The Good Teen

When most people think of teens, they think of the worse people in the world. Although the word teenager has become synonymous with trouble, the evidence is clear: Adolescents have a bad rap—and according to landmark new research, it’s an undeserved one. A rumor of sorts that is ruining the reputation of the people we know as teens. In The Good Teen, Richard Lerner lays bare compelling new data on the lives of teens today, dismantling old myths and redefining normal adolescence.

For many parents the thought of the teen years holds more dread than all the sleepless nights of infancy and scraped knees of childhood combined. After all, teens are pigheaded, selfish, and rebellious; they sulk and stress; they are prone to bad decisions and unreasonable behavior. Who wouldn’t be concerned with the plight of the parent with a child who is a teen?

With the options that most parents of teens think they have, they would happily skip the storms of adolescence and move right in to the relative calm of young adulthood if they could. Who can blame them when popular wisdom tells them that their lovable twelve-year-old will be replaced by an unpredictable, emotional volcano at the age of thirteen?

In The Good Teen, Lerner presents the five personality characteristics, called the 5 Cs, that are proven to fuel positive development. These are:

• Competence
• Confidence
• Connection
• Character
• Caring

Lerner also shows that when the 5 Cs coalesce, a sixth emerges, Contribution: where young people contribute to their own development in an energetic and optimistic way

The Good Teen continuously reveals that in spite of the stereotypes, today’s teens are basically good kids who maintain healthy relationships with their families.

Overflowing with real-life anecdotes and cutting-edge science, The Good Teen encourages parents, and anyone involved with teens to develop new thinking, new public policies, and new programs that focus on teens’ strengths.

Every teen, whatever their ability or background, has the same potential for healthy and successful development. Read this book and discover why.