Understanding 12 – 14 year olds

Author – Margot Waddell

Age Range – 12-14

Key words – Teenage development

This book is written for parents and provides reassuring and practical advice to help them to understand and communicate better with their 12-14 year old children. Waddell’s normalisation of this turbulent transition to the teenage years encourages parents to feel more at ease and learn more about the impact of school life, close friendships and group pressures. The book addresses issues of stealing, bullying, smoking along with other concerns often faced by the parents of young teenagers.

Waddell approaches these issues by making the reader, the parents, feel less alone and to reassure them that it is common for the parents of young teenagers to be faced with these issues. The theoretical backdrop to the book is psychoanalytic. A very accessible balance has been achieved with an easy to read style which also allows complex and perplexing ideas to be talked about.

Unfortunately the full range of books in this series is not yet republished (due in 2007). The title Understanding 12-14 year olds highlights the great strength of this book, that parents have an opportunity to appreciate more fully what it may feel like for their children to be making this transition.