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This is a sensible brochure meant for public consumption. Prince writes with a good deal of experience in child guidance and with analytic expertise. His theme (for his readership is intended to be parents, predominantly) is that a wide array of disturbing events occur in the teenage years which parents must not over-react to. He is particularly good at gently directing parents' gaze to their ambivalence, envy and rivalry with their adolescent children and to some of the hazards of these conflicts, e.g., harsh moral disapproval.
There is some attention given to individual disturbance, but the author frequently sees difficulties as originating with parental attitudes or with ‘mass media’. His identification seems overtly weighted towards the adolescents.
Topics such as: masturbation; sex, homosexual and heterosexual; drugs; alcohol; disturbing clothing; and cults are generally dealt with in a concise yet not, for the purposes of this brochure, overtly simplified manner, and with considerable skill at talking to parents. There are only occasional lapses into analytic jargon or into talking down to the reader.
There is much of value in the publication, particularly to middle-class families. For instance his discussion of education is about academic pressure and about the choice between state and private schooling. However there is little or no discussion of unemployment,