Escaping the Endless Adolescence
How We Can Help Our Teenagers Grow Up Before They Grow Old
2 of 2 copies available
Welcome to the stunted world of the Endless Adolescence. Recent studies show that today’s teenagers are more anxious and stressed and less independent and motivated to grow up than ever before. Twenty-five is rapidly becoming the new fifteen for a generation suffering from a debilitating “failure to launch.” Now two preeminent clinical psychologists tell us why and chart a groundbreaking escape route for teens and parents.
Drawing on their extensive research and practice, Joseph Allen and Claudia Worrell Allen show that most teen problems are not hardwired into teens’ brains and hormones but grow instead out of a “Nurture Paradox” in which our efforts to support our teens by shielding them from the growth-spurring rigors and rewards of the adult world have backfired badly. With compelling examples and practical and profound suggestions, the authors outline a novel approach for producing dramatic leaps forward in teen maturity, including
• Turn Consumers into Contributors Help teens experience adult maturity–its bumps and its joys–through the right kind of employment or volunteer activity.
• Feed Them with Feedback Let teens see and hear how the larger world perceives them. Shielding them from criticism–constructive or otherwise–will only leave them unequipped to deal with it when they get to the “real world.”
• Provide Adult Connections Even though they’ll deny it, teens desperately need to interact with adults (including parents) on a more mature level–and such interaction will help them blossom!
• Stretch the Teen Envelope Do fewer things for teens that they can do for themselves, and give them tasks just beyond their current level of competence and comfort.
Today’s teens are starved for the lost fundamentals they need to really grow: adult connections and the adult rewards of autonomy, competence, and mastery. Restoring these will help them unlearn their adolescent helplessness and grow into adults who can make you–and themselves–proud.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 20, 2009 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780345516992
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780345516992
- File size: 2114 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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November 23, 2009
Psychologists Allen and Allen begin their important and far-reaching work by asking when 25 became the new 15. Why, in other words, are more and more young people unable to launch successfully into adulthood, returning home after college and becoming known as the "boomerang generation"? In the past, adolescent shenanigans have been viewed as par for the course; teenagers, victims of their own hormones. Recently, the concept of the adolescent brain has taken center stage, with behavioral problems attributed to brain immaturity in areas that regulate impulse and emotion. The authors, while conceding legitimacy to both theories, take the issue one step further, examining why-brains and hormones aside-other cultures do not share similar extremes of the American experience of adolescence. They persuasively argue for a greater role for adolescents in adult society, one with more responsibility and exposure to adulthood. An outstanding contribution to the literature.-Julianne J. Smith, Ypsilanti Dist. Lib., MICopyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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