The Breakthrough Years

Starred review from February 19, 2024
In this superb guide, Galinsky (Mind in the Making), president of the Families and Work Institute, expounds on how parents can support their children through adolescence. Listening to the concerns of more than 1,500 nine- to 19-year-olds for a study, she discovered five main messages teens want adults to know, including “listen and talk with us, not at us,” and “don’t stereotype us.” Drawing on academic research to explore each message, Galinsky helps parents “understand our development” by explaining that the teen brain’s reward center is more active than adults’, which can motivate risk-taking but also seeking new opportunities. The research yields practical advice, as when Galinsky notes studies showing that recognizing teens’ need for both agency and guidance when solving problems helps them feel more confident. To embrace this style of caregiving, Galinsky recommends parents share their perspective while providing their child with choices on how to move forward. The astounding amount of research touches on how to promote executive function skills and teens’ belief that they have the power to effect positive change, among myriad other topics, and it’s to the credit of Galinsky’s lucid prose and sensible organization that it never feels overwhelming. Overflowing with insight backed by scientific rigor, this is an essential companion for parents of adolescents. Agent: Jim Levine, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary.

February 15, 2024
A fresh look at adolescence. Nearly 500 pages on this topic may seem excessive--except to the harried parents of teens. Two centuries of experts have used personal experience, religion, ideology, and tradition to describe how to raise children. In this massive compendium of research on teenage brain science, Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, author of Mind in the Making, Ask the Children, and The Six Stages of Parenthood, presents the results of a lifetime of her own study of parenting and child development, offering countless useful, concrete facts often missing from similar books over the decades. The author emphasizes that young people are not adults; assessing them using an "adult yardstick" sets them up for failure. Since 1904, when the first study of adolescence as a distinct developmental stage appeared, it's been described as a time of "storm and stress." With the use of high-tech scanners, modern-day scientists have revealed that the brain's reward system develops more quickly than its control system. This seems to explain teens' risky behavior, but Galinsky maintains that they never stop learning. An ongoing theme is that "challenges" (i.e., poor behavior) are an opportunity to teach, and adolescents need to feel they have a choice over how they live. In Galinsky's autonomy-supportive approach, adults don't solve problems; they engage children in learning to provide their own solutions. While there is no shortage of homilies, testimonials, and anecdotes, the author does not dispense the wisdom of a master healer a la Doctor Spock. She writes as a veteran scientist, usually preceding advice with the results of a study or an expert's analysis. Dense with bullet points, lists, and tables, it resembles a textbook more than an advice manual; like a textbook, it rewards careful study. A deeply researched parenting guide with more than the usual emphasis on the facts.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2024

In 2015, child-development expert Galinsky (president, Families and Work Institute; Mind in the Making) interviewed 45 researchers who specialize in the study of adolescents, and she read studies by hundreds more. In 2019, she followed that up with a qualitative study of 1,666 adolescents in which she asked them to reveal what they wanted adults to know about their age group. Galinsky's findings are covered in this book; one finding is that one in five teens want it to be known that they are smarter than adults give them credit for. The main takeaways are that teens want adults to understand how they are developing and to listen to and talk to them without jumping to conclusions. The research shows that adolescents are putting in the work to try to understand themselves, and they have a strong desire to grow and learn new skills. All this research is a bit weighty for a parenting book, and Galinsky sometimes uses technical language. Some readers, however, will appreciate the author's meticulously researched approach. VERDICT An in-depth study and reference guide on adolescent development. Best for readers in working in education or psychology.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.