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The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids

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Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
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In recent years, numerous studies have shown that bright, charming, seemingly confident and socially skilled teenagers from affluent, loving families are experiencing epidemic rates of depression, substance abuse, and anxiety disorders—rates higher than in any other socioeconomic group of American adolescents. Materialism, pressure to achieve, perfectionism, and disconnection are combining to create a perfect storm that is devastating children of privilege and their parents alike.

In this eye-opening, provocative, and essential book, clinical psychologist Madeline Levine explodes one child-rearing myth after another. With empathy and candor, she identifies toxic cultural influences and well-intentioned, but misguided, parenting practices that are detrimental to a child's healthy self-development. Her thoughtful, practical advice provides solutions that will enable parents to help their emotionally troubled "star" child cultivate an authentic sense of self.

DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 649.156
EAN: 9780060595852
ISBN: 006059585X
Label: Harper Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2008-04-22
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Release Date: 2008-07-29
Studio: Harper Paperbacks


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CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Smart, accurate and helpful
Comment: Finally, a book that helps you understand the problem, offers solutions and somehow doesn't make you feel bad about your mistakes in the process. Dr. Levine clearly has lots of experience, but just as important, she has lots of empathy for us moms who are struggling to do our best and sometimes miss the mark. Just as useful for helping my 8 year old as my 15 year old.
While the problems of pressured kids and the resulting psychological toll is the result of many factors, Dr. Levine reminds us of the parts that we actually have control with- starting with our families and fanning out to our communities. While calling for a sea change in the attitudes we all have for our kids, she never lets you feel stranded. Terrific book for anyone who really wants a sympathetic but useful and ultimately optimistic way to change course with their kids

Customer Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, practical advice
Comment: As the mother of four children ages 7 to 17, I found Dr. Levine's The Price of Privilege to be an invaluable book. Written like a close, wise, warm friend, Dr. Levine tells it like it is, does not sugar coat the responsibilities that parents have, and where they tend to mess up, but maintains a sympathetic tone throughout. Most important to me was the chapter for women about the challenges of parenting when you "have everything" (which I certainly don't have) but feel lost and alone. Wish she was my local shrink, I'd consult her in a heartbeat even though I usually shy away from the advice of "professionals" (who often have lots of opinions and little common sense).
Great guidelines for kids of all ages and parents of different parenting strategies. Highly recommended

Customer Rating:
Summary: Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are NOT Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids
Comment: Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are NOT Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids. The problem is disconnected and unhappy parents who do not have appropriate relationships with their kids and do not take their children with them into honest, supportive communities. The book presents some good ideas for improving conditions, but Dr. Levine has misdiagnosed the problem in the title of her book. Too many parents (people) in our culture are isolated and in their isolation they are incapable of teaching children to participate in community life and to be happy. Parents have to improve their own connectedness in adult communities before they can make real progress with their kids. Wealth is a minor distraction.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Teens are fine; grownups (and psychologists) are messed up
Comment: If author Levine reversed her book's title and emphasis to warn about the epidemic of parents inflicting their own materialism, drug and alcohol abuse, crime, divorce, and other ills on their teenaged kids, this would be valuable book. Just look at the misguided, favorable reviews to see how badly this book miscommunicates the realities facing teens today.

I taught at a big university near Marin County and saw hundreds of these "priveleged" (and not so privileged) students at close range. As a generation, they're fine, generally coping well with stresses. Their parents' generation, however, is not all right. I'm convinced from the growing stack of books like these that psychologists desperately need to get out of their offices and spend time in homes and real-life environments to see how a variety of young people (not just the tiny fraction they see as clients) are coping.

Or, at least, psychologists should stop citing anecdotes and self-praising cases and study the social statistics for the areas they live in. Let us take public health and crime figures for Marin County and compare adults ages 40-49 (the average parents) with teens. About 10 times more parents than teens die from drug abuse, 50% more 40-agers are arrested (including nearly TWICE as many for felonies) than teenagers, FIVE TIMES more 40-aged parents than teenaged youths are arrested for drug and alcohol related offenses, and seven times more parents than teens commit suicide. Those are just a few indicators among many to suggest that it isn't the teens--it's the grownups of Levine's generation who are messed up. You can explore more of these shocking statistics for yourselves. For example, see California tabulations at:

http://stats.doj.ca.gov/cjsc_stats/prof06/21/18.htm (crime)

http://www.applications.dhs.ca.gov/vsq/screen1a.asp?Year_Data=2006&Stats=1 (health)

Levine's claims that teenagers today are more materialistic, selfish, money-hungry, etc. are just garbage. The same surveys she cites actually show that as a result of their parents' generation's greedy refusal to pay taxes to support schools, teens and college students today face massive debts and must work more in college to pay skyrocketing tuitions than their more generously supported parents did 40 years ago. By the best measures, students today are much more community oriented, happier, and less materialistic and troubled than their parents were or are.

So, my modest suggestion is that if you mistakenly bought this book, rip out 90% of the pages and keep only the few in which Levine urges parents to cut out their own bad behaviors and values. Reviewers: stop buying into these books, even if they do flatter your personal demographic. Publishers: we've got a big enough stack of psychologists' narrow, bubble-world misconceptions derived from fixating on their most troubled clients and failure to engage the realities of the larger world.

Mike Males, Ph.D.
http://www.YouthFacts.org

Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent read
Comment: I read this for a parent's book club. I breezed through it and found it really useful. Great examples, really brought the book to life. I gained some very good insights and tips from it. And the book club had a long, involved discussion. The book was a perfect launching point.

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