Reality Gap: Alcohol, Drugs, and Sex--What Parents Don't Know and Teens Aren't Telling

Growing up isn't what it used to be—it's more difficult and more dangerous. Even in “safe” places like school, teens face complicated decisions about personal behavior, involving everything from drinking, to drugs, to sex. Unfortunately, many adults don't fully grasp the true scope of the perilous world our teens inhabit. Stephen Wallace points out the “reality gap” separating parents and adults from young people at the time they need them most—adolescence—and offers concrete solutions to bridge this gulf.
Grounded in hard facts with practical, common-sense advice, Reality Gap combines Wallace's 25-plus years of experience working with young people as a school psychologist, adolescent counselor, camp director, and college professor with groundbreaking research on adolescent attitudes and behaviors from SADD. Wallace includes concrete suggestions for improving teen-adult communication as well as age-specific “decision-points” at which parents should address various issues with their teen and pre-teen children.
With Wallace's strong media contacts, professional affiliations, and extensive speaking platform Reality Gap promises to be the go-to book on a vital topic.
Wallace highlights the myths and rationalizations of teens and adults that help fuel the reality gap:
• The myth of improbability: “It's not going to happen to my kid.”
• The myth of inevitability: “She's a teenager, of course, she's going to drink.”
• The myth of irrelevancy: “I'm the parent, he's not going to listen to me.”
• The myth of invincibility: “I'm young, I'm healthy, I'm not going to get hurt.”
• The myth of immunity: “Even if I get caught, I'll get out of it.”