cover image Kidstress: What It Is, How It Feels, How to Help

Kidstress: What It Is, How It Feels, How to Help

Georgia Witkin. Viking Books, $23.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-670-87329-6

Witkin, author of The Female Stress Syndrome and The Male Stress Syndrome and director of the stress program at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, turns her attention to children, and what she sees is alarming. One in three suffers from such chronic stress symptoms as ulcerative colitis; one in 20 under the age of 10 suffers from depression; teen pregnancy and abuse of drugs and alcohol are on the rise; and 3000 youngsters a day take up smoking cigarettes. To find out what's bothering these kids, Witkin took the unusual step of asking children themselves and then compared their answers with what their parents said. What she discovered is that parents underestimate, among other things, how much children worry and how altruistic they are and overestimate the effects of peer pressure. In chatty yet no-nonsense prose, Witkin shares the often surprising results of her and other researchers' surveys, specifies the main stressors in children's lives and suggests ways to cope with them. From birth order (she refutes the common perception that children without siblings are lonely ""nerds"") and sibling rivalry to divorce and the death of a loved one, Witkin offers a fresh viewpoint and sensible, reassuring advice that will be welcome to parents and teachers anxiously picking their way through the minefield of ""kidstress."" Author tour. (Jan.)