Weaving personal narrative with a synthesis of feminist mothering theory and psychoanalytic theories of narcissism, Isaac D. Balbus describes his effort to share in the care of his daughter during her first four years. "Emotional Rescue" is a poignant reflection on the connections between the problems in his child-rearing practice and the development of his child-rearing theory.

The idea that Britain, the US and other western societies are witnessing the rise of an underclass of people at the bottom of the social heap, structurally and culturally distinct from traditional patterns of "decent" working-class life, has become increasingly popular in the 1990s. Anti-work, anti-social, and welfare dependent cultures are said to typify this new "dangerous class" and "dangerous youth" are taken as the prime subjects of underclass theories. Debates about the family and single-parenthood, about crime and about unemployment and welfare reforms have all become embroiled in underclass theories which, whilst highly controversial, have had remarkable influence on the politics and policies of governments in Britain and the US. This text addresses the underclass idea in relation to contemporary youth. It focuses upon unemployment, training, the labour market, crime, homelessness, and parenting. It should be of interest to students of social policy, sociology and criminology.

"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.

A text which addresses the relationship between childhood, competence and the social arenas of action in which children live their lives. Taking issue with the view that children are merely apprentice adults, the contributors develop a picture of children as competent, sophisticated social agents, focusing on the contexts which both enable and constrain that competence.

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.

This work examines the way in which personality and identity of the pupil is shaped by his or her experiences in school. The text considers the way in which teachers in secondary schools are working, and to some extent living, with adolescent pupils for the majority of time in their weekday waking lives. The book examines: to what extent teachers provide both positive and negative role models for pupils to follow; the factors restricting the ability of teachers to teach effectively; and conversely, what factors work to their advantage.; The text provides an overview of the debates and research into areas of: teaching children about controversial subjects such as sex and drugs; gender differences; identities; peer groups; relations with adults; and beliefs and values.

"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.

This text provides a comprehensive overview of the issues, research and debates relating to children and the experience of childhood in late 20th-century Britain. It addresses such key issues as child poverty, juvenile crime, child protection and childrens' rights and their implications for the development of policy and the provision of services for children. A key feature of the book is its examination of the changing nature of childhood, both in terms of adult and child expectations and perceptions. In addition, the book provides a synthesis of recent empirical research, theory and policy and presents first-hand accounts from children and parents.

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This scholarly yet highly readable and practical text systematically covers the importance, development, assessment, and treatment of social skills of children and adolescents. Combining scientific rigor with a highly approachable and readable style of writing to create a practical and unique book, this volume provides a comprehensive overview of the increasingly important topic of child and adolescent social skills. A wide variety of tables, figures, and practical step-by-step guides enhance the material presented, making it particularly useful for practitioners while offering an extensive array of recent research and models of interest to researchers. The authors present a solid foundation of scientific knowledge written in a manner accessible to nonscientists and having ample practical implications and examples for educational and clinical practice. The book is divided into two parts--the first features a foundation for conceptualizing and assessing child and adolescent social skills, whereas the second focuses on the arena of intervention. An up-to-date and unique addition to the literature, this volume will be of interest to professionals who work with or study children across several disciplines including school and clinical child psychology, special education, counseling, and social work.
Although many books and other professional materials on the social competence of children and adolescents are presently available, the knowledge regarding these social skills is expanding rapidly, and there is a tremendous need to keep it current. This book helps meet this need by not only synthesizing a great deal of recent work in the field, but also by providing new information and evidence that has not yet been published. It also bridges an important gap that sometimes exists between research and practice. For instance, some books on child and adolescent social skills are clearly written for the academician or researcher, and may have little apparent application for the clinician or practitioner. Other materials are written as practical assessment or intervention guides for the clinician/practitioner, yet sometimes lack supporting evidence and rationale. This book is aimed at both arenas.

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.

This work examines the way in which personality and identity of the pupil is shaped by his or her experiences in school. The text considers the way in which teachers in secondary schools are working, and to some extent living, with adolescent pupils for the majority of time in their weekday waking lives. The book examines: to what extent teachers provide both positive and negative role models for pupils to follow; the factors restricting the ability of teachers to teach effectively; and conversely, what factors work to their advantage.; The text provides an overview of the debates and research into areas of: teaching children about controversial subjects such as sex and drugs; gender differences; identities; peer groups; relations with adults; and beliefs and values.

The Peper Harow residential community was founded in 1970 and gained international repute for its pioneering work with disturbed adolescents. For over 20 years, this remarkable establishment provided a therapeutic environment for teenagers who had often suffered appalling abuse, and yet for whom the state's only remedial provision until then had been in the punitive form of the approved schools. In Transforming Hate to Love Melvyn Rose, the community's founder, assesses Peper Harow's success in managing disturbed behaviour, and offers views on areas where the establishment could have responded more effectively to the needs of its residents. His study is complemented by the testimony of ex-residents helped by Peper Harow to overcome their fears and abandon their disruptive behaviour. The overwhelmingly positive outcome indicates the need for a review of current social policy towards deviant youth and shows how society as a whole would benefit from a psychodynamic view of the causes of criminality and mental ill-health among the young.

Debate ranges over the effects of the growing utilization by the young of interactive screen-based technologies and the effects of these on vulnerable young chldren. This text is based on two years' research on 100 children, with entertainment screen technology in their homes, following them from home to school and examining the difference in culture in the two environments. The question is asked whether children are developing the necessary IT and other skills required from the maturing learner as we approach the 21st century. Issues such as gender, parenting, violence, censorship and the educational consequences of their screen-based experiences are at the forefront of the text's coverage.

This book offers clinicians a long-awaited comprehensive paradigm for assessing object relations functioning in disturbed younger and older adolescents. It gives a clear sense of how object relations functioning is manifest in different disorders, and illuminates how scores on object relations measures are converted into a therapeutically relevant diagnostic matrix and formulation.
Outlining the process of object relations assessment, Kelly presents vividly detailed cases of a range of disorders including anorexia nervosa, borderline states, depressive disorders, and trauma. The cases portray the vicissitudes of object relations functioning and disruption that result in a unique structural developmental composite for a given adolescent.
A major concern is demonstrating the utility and validity of two object representation measures--The Mutuality of Autonomy Scale (MOA) and The Social Cognition Object Relations Scale (SCORS)--that are the main ones employed in the assessment of adolescents. MOA and SCORS scores facilitate a multidimensional understanding of the nuances of an adolescent's object relations functioning, and provide clinicians with organized, theory-based data leading to clear, specific treatment directions and guidelines and appropriate therapeutic programming. The book addresses the following questions:
* Is individual psychotherapy indicated--will this adolescent benefit from an insight-oriented approach?
* What are the likely directions that transference parameters will take in the treatment?
* What types of countertransference reactions are likely to be anticipated in a given patient?
* Is medication likely to be helpful in making this adolescent more accessible for treatment?
Focusing only on adolescents, covering both the TAT and the Rorschach, and utilizing object relations theory as its major interpretive foundation, the book offers practitioners an alternative to general references based on a more actuarial, nomothetic, and atheoretical interpretive approach. It reflects one school of contemporary thought in projective assessment--one that advocates a more phenomenological, theory-based approach to test application and interpretation.

Challenges the conventional wisdom that media creates a toxic environment for America's youth, diverting us from the real origins of problems affecting children today. Are school shootings the result of violent video games? Do sex-laden movies lead to promiscuity? Can Goth music create alienation? Repeatedly we are told the answer to these and similar questions is a resounding yes. But is this the right answer? It's Not the Media considers why media culture is a perennial target of both fascination and concern, and why we are so often encouraged to believe it is the root of many social problems. A look beyond the attention-grabbing headlines and political stumping reveals that fearing media feels right because media represents what we fear. And changes in media culture are easier to see than the complex economic, social, and political changes we have experienced over the past few decades. Digging deeper into the historical and societal trends of the past century and drawing from the most current social science research on the effects of media on children, Sternheimer presents a compelling argument that fear of social change, and what it means to be a kid in a today's media-saturate

Why do some young adults substantially change their patterns of smoking, drinking, or illicit drug use after graduating from high school? In this book, the authors show that leaving high school and leaving home create new freedoms that are linked to increases in the use of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. They also show that marriage, pregnancy, and parenthood create new responsibilities that are linked to decreases in drug use.
The research is based on more than 33,000 young people followed from high school through young adulthood by the nationwide Monitoring the Future project. Every two years, participants reported on their drug use, as well as their schooling, employment, military service, living arrangements, marriages, pregnancies, parenthood, and even their divorces.
The unique qualities of this research--large nationally representative samples, follow-ups extending up to 14 years beyond high school, and multiple approaches to analysis and data presentation--allowed the examination of several important influences simultaneously, while retaining much of the rich detail encountered in the real world. On the whole, the results are encouraging, suggesting that the potentials for change and improvement during the transition to adulthood are as important as the detrimental effects of problem behavior in adolescence. This research is a "must" read for anyone concerned with how new freedoms and responsibilities impact adolescents, young adults, and the use of licit and illicit drugs.

First Published in 1996. Research on childhood is a growing area of interest in social policy. Covering both familial and institutional settings, this book explores relevant issues, including the female workforce and changing family forms.

Maintaining that spiritual development is an integral element in child development, Barbara Kimes Myers provides a framework for the discussion of spirit and spirituality in the lives of children. Through her discussion of the four core conditions of a spirituality of caring, she crosses the borders of various faiths and applies her theories to a variety of practical and professional settings.
Through Myers' discussion of the four core conditions of a spirituality of caring, she crosses the borders of various faiths and applies her theories to a variety of practical and professional settings, providing a common language that can be used to talk about the centrality of spirit--that which fuels development and learning. She discusses transcendence, family life, cognition, church and state, fundamentalism and multiculturalism. Her framework emerges from her understanding of the thinking of key child developmental theorists--Vygtosky, Piaget, Erikson, Gardner, Giroux and Noddings.

This work traces the development of the human figure in children's drawings, showing how children add to and alter their figures as they get older and more skilful. It discusses why children's drawings often seem so bizarre to adults, revealing what these figures tell as about the child's Intelligence Or Emotional Stability.; The Book Is Based In Examples From hundreds of children, but concentrates on a particular set of drawings gathered from one group of children attending a nursery. Also featured are drawings by children with learning difficulties, so that readers may see and learn from the different developmental patterns in the drawing of human figures. Additionally, the book makes comparisons of drawings by children in different cultures.

What has been the impact of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases on the lives of young people? Youth, AIDS and Sexual Health provides a comprehensive overview of research and policy in this increasingly important area.
The book describes the world-wide incidence and prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents and examines how their sexual behaviour has changed as a result of the threat of AIDS. It also looks at young people's knowledge and attitudes about their own sexual health, as well as the usefulness of models of predicting those at risk. The authors also dicuss the effectiveness of institutional policies in educating young people and in preventing sexually transmitted diseases.
Drawing from the author's insights from their research programmes, Youth, AIDS and Sexual Health will be of considerable benefit to health care providers, sex educators and all those who work with and study adolescents.

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What part has religion played in the history of child-rearing? How do we persuade children to behave rationally and how should we exercise adult authority? What use do we make of their innocence and how do we cope with their sexuality? Has history left us with ideas about the child which make no sense in the prevailing conditions of the late twentieth century? In Shaping Childhood these questions are explored through themes from the history of childhood. Puritan parents sought salvation for their children through intense discipline and intense love, a powerful combination which left behind a much misunderstood and much distorted legacy. Locke thought that treating children as if they were rational was the best approach to child-rearing, but Rousseau was sceptical of adult manipulation and Romanticism could be subversive of both religion and reason as sources of discipline in child-rearing. The Victorians inherited many of the contradictions these approaches gave rise to, and they added a complication of their own through an aesthetic response to childhood's beauty. Currently, with instability in household formation and with the child exposed to ever more sophisticated means of communication, parents, teachers and others struggle to make sense of this ambiguous historical legacy. Shaping Childhood does not focus on the growth of state policies relating to children nor on current debates in child care but examines the ways in which the broader cultural forces such as religion, literature and mass consumption influence contemporary parenting. It will be invaluable reading for students of cultural studies and sociology, and lecturers and practitioners in social work and education.

Martin considers the effect of puberty and teenage sexuality on adolescents. She compares boys' and girls' different experiences of adolescence in order to explain girls' greater drop in self-esteem.

This book provides a framework for the discussion of spirit and spirituality in the lives of children. It is written for those who are working and living both within and outside of religious traditions, and is written in a common language.

First Published in 1996. Research on childhood is a growing area of interest in social policy. Covering both familial and institutional settings, this book explores relevant issues, including the female workforce and changing family forms.