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How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids
HarperCollins
July 2006
256 pages
ISBN: 0060595841
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Madeline Levine has been a practicing psychologist for
twenty-five years, but it was only recently that she began
to observe a new breed of unhappy teenager. When a bright,
personable fifteen-year-old girl, from a loving and
financially comfortable family, came into her office with
the word empty carved into her left forearm, Levine was
startled. This girl and her message seemed to embody a
disturbing pattern Levine had been observing. Her teenage
patients were bright, socially skilled, and loved by their
affluent parents. But behind a veneer of achievement and
charm, many of these teens suffered severe emotional
problems. What was going on? Conversations with educators and clinicians across the
country as well as meticulous research confirmed Levine's
suspicions that something was terribly amiss. Numerous
studies show that privileged adolescents are experiencing
epidemic rates of depression, anxiety disorders, and
substance abuse -- rates that are higher than those of any
other socioeconomic group of young people in this country.
The various elements of a perfect storm -- materialism,
pressure to achieve, perfectionism, disconnection -- are
combining to create a crisis in America's culture of
affluence. This culture is as unmanageable for parents --
mothers in particular -- as it is for their children. While
many privileged kids project confidence and know how to make
a good impression, alarming numbers lack the basic
foundation of psychological development: an authentic sense
of self. Even parents often miss the signs of significant
emotional problems in their "star" children. In this controversial look at privileged families, Levine
offers thoughtful, practical advice as she explodes one
child-rearing myth after another. With empathy and candor,
she identifies parenting practices that are toxic to healthy
self-development and that have contributed to epidemic
levels of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse in the
most unlikely place -- the affluent family.
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