A sensible analysis of the turmoil that adolescence triggers
within parents. While most of the research regarding adolescence
has centered on teenagers, Laurence Steinberg (Psychology/Temple
Univ.; You and Your Adolescent, not reviewed) focuses on their
parents, contending that when the firstborn child reaches
adolescence, the entire family is affected. Adolescence, he
argues, is often more stressful for parents than for the
youngsters. He feels that the midlife crisis is triggered not so
much by work or worries about physical decline, but ``by the
intersecting journeys of the adolescent and the middle-aged
parent.'' Recognizing the dramatic physical changes in their
maturing children forces parents to confront their own aging and
mortality. Watching a child's emerging sexuality can trigger a
wide range of emotions, from mere discomfort to outright
jealousy. It is not uncommon, contends Steinberg, for parents to
compare themselves with their children; a father, for example,
who was socially awkward as a teena