New York Times bestselling author Martin E. P. Seligman's The Optimistic
Child is "the first major work to provide an effective program for
preventing depression in childhood -- and probably later in life" (Aaron
T. Beck, author of Love is Never Enough).
The epidemic of depression in America strikes 30% of all children. Now
Martin E. P. Seligman, the bestselling author of Learned Optimism, and
his colleagues offer parents and educators a program clinically proven
to cut that risk in half. With this startling research, parents can
teach children to apply optimism skills that can curb depression, boost
school performance, and improve physical health. These skills provide
children with the resilience they need to approach the teenage years and
adulthood with confidence.
For more than thirty years the self-esteem movement has infiltrated
American homes and classrooms with the credo that supplying positive
feedback, regardless of the quality of performance, will make children
feel better about themselves. But in this era of raising our children to
feel good, the hard truth is that they have never been more depressed.
As Dr. Seligman writes in this provocative new book, "Teaching optimism
is more than, I realized, than just correcting pessimism...It is the
creation of a positive strength, a sunny but solid future-mindedness
that can be deployed throughout life -- not only to fight depression and
come back from failure, but also to be the foundation of success and
vitality."
