While women are now achieving at unprecedented academic and professional levels, the shifting and conflicting pressures to be perfect have resulted in increasing mental health problems among young girls. This guide to the cultural stressors affecting girls and the subsequent mental health issues they often face offers mental health professionals highly effective treatment approaches and strengths-based prevention strategies that facilitate successful navigation of girlhood and adolescence. The book focuses on the socialization processes that begin in early girlhood and contribute to the development of problems that are increasing in today's adolescent girls.

The book describes how the confluence of societal, family, peer, school, and individual developmental influences can negatively affect adolescents. It considers the pressure on young girls to be sexualized, to look and act older than they are, the effects of consumerism and materialism, the pervasive use of social media, and the pressure to excel in all areas. It addresses how current cultural trends contribute to such disorders as depression, substance abuse, self-injury, eating disorders, conduct disorders, sexual victimization, relationship violence, and suicide. In addition to practical and detailed treatment interventions, the book emphasizes the importance of early intervention to prevent these problems prior to their onset, and promoting girls' resilience to cultural pressures so they can successfully cope with complex life demands. Case studies, discussion questions, skill development activities, recommended readings, and online resources reinforce content.
Key Features:
•Analyzes cultural pressures that affect girls at increasingly younger ages
•Includes detailed treatment interventions including strengths-based approaches and best practice guidelines
•Focuses on socialization processes that begin in early childhood and contribute to the development of mental health problems
•Offers prevention strategies to promote girls' resilience
•Contains case studies, discussion questions, skill development activities, recommended readings, and on-line resources
Preface

Chapter One Girl Power? Understanding Girls' Socialization through the Lens of Popular Culture

Chapter Two My World is Spinning Upside Down: Family, Peer, School, and Developmental Upheavals

Chapter Three A Cloud of Hopelessness: Adolescent Girls and Depression

Chapter Four Weighted Down: Disordered Eating in Adolescent Girls

Chapter Five Fitting in and Numbing out: Substance Use Disorders in Adolescent Girls

Chapter Six Expressions of Pain: Counseling Adolescent Girls who Engage in Self-Injury

Chapter Seven Violated and Betrayed: Sexual Trauma and Dating Violence in Adolescent Girls

Chapter Eight Hope for the Future: Strengthening Resilience in Adolescent Girls
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