Born to Be Wild: Why Teens Take Risks, and How We Can Help Keep Them Safe

by Jess Shatkin

A groundbreaking, research-based guide that sheds new light on why young people make dangerous choices--and offers solutions that work.

Texting while driving. Binge-drinking. Bullying. Unprotected sex. There are plenty of reasons for parents to worry about getting a late-night call about their teen. But most of the advice parents and educators hear about teens is outdated and unscientific--and based on the rates of teen pregnancy, accidents, addiction, and more.

Acclaimed adolescent psychiatrist Jess P. Shatkin brings more than two decades' worth of research and clinical experience to the subject, along with cutting-edge findings from brain science, evolutionary psychology, game theory, and other disciplines -- plus a widely curious mind and the perspective of a concerned dad.

Using science and stories, fresh analogies, clinical anecdotes, and research-based observations, Shatkin explains: Why "scared straight," adult logic, and draconian punishment don't work.

Why the teen brain is "born to be wild"--shaped by evolution to explore and take risks.

The surprising role of brain development, hormones, peer pressure, screen time, and other key factors.

What parents and teachers can do--in everyday interactions, teachable moments, and specially chosen activities and outings--to work with teens' need for risk, rewards and social acceptance, not against it.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Psychology, Childrens

320 pages, Hardcover

Published October 3, 2017

Reviews

[Antonina Maliei]

«Коли маєш справу з підлітками, тобі треба мати почуття гумору. В першу чергу почуття гумору».
Стівен Кінг «Казка»

Як на мене, книгу «Народжені бути вільними» (в оригіналі - бути дикими) необхідно прочитати усім: батькам підлітків, вчителям, просто всім дорослим.

Автор книги Джесс Шаткін — викладач дитячої і підліткової психіатрії, кандидат наук з довгим списком регалій і посад. Тобто це експерт в нормальному значенні цього слова. І при тому, що він має потужний досвід і багаторічну практику, та іронічно каже, що був майже ідеальним батьком, поки в нього не народилась перша дитина. Він також сам часто помилявся і тому вирішив створити всеохопну інструкцію, яка допомагає не лише зрозуміти «Нащо підлітки таке накоїли?», а й підказує, як захистити дітей від самих себе в цьому небезпечному віці.

Перша частина книги пояснює, як влаштовано мозок підлітка. Він працює інакше, ніж в дорослого. Навіть якщо підліток виглядає по-дорослому, звучить по-дорослому і нога в нього — така серйозна лапа. Але «виконавчий директор», що відповідає за здоровий глузд і контроль, ще не розвинений в його лобних долях мозку.

«Ба треба було нормально виховувати!» - чи не щодня умовна Ганна Дмитрівна вдягає біле пальто в мережі, ставить діагнози дітям і виносить присуд родинам. Бо її дитина точно вихована гарно, несе в собі сталевий стрижень моралі і вона б ніколи… (потрібне підкреслити). Це не так працює. У свої книзі Шаткін пояснює чому в певний момент для наших дітей найважливішим стає те, як їх сприймають однолітки, а виховання та чудова інтелігентна родина тут відіграє дуже другорядну роль.

Зненацька для вашої чемної домашньої дитини набагато важливішим стає прийняття у зграю однолітків. Дослідження показують, що страх бути ізольованим, соціально відторгнутим (наприклад, коли тебе не позначать на груповій фотці чи не запросять на вечірку) активує ті ж ділянки в мозку, які викликають фізичний біль. Це не дрібниця, не надумана тривожність, у підлітковому віці це справжня драма. Для виживання людству треба бути разом, тому еволюція і привʼязала систему соціальної залежності до системи фізичного болю в мозку.

«Потрібно багато сміливості, щоб встояти перед нашими ворогами, але потрібно значно більше відваги, щоб опиратись друзям», - казав Дамблдор в казці про Гаррі Поттера. Не так важливо, яке було виховання, як компанія, в яку потрапляє дитина. Саме тут підлітки ризикують і вловлюють «круту» модель поведінки аби не дай бог не виглядати крінжово.

А ще в зграї для тебе важливий твій імідж, треба завоювати собі статус та авторитет. Ось для цього зазвичай робиться щось дурне і небезпечне - видертись на стовп, випити пляшку, щось вкрасти, проїхатись на даху поїзда. «Коли підліток переконаний у тому, що за ним спостерігають ровесники, навіть якщо вони незнайомі, він, швидше за все, зважиться на ризикований вчинок». Це теж частина нашого генетичного укладу.

Взагалі в книзі піднімається багато важливих і болючих тем: як обмежити час із гаджетами, як допомогти усвідомити ризик водіння в нетверезому стані і навчити відповідальності, чому залякування і тиск не працюють (навіть навпаки, сприяють погіршенню стосунків з дитиною, а її потяг до ризику посилиться). Джесс Шаткін викладає свої думки про те, як важливо змінювати систему освіти і навчати підлітків у школах стійкості та контролю над емоційними спалахами. Батькам радить залучати дітей до розваг із контрольованим ризиком: як картінг чи скелелазання. І говорити, багато говорити на різні теми, що хвилюють підлітка. Стати дитині довіреним дорослим, який не починає кричати в усіх незрозумілих ситуаціях, а на агається зрощуміти причину і допомогти.

З цим посібником про ризиковану поведінку дітей просто мусять познайомитись люди, які постійно мають справу з підлітками, але не дуже розуміються на їх мотивації та психології. Адже «чим більше ми знаємо про наших дітей, тим менше вони схильні ризикувати».

А якщо ви знаєте інші цікаві книжки про підлітків, порадьте, я буду вам вдячна)

[Rosanne]

This book is exquisite. Shatkin has a gift for making complex things (the role of specific parts of the brain, hormones and their many roles, research studies) sound simple, and naturally interposing personal stories that brought the point home. It wasn’t too preachy or scientific. And the real-life advice that comes at the end is easily applicable. I love how he references previously made points, and refreshes certain key points to keep us up to speed.

I have so much anxiety about raising teens (in 8+ years), but honestly, this book helped calm me so much. I felt armed with the knowledge I’ll need, and will definitely be referring back to this.

[Amber]

This was... okay. Some interesting research in the beginning, but too much about the "why" and not enough about how to help. The advice that was there seemed very basic and common sense OR too big picture and out of our control (i.e. fix poverty because people in poverty are more prone to taking risks)

[Mary]

Shatkin helped me re-examine adolescence as a former adolescent who is raising 2 teens. We are wired to take risks at that time in our lives or humanity would surely have become extinct. Adolescents were at the forefront of mating, hunting, seeking new spaces. Shelter in place makes it exponentially more difficult to guide our teens. “Our hormonally-driven, fiery limbic system and immature prefrontal cortex make adolescents highly responsive to strong emotions and once upon a time drove them to explore new territories and fight wild beasts.”

“[T] he primary achievements of a successful adolescence and transition into adulthood are the development of self-efficacy and emotional self-regulation. In other words, adolescents need to learn that they are capable of succeeding at what they set out to do, believing they can make changes [the plasticity of the young brain], and they need to learn how to manage their emotions.”

”…[A]dolescents are now thinking abstractly (which brings a lot of opportunity but carries a big burden), are driven by rewards especially when they believe their peers will notice, and feel the pain of social exclusion with an urgent and often frightening intensity, we will be better positioned to guide them through the morass of peer pressure. Our job is to help our kids achieve social success, which is protective against risk, while moderating the impact of social failures, which may precipitate risky behavior.”

“By soaking our kids’ brains in hormones, evolution hooks teens into the social order so that they will work to gain the respect of their peers and improve their status.” Humans need others to ensure survival. Social media and smart phones provide limitless access to peers (FOMO), which is unhealthy but understandable. It has “allowed evolutionary pressure to run rampant on our kids’ brains.”

Teens don’t take risks because they think they are invincible. Shatkin explains teens think they are MORE vulnerable than they actually are. Thus, scared straight fails. Teens make more quantitative decisions, weighing pros and cons, often overthinking a potentially dangerous situation. To paraphrase Shatkin, they may have the facts but don’t necessarily understand the meaning. Heathy adults (late 20s and up) tend to make quicker qualitative decisions when faced with risk. Healthy adults know, without really thinking, that driving while impaired is just bad. Teens may analyze and weigh the pros and cons, valuing “the potential for reward and peer admiration.” “…[O]ur goal must be to help our adolescents simplify and integrate what we teach them into an overall meaning—a global understanding that will keep them safe.” “…[E]valuating more options when faced with a risky situation delays the decision and often results in a worse outcome.” “[Adult E]xperts make rapid, high-risk decisions (like the decisions our kids face daily) using experience and intuition, not logical debate or by weighing the pros and cons.”

Teens are particularly vulnerable to cognitive distortions, such as: filtering (out the positives), all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralization, mind reading, catastrophizing, personalization (things happen as a reaction to you), blaming, shoulds (having rules about how you and others should act).

“When adolescents are taught that their brains can change and that they are not doomed to repeat the past, they become more resilient.” Decreased expectations lead to decreased effort.

“Praise tells our children how to behave, instead of how not to behave.” “...[P]raise behavior, not personal qualities.” Engage their “risky brains” in controlled risk. Role play risk/benefit calculations BEFORE your child faces them IRL. “By changing our thoughts and behaviors we can change our feelings.”

“…[T]hey need to have an emotional connection to the behavior change; they need to feel it’s really important to do or not do something.” This prolonged remote interaction, especially with cameras off, will haunt our kids long after it ends. I am not in favor of an unsafe easing of physical restrictions but we need to help kids overcome some serious delays in their path to adulthood. Some/many kids have been lost in 2020. Here’s to an accessible, safe, effective vaccine!

[Sabrina]

One of the most significant distinctions between adolescents and adults is the amount of dopamine flowing in different parts of the brain.

Risk understanding & inflated risk estimates vary according to life experiences

Optimistic bias

Limbic- Watson
Prefrontal cortex- Holmes

Myelination - The process of building faster connections is accomplished by myelineation, or the growth of fatty sheaths on neurons. Mylan acts like an insulator and makes these pathways between neurons like superhighways boosting transmission speeds by up to 100 times.
When neurons become myelinated, they lose some of their ability to make synapses and adapt to the changing environment.

Ventral striatum

Adolescence seem to feel things more intensely than both children and adults.

“During adolescence Dopamine is more robust within our brain than at any other time of our lives.”

“It seems that the sooner we stop really stimulating and challenging our brains, the sooner our white matter sets in place. Although white matter increases the speed of brain signaling between commonly used areas and makes our brains more efficient so we can be successful adults, it also makes our brains less plastic or malleable, literally harder, and it becomes more difficult to learn new things.”

Understanding of neurobiology- we now know major growth and changes continue within the brain through our mid20s.

D1 - feel good signal
D2 - feel bad
dopamine receptors - do what’s necessary for survival

Must acknowledge the powerful biological influences of dopamine & neural connectivity on our adolescents’ behavior

Auto insurance rates drop at 25 when statistics show young adults become safer drivers

Cortical
Subcortical

Neurosis

Zeitgeist

“Males and virgin females of many species tend to avoid newborns all together and find all infant stimuli extremely adverse it. Yet somehow we find our own babies, and all of their little burps and squeal simply irresistible. Oxytocin is the powerful hormone responsible for emotional reward we feel from being with our children and the lack of disgust with aspects of them that we would usually find distasteful, like poop.”

Like humans dogs use mutual visual gaze to connect & bond.

“Adolescence feel great fear and do risky things anyway because of the potential for reward and peer admiration. They are sensation seeking, hormonally charged status seeking with an unbridled limbic system that our ancestors instinctively relied on for propagation of species.”

-new abstract thinking
-Driven by rewards especially when they believe that their peers will notice
-feel the pain of social exclusion with an urgent and often frightening intensity

...”use good judgment.”
🔺Keep your head about you.
🔺Be your own man.
🔺You don’t have to do everything they do

Heuristics


Adults =Risk in absolute terms. Adults use qualitative gist (e.g., specific cues, literal understanding, and the quantitative weighing of pros and cons)to make decisions & avoid risk.

Adolescences= Risk in relative terms. The more we debate a decision, like an adolescence does, the more likely we are to rationalize any given risky behavior.

PMT 101
Positive reinforcement
Affective commands
Selective ignoring
Scheduling
Rewarding good behavior
Limits and consequences

Punish sparingly and always provide numerous opportunities for kids to earn back their privileges.

Benevolent autocracy

The primary area of the brain associated with threat and emotional reactivity e.g. the amygdala, grew more slowly over among those children whose mothers were frequently able to stay positive, warm, and supportive during conflicts with their teens.

Low levels of family conflict in the home have less demanding brain reward centers (E. G., The ventral striatum)

We will get further with our kids by helping them see the benefits of making good choices then we will with the drawbacks of making the bad ones. Positive opposites

Analogies to practice safe responses.
-Russian roulette for a million?
-unprotected sex?
-steak SAT answer key for perfect score?
Once us all it takes.

Statistical gist:
1/20 will get pregnant

If you have unprotected sex once per week.
By the end of 20 weeks you will definitely be pregnant. It only takes once.

Specific emotional cues

Planning decision pathways
-Role playing

Red Alerts

Role Modeling

Frequent Reminders

-Do not get into the car tonight with someone who has been drinking or using drugs nothing is worth that amount of risk. Remember, it only takes one slip behind the wheel to get hurt, permanently disabled, or killed. If anyone has anything at all to drink or smoke tonight, please call me, and I’ll pick you up. No blame, just safety.

Hormone disrupting plastics

Gherlin- hormone that signals hunger
Leptin- hormone that signals fullness

Cognitive dissonance

Growth mindset ph 208

Opposite action

Societal expectations, values and norms

Stereotype threat

Praising efforts rather than final outcome

Show kids that they’re being taken advantage of by unscrupulous companies that are actually making them into pawns by stealing their money and health.

Making addicts of our kids and laughing all the way to the bank

Social norms marketing

The most dangerous time in an adolescent life is the first two years after he or she receives a drivers license.

[Serhii Pliaka]

Цікаво та пізнавально.

[Dani Quinn]

This has given me some good stuff to think about regarding my pupils and had some useful and practical advice. When he wrote about areas where he has knowledge and experience, and where he showed the failings of well-intentioned but ineffective Interventions, I learned a lot. It was let down by the times when the author strayed into areas that weren’t his area of expertise and advocated ideas or concepts that have been debunked (eg the Cone of Learning) or which sound nice on paper but don’t work as expected in reality (eg his low-detail yet passionate advocacy for group projects in school).

[Emma]

An interesting take on why teens take risk and how we can help them stay alive and out of trouble. Currently we think that if we just give teens more and more information about how terrible things are it will help them make better decisions but this does not work- more information is not the answer. I really liked most of this book and then he got to the end to tell us what to do about it and it got all wide ranging and impossible.

[Miriam Downey]

Read my full review here: http://mimi-cyberlibrarian.blogspot.c...

It was a warm night on Saturday of Labor Day weekend—four days before school was scheduled to start. A 15-year-old without a license drove his family car. His passengers included two girls and two boys, ages 15, 16, and 17. As the car picked up speed, a police car turned on its siren and started after them, but soon turned the siren off and slowed down. The kids were going too fast—more than 100 miles per hour. Suddenly, the car veered off the road and struck a tree. Before the police officers could reach them, the car exploded. All five occupants of the car died immediately. The community of Kalamazoo has been in mourning for a month now. My adopted granddaughter knew all five kids—one was a distant cousin.

As any parent of a tween, teen or 20-something knows, adolescents take risks. In fact, those aged 12-26 are hard-wired to take risks, but how do you combat these natural impulses? In Born to Be Wild, Jess Shatkin brings more than two decades' worth of research and clinical experience to the subject, along with cutting-edge findings from brain science, evolutionary psychology, game theory, and other disciplines -- plus a widely curious mind and the perspective of a concerned dad himself.

Dr. Shatkin illustrates in Born to Be Wild that:
Adolescents are genetically engineered to prioritize emotions over logic: Teens make risky choices for social acceptance and to avoid emotional pain. If a peer is watching, even a peer they don’t know, adolescents are more likely to take risks.
Teens know that they’re not invincible. In fact, studies have shown that, when teens engage in risky behavior, they often overestimate their chances of being harmed by that behavior.
Improving parenting practices and increasing parent monitoring can help halt high-risk behaviors: Shatkin shares Parent Management Training (PMT) techniques that emphasize tactful praise over remonstrations of how not to behave.
Supportive families benefit the brain: Studies show teens raised by parents with low levels of conflict in their homes have less demanding brain reward centers; these teens will engage in less risk-taking behavior because their interpersonal relationships are rewarding.
Ironically, even though adolescence is a risk-taking time, it is also a time of incredible potential. In Born to Be Wild, Shatkin shows what parents and teachers can do--in everyday interactions, teachable moments, and specially chosen activities and outings--to work with teens' need for risk, rewards and social acceptance, not against it.

Dr. Shatkin believes that the best way to reduce risk taking among adolescents is to focus on prevention before they hit their teen years. He also believes that a calm household, with calm rational parents, can reduce risk taking. I always believed in the "pick your battles" theory, believing that I didn't need to react to everything that my children and grandchildren did or said they were going to do—just the actions that would affect their safety, health, or well-being.

I can't answer the question of why those young people went on that joy ride. No one knows. That is a question that will go unanswered, but I do know that my adopted granddaughter decided that she would wait to get her driver's license until she was 18, rather than now, just after she finished drivers training. A wise decision.

Dr. Jess Shatkin has years of experience in child and adolescent mental health. Born to Be Wild is an extremely valuable book for parents, teachers, and others who work with teens and young adults. I can highly recommend it. I have several teenage grandchildren. Their parents will appreciate reading this thoughtful book.

[Margo Kelly]

Since I often speak with teenagers regarding Internet safety, I am intrigued by their common willingness to take risks even though they've been taught, warned, and shown why certain actions could be harmful to them. So when I was offered an early copy of Jess Shatkin's book, Born to be Wild, I jumped at the opportunity to learn more from this nationally recognized adolescent psychiatrist and author. Additionally, I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about both his book and his experience as an author. To read the interview, visit my site: http://www.margokelly.net/2017/10/aut...

My favorite way to read a nonfiction book is with Post-it flags and a pencil, because I love to flag compelling statements and I like to write notes to myself, reminding me of personal epiphanies I had while reading. The problem with this particular book was . . . I ran out of Post-its, because I had trouble using only one per page!

Dr. Jess Shatkin shares profound concepts regarding the teenager's inclination to take risks on nearly every page of his new book, Born to be Wild.

Dr. Shatkin's easy-to-read narrative combines anecdotes and scientific details to explain elements of the teenage psyche. For example, he utilizes a story about trying chocolate for the first time and relates that to how dopamine influences our future choices. Furthermore, he explains, "One of the most significant distinctions between adolescents and adults is the amount of dopamine flowing in different parts of the brain." (page 47) "Because the dopamine system of an adolescent is at its pinnacle and will never be this responsive again, novelty really rocks their world." (page 66)

Born to be Wild not only explores why teens take risks, it also gives effective tools for adults who care about the young people in their lives, offering ways to teach resiliency and provide guidance.

Parents, educators, and leaders of adolescents would benefit from reading Born to be Wild, which delivers thoughtful and scientific insights into the behavior of young adults and offers beneficial ways to help them through these turbulent years.

I highly recommend Born to be Wild by Jess P. Shatkin.


[Thank you to FSB Associates for providing me with a copy of this book for review. This in no way influenced my opinion.]

[Carol]

If you work with adolescents (ages 12-26) or will be a parent or guardian to them, you will benefit from reading Born to Be Wild. The first part will make you feel as though you are taking college psychology classes along with Brain Anatomy 101 but it is the ground work for understanding the rest of the book so tough it out, pull all nighters if necessary. No need to memorize for a test, just read to understand. The second part of the book offers practical information for living with, understanding, and providing guidance to those risk taking teens (and preteens, and post teens). The information is so practical I took three pages of notes to share with a single-parent-working-full-time person I know just in case they don’t have time to read. Born to Be Wild would be great (and useful) as the book school administrators assign to their teachers to read on summer break. School administrators do that, you know.

[Einar Jensen]

Book Review: I have finished Born to be Wild: Why Teens Take Risks and How We Can Help Keep Them Safe by Dr. Jess Shaskin. I read it as a Dad of tweens and hoping it would enhance my risk reduction abilities. Mind Blown. I highly, strenuously recommend this book.

Shaskin compiled recent research to address adolescent brain growth and consider risk reduction solutions while showing the failures of old programs like DARE that were based on hunches and “we’ve always done it this way” laments. Teens are engineered to take risks. Their brain growth and hormonal spikes evolved to encourage risk taking so the species will survive. They know they are at risk and overestimate their vulnerability. They think too much about choices and justify bad decisions. They feel pain from social exclusion and strive for neurological rewards. I have so much work to do in order to modify the insights from this book into useful tools and lessons. Mind blown.

[Elise]

Delayed adolescence has been in the news lately, and not in a good way. We have read and heard from an untold number of pundits, politicians, and social theorists how our young people are in danger of never growing up. That somehow it is anathema to the survival of our species that we, in the USA, have allowed our children to retain their childhood longer than anytime before in history. Well, in his book, Dr. Jess P. Shatkin, Born to be Wild, Why Teens Take Risks, and How We Can Help Keep Them Safe, not only refutes that premise, but outlines a path that actually will allow society to deal with the highly intelligent, forward looking, challenging, and overstimulated adolescents that we know and love.

Read the entire review at https://journalingonpaper.com/2017/09...

[Angie Even]

To those with kids, YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!!
If you want to understand why our kids take risks and try harmful things and then learn ways to help them avoid risk taking in the first place this is the book for you. We can’t just accept dangerous adolescent behaviors as the norm that it is something they all go through. It is our job as parents to help them navigate their peer pressured, hormonal raging, social media frenzied, confusing world. The author gives very practical advice as to how we can go about changing their mindset with new ways to approach them as well as understand them so we can actually reach them with our unsolicited advice. It also gives a lot of explanations as to why they take risk in the first place. Having a better understanding of it all helps both our kids and us. Take time to read and highlight it so you can put it into practice!

[Valerie]

While, I do not personally have kids, I thought this book was a very interesting read. It is interesting to hear about the science of adolescence and the stories that go along with it. I studied family science in undergraduate and this book appealed to me in many ways. I appreciated the ideas behind this book.

I would recommend this book for those who want to learn more about the young person in their lives. I thought it had golden nuggets of information and ideas.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

Disclaimer: I was awarded this book. Though I did not pay for the book, the opinions are strictly my own.

[Walter]

A good read for anyone raising a child or just curious about adolescent development and what one can do to help kids make the right decisions. Jess explains what motivates actions in our youth, and offers different ideas to encourage them to make the right choices and avoid unnecessary risks. The book offers pragmatic and logical solutions for teen smoking, drinking, drunk driving, cell phone addiction, suicide, and more.

Even if you don't care about future generations, this book can help adults get a better understanding of why they made the terrible decisions they did when they were that age--some worthwhile introspection never hurts!

[Kathy]

This book is worth owning as it is full of great advice regarding how you can raise your children to be confident, stand up to peer pressure and make safe & healthy decisions.

There are many techniques mentioned. There is the Cone of learning, using opposite action,
teaching mindfulness, understanding the cognitive triangle regarding feelings, thoughts, and behaviors along with so much more!

This needs to be a reference book on your bookshelf! Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, school teacher or community member. This book can help us to help our children to thrive.

[Ruth]

Very helpful, if you can get past the first 7 very repetitive chapters. Chapters 8-10 have the good stuff. A significant new view on helping children successfully navigate adolescence. Why, despite knowing better, they take risks, and how we, as parents and caring adults, can help them learn to make better choices.

[Tyson Edwards]

Fascinating topic with a well-organized approach and proficient writing; it felt like there was some degree of repetition in certain places, and a few sections where the tone came of as paternal rather than scholarly; overall, a nice introduction to the adolescent brain, with valid, common sense advice to keep teens safe.

[Jenny]

很多研究其中都属于社会心理学/社会认知领域，比如heuristics, judgment biases, mindset, persuasion, norms, social influence, etc. 所以这些内容已经比较熟悉。但还是了解到一些新知识，比如关于青少年的risk assessment的研究，最喜欢的应该是书中讲述的一些关于behavioral intervention programs的evaluation research - D.A.R.E., Keepin’ It Real, Scared Straight, zero tolerance, drivers’ education, etc. 这周刚好在课上讲到health intervention还正好用上作为例子了。

[Lisa]

If I hadn't ever read anything on the teenage brain, I'd probably have given this 4 stars. His writing and delivery are all very good. While it was a nice little review for me, there really wasn't anything in here that was new to me. I wanted it to have more parenting tips, but instead it felt more like it was written for educators and lawmakers.

[Natalie]

Fantastic, Informative, relevant

A great resource for parents, educators, and policy shapers alike. Evidence based and concrete intervention strategies that virtually anyone can implement.

[Erica Guzzo]

Occasionally contradicts itself and puts forward unsubstantiated claims alongside substantiated ones. Something the editor should have caught. This feels more fueled by emotions about teens than actual critical reflection on adolescence. There's good stuff in it, but reader beware.

[Ben]

If you work with tweens or teens, have them in your household, or are simply curious about current theories of brain development put this on your reading list.

[Tansonju]

I took notes chapter by chapter...highly recommend to all parents.

[Rebecca]

Such great info on understanding why teens take the risks they do and how to more effectively parent through it.

[Maureen Howell]

A must read for all parents of teens! I’m also making sure my husband and 14 year old read it.

[Jaime]

Good read, would read again or buy. Now just need to implement with the teens.

[Valeriia]

Виховуєте підлітка та маєте складнощі в цьому, або просто бажаєте краще розуміти свою дитину? Тоді Вам буде корисна книга психолога Дж. П. Шаткіна, яка являє собою дослідження підлітків та їхнього мозку з великою повагою та розумінням.

Книга складається з 10 розділів, які розкривають певний аспект підліткової психології. Автор пояснює причини, які спонукають підлітків до певних, часто ризикованих, вчинків.

Кожен з 10 розділів включає також поради для дорослих, які приймають участь у вихованні підлітка та стикаються зі складнощами в цьому.

Книга « Народжені бути вільними » допоможе краще зрозуміти чому діти роблять неочікувані речі та дізнатися способи, які посприяють тому, щоб зрозуміти дитину краще та навчать правильно будувати діалог з нею для пояснення всіх ризиків того чи іншого вчинку.

Щоб розуміти свою дитину батькам, насамперед, слід розуміти її психологію. Книга « Народжені бути вільними » в цьому допоможе.