Andrew Malekoff - Group Work with Suburbias Children: Difference, Acceptance, and Belonging

This revelatory book creates better insight and tempers the more romantic images of childhood in the suburbs. Groupwork With Suburbias Children describes life in the suburbs from diverse vantage points and evokes a clear feeling of what life is like for some of the children and their families living in these communities, yet this practical volume goes far beyond description, demonstrating the value and practice of groupwork with this population. Various prospects and possibilities for groupwork intervention are presented, and its benefits are demonstrated by perceptive anecdotal material. The breadth of principles and practices in the chapters provides a wealth of knowledge that can be universally applied across settings and disciplines. Although the focus is on groupwork, both family and community practice are integral parts of the text. Program development, sociological trends, racial and cultural themes, time-limited group approaches, and countertransference issues are interwoven into the fabric of this important book. Subjects of particular interest include groupwork as a response to alienation and identity loss as a consequence of the changing family; the African-American experience in the suburbs and prospects for groupwork intervention; a cultural understanding of the adaptation process for Latino youth; the groupworkers use of personal feelings and memories evoked during encounters with groups; the application of group treatment in integrating and universalizing the lonely experience; time-limited group approaches for special populations of troubled youth; a presentation of a structured fantasy approach to childrens groups; alliance formation with parents whose children are in group treatment; and how to integrate an adolescent diagnosed as schizophrenic into a higher functioning group. This insightful book is most pertinent to human service workers working with children and adolescents in the fields of social work, psychology, psychiatry, educational counseling, and recreation. It is also of interest to others who desire to broaden their knowledge in the area of the changing family in the suburbs and its impact on the children and adolescents who live there.