This book contends that raising healthy kids is the key to creating
healthy communities. It shows that kids who succeed are those who have
specific assets in their lives such as parental support, community
involvement, motivation and self-esteem. Community leaders are provided
with a framework for understanding and addressing the needs of youth while
strengthening the community.
The author is an advocate of the concept of full-service schools, new
kinds of social institutions that bring together quality education with
health, human services and youth development programs. She examines
hundreds of programs that try to cope with sex, drugs and violence,
revealing which aspects of these programs are most effective. The book
concludes with an impassioned call for action, outlining what must be done
in families, schools and communities.
A Harvard Medical School professor offers comprehensive guidelines for
determining warning signals such as posttraumatic stress disorder,
depression, gang membership, and substance abuse. Strategies for
correction and prevention are also provided.
Evidence is offered, much of it based on recent major scientific
studies and empirical research, that movies, television, and video games
are not only conditioning children to be violent, but are teaching the
very mechanics of killing. The book is a call to action for parents,
educators, social workers, youth advocates, and anyone interested in the
welfare of children.
This ethnography of middle-class American teenagers provides an
up-close look at what it means to be a teen in today's American high
schools. The author asserts that the majority of teens today are raising
themselves, having to figure out their own system of ethics, morals and
values. What they really want is a little guidance, attention and love.
