Psychosocial Disturbances in Young People: Challenges for Prevention

Ed Michael Rutter Cambridge University Press, pounds sterling30, pp 403 ISBN 0 521 46187 1 Psychosocial Disturbances in Young People presents strong evidence that criminal activity, suicidal behaviour, substance abuse, depression, and eating disorders have all increased in frequency since the second world war. All the more surprising as this coincides with a steady improvement in physical health and better living conditions. The book focuses first on understanding adolescence and its associated problem behaviours. There are numerous interesting research findings. For example, delinquency is the only problem behaviour that peaks in adolescence and then declines—affecting 60% of 15 year olds and then declining to 40% of 20 year olds. …