Haworth Press Description: This 308-page book is written by a professor of sociology and consists of 13 chapters, which cover such topics as children's effects on parents, areas of parents' lives, theories, children's emotional problems and difficult episodes, students' perceptions of the effect of parents, divorce, chronic illness, interracial issues, PMS, and mother-blaming. The author makes a plea for all professions to begin looking at the
interactional aspects of parents and child raising, and not just focus on
blaming parents. The book is based on 105 questionnaires completed by university
students over a 14-year period. Discussion: Many of our old beliefs will tumble as a result of this book. The author urges professionals to look at parent-child interactions in evaluation and diagnosis and to avoid assuming single causes for problems. She notes that previous literature which fails to take this two-way influence on behavior into consideration is incomplete and misleading. The author observes that children are expensive to raise and parents are a precious resource. She points out that large sibling groups may be more able to form coalitions against their parents and that parents are forced to compete against the influence of adolescent peers and television. She notes that adolescents give explanations that meet the expectations of child-saving agencies and gives as an example the fact that runaway street girls "quickly learn to tell police and social workers that they were sexually abused as a 'good line'." Such explanations by delinquents and runaways are readily accepted by a society that is reluctant to help parents and strengthen their influence but ready to blame them for the problems of their children. This book is recommended for all family and developmental specialists and child welfare workers. Reviewed by LeRoy Schultz, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, West Virginia University.
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