Adolescents at Risk: Prevalence and Prevention

Once in a while, a book comes along that captures the ideas of a diverse group of people, giving them a common ground for future thinking and planning. Joy Dryfoos'Adolescents at Risksynthesizes research in four seemingly separate spheres of adolescent behavior: delinquency, substance abuse, adolescent pregnancy, and school failure. The strength of the book is the author's refreshing ability to gather information from a variety of sources and create something new that could become the foundation of a rational, practical approach to the alarming state of adolescent health and welfare in America. By first establishing the separate threads of research on each of the four behaviors and then addressing their overlap as the basis of prevention programs, she weaves the final picture of a national strategy to improve programs set up to reach adolescents. The volume is beautifully organized to enable the reader to quickly review an enormous