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Summary
Summary
"Over the past thirty years, the self-esteem movement has promoted the credo in American homes and classrooms that unconditional positive feedback is what children need to make them feel better about themselves. But even though we are raising our children to feel good, the hard truth is that they have never been more depressed. In fact, depression strikes a quarter of all children today." "To examine and reverse this trend, Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., a leading psychologist who has been studying depression for three decades, developed a long-term research study with his colleagues called the Penn Depression Prevention Project. Their startling findings prove that teaching children to challenge their pessimistic thoughts can "immunize" them against depression." "The Optimistic Child offers parents and teachers the tools developed in this study to teach children of all ages life skills that transform helplessness into mastery and bolster genuine self-esteem. Learning the skills of optimism not only reduces the risk of depression but boosts school performance, improves physical health, and provides children with the self-reliance they need as they approach the teenage years and adulthood."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
According to noted psychologist Seligman (Learned Optimism), 30% of American children suffer from depression. Further, his studies demonstrate that ``pessimistic children are at much higher risk for becoming depressed than optimistic children.'' His mission here is to teach parents and other concerned adults how to instill in children a sense of optimism and personal mastery. Seligman discounts prevalent theory that children who are encouraged by others to feel good about themselves will do well. Instead, he proposes that self-esteem comes from mastering challenges, overcoming frustration and experiencing individual achievement. In clear, concise prose peppered with anecdotes, dialogues, cartoons and exercises, Seligman offers a concrete plan of action based on techniques of self-evaluation and social interaction. He describes the development of the Penn Depression Prevention Program, in which school kids are taught ways to divest themselves of pessimistic approaches and adopt optimistic ones, and adapts it to home use by parents. While a few of the exercises may seem daunting to parents, this encouraging volume moves beyond popular self-help tomes and ideology to offer hope and practical suggestions; it will be of great value to teachers as well. First serial rights to Ladies' Home Journal and Parents magazine; author tour. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice Review
This book was written as a how-to primarily for parents who want to immunize their children against depression, pessimism, and learned helplessness. Though there are many books available on raising a child's self-esteem, Seligman maintains they are misguided, "feel-good" formulas that miss the point. Merely avoiding bad feelings is not sufficient, for optimism ultimately comes from mastery, not the reverse. Effort should be directed toward teaching the child a positive cognitive style that readers may recognize as the basics of Albert Ellis's rational emotive psychotherapy, ABC (adversity, beliefs, consequences) with D (disputation) and E (energization) added. Brief tests of optimism and depression are included. Specific exercises are provided for changing a child's automatic pessimism and explanatory style, helping with disputing and decatastrophizing, and boosting social skills. As Seligman points out, unlike so many self-help books that come from simple clinical observation or from personal experience, his book represents the application of years of research, and its principles have been tested longitudinally with school-aged children. All levels. K. L. Hartlep; California State University, Bakersfield
