Adolescent Girls in Crisis: Intervention and Hope

A s early as 1970, the famous developmentalist Urie Bronfenbrenner warned that without thoughtful and coordinated action by whole integrated communities, we would begin to witness increased antagonism and indifference in the younger generation from all segments of society—the middle-class and the disadvantaged. Since then, a growing number of scholars, pundits, youth advocates, parents, and policy makers have sounded the alarm. Alongside theories about the decay of youth morals and the growing epidemic of parental ineptitude comes the charge that corrosive elements in popular culture and social processes are simultaneously thwarting the potential for positive youth development and the capacity of important socializing agents (families, neighborhoods, schools, and communities) to buffer youth from caustic effects in the larger environment. There is hope, however. Although the 1990s and early part of the new millennium can be accurately described as a time devoted to taking stock of the various deleterious effects of the unique alchemy between modern-day life and adolescent development, the polemics have given way in the past several years to constructive dialogue about how to cope with the fact that there is no going back— although the idea of a healthy, happy, and largely stress-free adolescent life remains very much alive, such a life remains largely unlived by contemporary teens. Martha Straus’s book, Adolescent Girls in Crisis: Intervention and Hope successfully weds a comprehensive review of the difficulties posed to girls by the modern era with a series of concrete, ecologically grounded, and, most important, useful strategies for therapists who work with adolescent girls. Straus’s book is divided into two parts. The first four chapters comprise the first, smaller section of the book and chronicle female adolescent development and the trends and historical tides with which modern-day girls must contend as they make their way from childhood to adulthood. This is detailed e