A leader's guide to the struggle to be strong: How to foster resilience in teens. (Book Reviews).

Wolin, S., Desetta, A., & Hefner, K. (2000). A leader's guide to the struggle to be strong: How to foster resilience in teens. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit (161 pp., $21.95 softcover, ISBN 1-57542-080-5).

Alcoholism runs in families, but there are some children of alcoholics who do not repeat their parents' drinking problems; parenting disabled children is stressful, but there are some who are able to hold on to their joy in life despite anxieties and pain. Such an ability to stand strong and invincible in the face of adversity is what is termed "resilience" in The Struggle to Be Strong and its companion A Leader's Guide to The Struggle to Be Strong.

From their joint research on resilient adults, Sybil and Steven Wolin, previously investigators of the topics above, now co-directors of Project Resilience, abstracted seven kinds of resilience, namely, insight (asking tough questions), independence (being your own person), relationships (connecting with people who matter), initiative (taking charge), creativity (using imagination), humor (finding what's funny), and morality (doing the right thing).

The Struggle to Be Strong is a book that illustrates the meaning of these seven resiliences with stories by teenagers in Youth Communication, a nonprofit youth development program. Some of these adolescents went through poverty, violence, neglect, substance abuse, and foster care, but they were able to learn constructive lessons from their destructive experiences. In spite of possible occasional concerns about provocative topics (the book is for ages 13 and up), all stories are authentic experiences with direct relevance to adolescents. As products of a long process of thinking, writing, reflecting, and rewriting, they are highly readable and substantial, containing not only factual narration of what has happened, but, more important, significant lessons the authors have learned from their actual experiences. The 30 stories in the book are grouped by the seven categories of resilience, preceded by a thematic explanation of the resilience type under discussion. After each story, two questions for reflection are posed to prompt readers to think and relate what they have read to their own personal experiences.

A Leader's Guide to The Struggle to Be Strong: How to Foster Resilience in Teens is a companion to The Struggle to Be Strong. After the first few chapters that explain the concept of resilience, provide guidelines for group leadership and group session plans, the book lays out 30 sessions developed around the same number of stories in The Struggle to Be Strong. Each session consists of activities such as free writing, discussion, role play, and journaling. Sessions are carefully scripted with detailed information prepared for the group activity leader. The purpose of this book is to help teenage participants internalize the messages conveyed by the stories through the use of self-reflection, discussion, and role play.

For teachers, clinicians, counselors, social workers, prevention specialists, and others who work with teens, especially those who face difficult problems and challenges, this set of books is a useful resource to teach resilience and foster positive behaviors among them. Its uniqueness lies with it being a collaborative product between teens and adults. Social learning theory recognizes the power on learning when the model shares the characteristics of age, gender, and occupation with learners (Bandura, 1977). By letting teens speak to teens in a book for teens, the authors are maximizing the possibility of getting the messages across to their teenage readers. The companion book carries the messages to an even deeper and higher level, in which the authors contribute their professional knowledge and insight to the instruction of resilience. The design of two books complementing and reinforcing each other is truly a thoughtful and thorough one.

As embodied by the seven resiliences, inner strength and resourcefulness have been shown by other studies as important characteristics shared by vulnerable yet invincible individuals (Werner & Smith, 1982; Masten, 1994). Compared with peers who develop serious coping problems, resilient youth have a more internal locus of control, a more positive self-concept, a more nurturant, responsible, and achievement-oriented attitude toward life (Werner & Smith). The same conclusion is reached in the study of eminent people and delinquents. Both groups had a large proportion who had experienced trauma in their lives, but ego strength within the individuals in the former group sustained their moral and healthy development in spite of adverse circumstances (Ochse, 1990). Although The Struggle to Be Strong and its companion are not written with the gifted population in mind, teaching of resilience is certainly a relevant need for that group in their affective development. Its relevance is even greater with at-risk gifted students, who can learn useful strategies and gain needed courage to deal with adversities inside and outside themselves. The information and perspectives in the books can also help educators, counselors, and social workers better understand the formidable challenges those students face and, as a result, become more effective in planning interventions that can ensure successful outcome.

Considering that the concept of resilience presented in the books builds on a great deal of prior research, the companion seems to have overlooked examples, lessons, and findings from other studies that may be incorporated into its session activities. Another omission regards the resources of biographies, autobiographies, and fictions about resilient individuals that may serve as relevant materials for discussion, reflection, and role play. Consequently, the elaborated group activities built upon the teens' stories seem to be too weighty for their base.

Despite of all those, the book and its companion promise to be a good tool for teaching resilience, a much-needed strength by teenagers for coping with the challenges in life.

REFERENCES

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Masten, A. (1994). Resilience in individual development: Successful adaptation despite risk and adversity. In M. C. Wang & E. W. Gordon (Eds.), Educational resilience in inner-city America: Challenges and prospects. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Ochse, R. (1990). Before the gates of excellence: The determinants of creative genius. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Werner, E. E, & Smith, R. (1982). Vulnerable but invincible: A longitudinal study of resilient children and youth. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Reviewed by Li Zuo, a 1999 Ph.D. graduate of the University of Georgia. Following a post-doctoral fellowship in the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary, Dr. Zuo is now working in the United Nations and is interested in academic, career, and personal development of gifted students as well as in research methodology.