Three of the young adolescents had already had interactions with the criminal justice system in their communities. It describes the information collected during the interviews and some of the lessons learned about the characteristics of healthy adult and young adolescent interaction. The parent must act not only as protector, but also as an agent for his or her child in the world. A parent's job includes encouraging the child to move into the world, while remaining vigilant about what the child may encounter. From the interviews studied, good parenting appears to be independent of family income or family structure.
Communication becomes extremely important, and control less important, as a child gets older.
Communication includes not only that between the adult and the young adolescent but also by the adult on behalf of the young adolescent to the outside world, including schools and other institutions with which he or she interacts. She participated in a panel, Healthy People 2000 Progress Review on Adolescents and Young Adults, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Bethesda, MD, in July 1998, and was a keynote speaker at the Forum on Adolescence, Board of Children, Youth and Families at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, in September 1998. See the Bibliography for details. In addition, one of the girls featured in the book published an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. The author has also spoken at a Teen Culture Conference at the University of Virginia Medical Center and the National Middle School Association s annual conference, at to Missouri Legislators at a conference sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation.