Book review :Helping young people to beat stress a practical guide Sarah

McNamara

Title: Helping Young People to Beat Stress: A Practical Guide

General Subject Matter: Self-help book
Theme: Identify the stressors and prevention.
Thesis: Essential guide to helping teenagers minimize stress in their lives
Author: SARAH MCNAMARA BA, MA, DPhil (Oxon) DPP(Clinical) has
worked in the area of adolescent mental health and stress prevention in
many capacities, including work as a clinical psychologist, research
fellow and policy consultant.
Continuum, New York (2005)
114 pages, ISBN 0-8264-8755-6
This book is an update of McNamara’s 2000 book Stress in young people:
what’s new and what can we do?
The intended audience includes teachers, physicians and adults who
interact with adolescents. McNamara sets out to provide the
information and tools needed to help young people .
The purpose of this book is to enable youngsters to identify their
stressors and to develop techniques that will allow them to reduce or
manage their stress. In only 114 pages, this book accomplishes much of
its intended purpose. McNamara’s style is conversational and accessible.
Youngsters might benefit from reading it themselves. Chapter 1 of this
book is Talking with young people about stress and coping.
Chapter 2 is about Mental strategies for coping with stress
This includes prepare earlier for the things that cause stress ,conversion
of negative thought about stressor into positive thoughts.
Chapter 3 is about Physical ways of coping with stress
This includes nutrition and eating habit and about some exercises,
improving the sleep quality .

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Book review :Helping young people to beat stress a practical guide Sarah
McNamara

Chapter 4 is about Study skills and Time management. This includes how
to study when to study how keep balance in study and health and life,
this is also about the time management so to led life in an organized
way.
Chapter 5 is about interpersonal and communication skills
The last chapter is about Treating yourself right this chapter intend to
boost self-confidence and self-esteem, it includes the five steps to boost
confidence i.e. 1)if at first… 2) talk the talk walk the walk, 3) learn and
move on..! 4)Don’t beat yourself up! 5)Be nice to yourself this chapter
closes with comments on unhappiness and depression and worry and
anxiety. The book concludes with a recap of its intended purpose and a
brief discussion of ‘‘Program implementation’’ and ‘‘The socioeconomic
dimension to research’’. The focus of this book is what an individual can
do when working with an individual adolescent.
Cultural sensitivity and cultural competencies are not addressed in this
book. Adults working with adolescents from different cultural
backgrounds need appropriate knowledge, attitudes and skills when
working with these youth. The author suggests, on p. 109, the significant
need for research on this. An expanded section on cultural issues/cross-
cultural difference would be valuable. Helping young people to
recognize and manage stress has great importance to the quality of their
adolescent years. The consequence of involvement during adolescence
will also be felt in adulthood. The problem is significant. Many
youngsters attempt suicide when they feel helpless about some
situation regarding to their studies, relationships or bullying at the
college etc. and the trend of eating disorder, substance abuse,
depression, anxiety are also increasing rapidly as compare to the
youngsters of previous generations.

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