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

Levine, Madeline

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060595841 ISBN 13: 9780060595845

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2006

Synopsis

Madeline Levine has been a practicingpsychologist 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, anxietydisorders, and substance abuse--rates that are higherthan those of any other socioeconomic group ofyoung 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 goodimpression, 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.

About this title

Review:

."..[an] impassioned wake-up call to parents..." -- The Gazette (Montreal)

"Her writing is warm and carefully thoughtful." -- Toronto Star

"Useful...clear, sensitive..." -- Publisher's Weekly

Useful...clear, sensitive... --Publisher's Weekly

"This book has resonated in affluent communities all over the country. [Levine is] clearly on to something."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution

."..[an] impassioned wake-up call to parents..."--The Gazette (Montreal)

"She treats her subjects as well as her subject with compassion and understanding."--Chicago Tribune

"Her writing is warm and carefully thoughtful."--Toronto Star

"Levine offers chapter after chapter of practical advice for dealing with family problems."--Connecticut Post Online

"Levine's book explores some troubling and intriguing issues that certainly are worth pondering and discussing."--Marin Independent Journal

About the Author:

Madeline Levine, PhD, is a clinician, consultant, and educator; the author of the New York Times bestseller The Price of Privilege; and a cofounder of Challenge Success, a project of the Stanford School of Education that addresses education reform, student well-being, and parent education. She lives outside San Francisco with her husband and is the proud mother of three newly minted adult sons.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0060595841
• ISBN 13: 9780060595845
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 246