume will be useful to scholars, students, policy specialists, and family program administrators.

In answering these questions, Janet Sayers highlights the revolution wrought in both sexes' psychology by adolescence, particularly by its fantasies of divided selves and loves and of 'boy crazy' grandiosity and romance.
Illustrated throughout with fascinating examples from a groundbreaking study of adolescent memories and dreams, Boy Crazy presents an engaging account of this little-researched period of human development. Sayers also draws on her own work as a therapist, and weaves in vignettes from fiction and film, to demonstrate the significance we attach in adulthood to our experiences as adolescents. She suggests that men and women respond differently to the sexual awakening that takes place during their teens, and to their own memories of that part of their life. In relating the findings of her research the author also explores to what extent the theories of Freud, Jung and feminism shape our understanding of the formative effect of adolescent experiences and emotions.
Boy Crazy provides a fascinating insight into the repercussions of adolescence on our adult lives and loves and will appeal to the general and specialist reader alike.

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This work explores the ways in which young children perceive themselves and are viewed by others in terms of their gendered identities as individuals and as members of society. It considers research from a variety of perspectives in the context of home/family and school. Topics covered include: the construction of gender from the time the child is conceived; the politics of category membership; analyses of play and art making; young children's experiences with technology; the influence of popular culture on the body image; gender equity policies in early childhood education; and understanding sexual orientation.;An examination and reflection of the issues will enable educators to improve their practice and have a greater understanding of the families and the children whom they teach. The diverse range and content of the research should make this book useful for all those interested in the education of young children. It examines the issue of gender expectations of children with disabilities, and also discusses young children's experiences with technology and the ways in which they feel about their bodies.; This book should be of interest to all early childhood educators who are conc

This book is about learning and ethnography in the context of technologies. Simultaneously, it portrays young people's "thinking attitudes" in computer-based learning environments, and it describes how the practice of ethnography is changing in a digital world. The author likens this form of interaction to "the double helix," where learning and ethnography are intertwined to tell an emergent story about partnerships with technology. Two school computer cultures were videotaped for this study. Separated not only by geography -- one school is on the east coast of New England and the other on the west coast of British Columbia on Vancouver Island -- they are also separated in other ways: ethnic make-up and inner-city vs. rural settings to name only two. Yet these two schools are joined by a strong thread: a change in their respective cultures with the advent of intensive computer-use on the part of the students. Both school communities have watched their young people gain literacy and competence, and their tools have changed from pen to computer, video camera, multimedia and the Internet. Perhaps most striking is that the way they think of themselves as learners has also changed: they see themselves as an active participant, in the pilot's seat or director's chair, as they chart new connections between diverse and often unpredictable worlds of knowledge.

"Hunger and Shame" is a passionate account of child malnutrition in a relatively wealthy populace, the Chagga in Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Views of family members, health workers and government officials provide insights into the complex of ideas, institutions and human fallibility that sustain the shame of malnutrition in the mountains.
Discussing the moral and practical dilemmas posed by the presence of malnourished children in the community, the authors explore the shame associated with child hunger in relation to social organization, colonial history and the global economy. Their discussions challenge the reader to ask fundamental questions concerning ethics, the politics of poverty and shame and social relations.

"Youth in Prison" tells the story of youths in a "model" juvenile prison program--a program created after a class action lawsuit for inhumane and illegal practices. It captures the lives of these youths inside and outside of prison: from drugs, gangs, and criminal behavior to the realities of families, schools, and neighborhoods. Drawing on experience that encompasses twenty years of juvenile justice research and policy analysis, the authors spent two years scrutinizing the prison's attempts to combine accountability and treatment for youths with protection for the public. Situating these within the larger social and political context, the authors have fashioned a book about all of us: those kept, those charged with their keeping, and the society that condones and demands this imprisonment.

Full Contributors:
Susan Grieshaber, Queensland University of Technology, Anna M Bower, Queensland University of Technology, Keith Gilbert, Queensland University of Technology, Virginia Casper, Harriet K Cuffaro, Steven Schultz, Jonathan G Silin and Elaine Wickens, all at Bank Street College of Education, New York, Ann Farrell, Queensland University of Technology, Lyn Martinez, Principal Education Officer, Equity Programs Unit, Queensland, Bronwyn Davies, James Cook University, Australia, Glenda McNaughton, University of Melbourne, Australia, Susan Danby, Queensland University of Technology, Kathy Lowe, Teacher, Australia, Margaret White, Macquarie University, Australia

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415916135

What factors influence adolescents to take up smoking? Why do more girls smoke than boys? In contrast to medical orthodoxy, Smoking in Adolescence looks at smoking from the adolescents' own points of view. What emerges is that regular smokers are seen as fun-loving and nonconformist; cigarettes are a passport to a fashionable, popular and 'hard' identity.
Young people create, and are influenced by, complex images of smokers and nonsmokers. Barbara Lloyd and Kevin Lucas explore the psychological dimensions such as social environment, family, peers, stress and coping, body image, mood and pleasure. They suggest how anti-smoking interventions should be re-evaluated to take account of this new evidence throughout the school curriculum.
Smoking in Adolescence will be of practical interest to teachers, youth workers, health professionals and parents as well as students of psychology.

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Children as Consumers explores how children become socialised into the consumer society, how they respond to advertising and other sales promotions, what they like and dislike, what they believe and disbelieve, and whether they need to be protected through special legislation and regulation.
Children as Consumers will have wide appeal to students of psychology, sociology and media studies. It will also be useful to professionals inadvertising and marketing, media commentators and business studies students.

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Adolescence is recognised as a turbulent period of human development. Along with the physical changes of puberty, adolescents undergo significant transformations in the way they think, act, feel and perceive the world. The disruption that is manifest in their behaviour is upsetting and often incomprehensible to the adults surrounding them.

In The Adolescent Psyche Richard Frankel shows how this unique stage of human development expresses through its traumas and fantasies the adolescent's urge towards self-realization.

The impact of contemporary culture on the lives of young people has resulted in an increasing number of adolescents being referred for psychotherapy and psychiatric treatment. Successful outcomes are often difficult to achieve in clinical work with clients of this age-group. The advice and guidelines which Frankel provides will be welcomed by psychotherapists, parents, educators and anyone working with adolescents.

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The recent review of the Diploma in Social Work highlighted the fact that children and young people who are in care have less successsful records of educational achievement than their peers. Social Work with Children encourages students to view the educational experiences of the young people they will work with seriously and to provide them with the necessary information to do so with confidence and authority. It takes account of the problems asssociated with inter-agency and inter-professional work drawing upon the authors own practical experience and research. Illustrative case studies are provided.

Since 1992, marijuana use among 8th graders has tripled, among 10th graders it has nearly doubled, and its use among high school seniors has increased by 50 percent. The use of other illicit drugs is also heavily on the rise. Yet, there exists very little research and literature on the etiology and prevention of drug abuse among those most at risk--disadvantaged, inner-city, minority youth. The Etiology and Prevention of Drug Abuse Among Minority Youth is an important first step in remedying this gap in the literature and for getting at the heart of the psychosocial factors that promote and sustain drug use among minority youth.The book's chapters evolved from a program of research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Cornell University Medical College's Institute for Prevention Research concerning drug abuse prevention with multi-ethnic youth. So that you might learn effective strategies for intervening with at-risk adolescents and teenagers, The Etiology and Prevention of Drug Abuse Among Minority Youth discusses: correlates and predictors of alcohol and drug use community-based skills interventions how youths offset feelings of distress or self-derogation by bonding with deviant peers the advantages of community-oriented outreach programs the role of cultural factors as they shape vulnerability to adolescent alcohol and drug use the role of ethnic identity as a moderator of psychosocial risk for alcohol and marijuana use the needs of youth at high risk for future use preventing gateway drug use drug use among youth living in homeless shelters the conditions of public housing and how they affect the etiology of drug abuseAn essential tool for policymakers, social workers, clinicians, researchers, psychiatrists, and other professionals in chemical dependency and narcotics rehabilitation, The Etiology and Prevention of Drug Abuse Among Minority Youth provides you with vital insight on the causes of drug use among minority adolescents, the strengths and limitations of different intervention approaches, and incentive to find appropriate ways for working with at-risk, minority teenagers.

Bringing together the leading researchers on children, adolescents, and the media, this books offers their cutting-edge, 'big picture' ideas for the future of research and scholarship in the field. Individual chapters focus on topics such as the role of big data in media research, digital literacy, parenting in the era of mobile media, media diversity in the digital age, the impact of media on child development, children's digital rights, the implications of 'intelligent' characters and parasocial relationships, and the effectiveness of transmedia for informal education. Several chapters also explore the theoretical and methodological challenges facing children's media researchers. Offering new directions for research, the contributors consider the implications of the changing media landscape for parents, educators, advocates, and producers. Leading scholars from North America, Europe and Asia, grounded in different theoretical and methodological traditions, join forces to discuss the impact of growing up in a media- saturated world, and to stimulate thinking about the field of children and media in unexpected ways. This book was originally published as two special issues of the Journal of Children and Media.