Field Guide to the American Teenager: A Parent's Companion - Hardcover

Riera, Michael; Diprisco, Joseph; Di Prisco, Joseph; Riera, Michael.

3.82

11 ratings by Goodreads

9780738202679: Field Guide to the American Teenager: A Parent's Companion

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0738202673 ISBN 13: 9780738202679

Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2000

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Adolescence can be shocking and painful both to experience and, as a parent, to observe. Addressing the isolation, fear, and silence that parents endure at this developmental stage, authors Michael Riera and Joseph Di Prisco go beyond the stereotypes and expertly guide parents to a better appreciation of what they are seeing--and perhaps missing--in their teenager's frustrating if not completely troubling behavior. Through stories and conversations, Field Guide to the American Teenager dramatizes teens living their lives on their own terms and illuminates for bewildered and sometimes beleaguered parents the "extraordinary-in-the-ordinary" reality of everyday teenage life. Complete with original suggestions for how to improve parent-child communication, Field Guide lets parents stand briefly in their teenager's shoes, ultimately guiding families toward genuine mutual respect and understanding.

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Review:

While the Field Guide to the American Teenager offers titular hope of guidance for the parents of teens, a more accurate title would be "Field Observations of the American Teenager." Authors and educators Michael Riera and Joseph DiPrisco, both Ph.D.s, present insights into many issues that are commonly confronted by teens today: drug use, weapons at school, homosexuality, romance, eating disorders, and race relations, to name a few. But rather than confronting the issues with a laundry list of do's and don'ts, the authors try to help readers understand what teens are thinking and why they act as they do. A discussion of date rape, for instance, doesn't offer any specifics on how to help teens avoid this situation; instead, it looks at why teens choose to engage in the kind of risk-taking behavior that might lead to date rape. "What is frightening about adolescence," they write, "is how close to the margins of irreparable damage and loss teenagers routinely place themselves, how close they come to the shore of no return." These types of observations aren't necessarily reassuring to parents who may be looking for a pat formula to help them navigate the teen years. Many chapters, with titles like "Drinking and Driving" or "Race and Adolescence," have little to do with the named topics. Instead, the authors use such topics as jumping-off points for discussions of underlying issues like trust, communication, self-esteem, integrity, friendship, ambiguity, peer pressure, and responsibility.

Any parent who has raised a teen knows that there is no one formula for success. Field Guide will help parents better understand their teens--but it leaves the hard work of finding parenting strategies that fit a particular teen firmly in the hands of the parent. --Virginia Smyth

About the Author:

Michael Riera, Ph.D., has worked in education since 1980. The author of two other popular books on adolescence, he is the host of a show on life issues for teenagers on Oprah Winfrey's online and cable network, Oxygen. He has also appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Today," "The View," and "48 Hours" and is a parenting correspondent on CBS's "The Early Show." Both authors live in Berkeley, California. Joseph Di Prisco, Ph.D., is an educator and writer who has taught for over twenty years in public, independent, and Catholic schools, middle school through college.

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