Springer Families with Adolescents: Bridging the Gaps Between Theory, Research, and Practice (Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development)

This book focuses a unique panoramic lens on the study of adolescent development. It offers a clear blueprint for more consistently improved practice, emphasizing family process and structure instead of individual developmental stages. Review "Families and Adolescents is a major accomplishment. It's uncommon for a book to offer immediate relevance for clinical and research audiences, but that's just what Professor Gavazzi has done in this crisply written and comprehensive work. Scientists will benefit from the accurate and complete review of core topics in the adolescent development and developmental psychopathology areas, and therapists will be enriched by the book's fair, thorough and clearly organized summaries of the fundamental therapeutic issues of our day. The interconnections between the theoretical, the empirical and the clinical domains of the adolescent and family specialties are understood and described clearly, and this feature, among others, will establish the book as an exemplary and unique contribution." - Howard A. Liddle, EdD, ABPPProfessor and Director,Center for Treatment Research on Adolescent Drug Abuse University of Miami Miller School of Medicine --- "At last, a much needed book, destined to be a classic, has been written by Dr. Stephen Gavazzi that clearly establishes how the context of families continues to matter for young people during the adolescent years. An amazing accomplishment of Families with Adolescents is that it covers such a vast range of theoretical, empirical and application issues very efficiently in giving the reader a thorough understanding of this complex topic from many vantage points. It does so by reviewing and integrating the best current scholarship about 1) family science and developmental theories, 2) the most prominent research on family processes and adolescent development, as well as 3) some of the best work on prevention and intervention strategies for families with adolescent members.  Although the book provides extensive knowledge about adolescents, Professor Gavazzi makes clear that the primary focus of the book is to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of the family context during the time when adolescents are shaping many of the challenges faced by families.  The focus of the book, therefore, is on family processes, family structure, family conflict, and family problem solving, as well as related interactions within and among different dyadic relationships within the family (e.g., the parent-adolescent, interparental, and sibling subsystems). Significant attention is devoted to how these dimensions of the family system may contribute in either positive or negative ways to adolescent delinquency, mental health, substance use, sexual activity, education, and social competence. This book focuses on these issues with a thoughtful review of the key empirical literature found in prominent publication sources on families with adolescents conducted over the last fifteen years. When Gavazzi turns to the issue of application, he focuses on family-based work that targets such problem behaviors as adolescent delinquency, mental health, and substance abuse. Other family-based interventions deal with multiple problem behaviors, while the family prevention chapter focuses on family strengthening strategies and those approaches that target families that are at risk. Families with Adolescents is the first book of its kind to review, analyze and integrate theory, research, and practice about families and adolescents so comprehensively. It is a landmark publication that scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates from many social science fields will find invaluable for understanding the challenges and dynamics of families during this fascinating phase of the life course."- Gary W. PetersonProfessor and ChairDepartment of Family Studies and Social Work101C McGuffey HallMiami UniversityOxford, OH 45056 --- "Designed to guide stude