Raising Emotionally Intelligent Teenagers: Guiding the Way for Compassionate, Committed, Courageous Adults

The world before September 11, 2001, was challenging enough for parents of teenagers. Now it is more so. Our families, schools, and workplaces need Emotionally Intelligent Teenagers who will not only be knowledgeable, responsible, nonviolent, and caring youths, but who also will grow up to be compassionate, committed, and courageous adults.

How can parents accomplish this? Not only do raging hormones make everything more intense for teenagers, but they have their own special issues concerning identity, self-confidence, peer pressure, and responsibility, including individuating from their parents. Raising Emotionally Intelligent Teenagers shows parents how to use a balance of love, laughter, and limits to reach their goals. Drs. Elias, Tobias, and Friedlander, all respected experts in child behavior and parents of teenagers, have written a clear, informative book of sound advice that applies the insights of Daniel Goleman’s best- seller, Emotional Intelligence, to unlock teenagers’ untapped desire to belong to families and schools that make a difference and to contribute positively to them.

Raising Emotionally Intelligent Teenagers is filled with real-life scenarios, practical strategies, and the answers to the questions parents ask most frequently, all drawn from the authors’ professional and personal experiences and given with warmth and humor.

Guiding the way to compassionate, committed, courageous adults is a serious challenge, but its effective pursuit is a labor of love, a journey of joy, and a path filled with pride.

MAURICE J. ELIAS, PH.D., is a professor of psychology at Rutgers University and vice-chair of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.

STEVEN E. TOBIAS, PSY.D., is director of the Center for Child and Family Development in Morristown, New Jersey.

BRIAN S. FRIEDLANDER, PH.D., is a software developer and school psychologist in New Jersey.