I received The Stressed Years of Their Lives as an ARC from NetGalley. I requested the book because I have twins in college and I know how stressful college can be. This book provided some insight to help my kids negotiate thru college.

Very interested in this topic as the parent of two college aged kids. I thought the advice overall was good, but this book was just really, really long. I think it could have been edited down.

My Daughter is a sophomore in college. I wanted to read The Stressed Years of Their Lives to get an insight into the challenges our College-bound students could experience. Written by two child and adolescence mental health experts it is divided into two parts:
*Part One Of Stress and silence
*Part Two – Of Crisis and Recovery
Various topics discussed include; how to prepare for the emotional changes and expectations of college life to how to spot mental health challenges in your child. Anxiety and depression can be the tipping point for students as they have to face constant pressures. I see this happening with my child. I see her buried in homework when she should be out with her friends. She maintains honor roil and works part-time, but she is always worrying about what lies ahead. Just when I think she had settled into things, it’s now time to begin filling out an application for transfer. Another level of stress in itself. This book gave me great insight, and I will plan to refer to it as my Daughter continues her college journey

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced review copy in exchange for my honest opinion

A wonderful guide for parents of teenagers going on to college and how to best prepare them for this experience and what to look out for in terms of depression and possible mood disorders. Lots of real life stories with doable solutions. Highly recommend!

THE STRESSED YEARS OF THEIR LIVES


“The stressed years, it turns out, can also be the best years of both of your lives”.


“The Stressed Years of their Lives” written by two well-established experts on late adolescent psychiatry and family psychology, wants to guide us and show us the life-management skills that young people need to thrive during the turbulent years of college.
The basic premise of the book is that we, as parents, should not put so much emphasis on their good grades but also, and most importantly, on how capable they are to manage themselves and their emotions as they navigate life far away from us.
In the words of Eric Furda, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania: “We see lots of prospective students whose academic credentials are impeccable and whose extracurricular activities are impressive. What we look for are indicators that the applicant has taken charge of his or her life and has formulated a vision for how they see themselves in the college environment. It’s not enough to have a high GPA or great test scores. They need to be self-starters and self-managers.”
I found very interesting the chapter on the 8 key components of social and emotional maturity which are:


Conscientiousness (responsibility for the consequences of your actions)
Self-management (ability to take over the routine tasks of everyday life)
Interpersonal skills (making friends / deal with roommates / find suitable social activities)
Self-control (resisting temptations / setting limits / avoid overeating)
Grit (coping with frustrations, disappointment, failure)
Risk management (having fun without taking too many risks)
Self-acceptance (accept your faults, tolerate mistakes, deal with problems without feelings of guilt or shame)
Open mindset / Help-Seeking (readiness to ask for help when things aren’t going well)

The book is full of stories of young adults who faced mental health problems and concrete steps on how they overcame them. Also, what college resources are available to students and their parents. The authors put a lot of emphasis on making clear to our children not to align their self-worth with achievement and avoid any kind of "destructive perfectionism” that has horrible effects on their mental health.
An invaluable book for parents who are in the life stage of sending their children to college.

This was a good, informative read. There was a lot of grounded research and the scenarios were very helpful too,

THE STRESSED YEARS OF THEIR LIVES by B. Janet Hibbs and Anthony Rostain is subtitled "Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years." The authors, experts in the fields of family therapy and child psychiatry respectively, do an excellent job of outlining issues that students – and their families - may face. This helpful book is divided into two sections: one on stress and resilience and another on crisis and recovery.

The work is research based and includes case studies, almost 20 pages of notes, numerous internet resources and a helpful index. I particularly liked some of the summary charts (such as Seven Ways to Overhaul your Smartphone Use and Questions to ask a Therapist) which are interspersed throughout their discussion. Another excellent chart (on page 109) lists target area components (academics, time management career planning, social settings, etc.) that address executive functioning skills. The authors include suggestions for taking practical, concrete steps to help overcome mindset barriers to success, mentioning, for example, the acronym IMPROVE (Use Imagery to visualize a safe place. Find Meaning in the situation. Use Prayer and Relaxation. Take One thing at a time. Create a Vacation spot in your imagination. Encourage yourself through positive, calming self-talk).

Yes, the authors rely on many acronyms (e.g., SUD for Substance Use Disorder) which can make the reading more challenging, but exploring THE STRESSED YEARS OF THEIR LIVES is worth the effort with its excellent overview of the Teenage Brain, information about alcohol abuse, and entire chapters on anxiety and depression (with tips for parents and students), on crisis care and on recovery to relaunch. Our Advisor Chairs and Post High School Counselors, plus the parent community and many students will definitely be interested in this book. Kirkus notes "the sound advice" it offers and says, THE STRESSED YEARS OF THEIR LIVES "is the type of book every parent should read before discussions of college even begin."

Good starting Guide for parents who have teenagers, not just those who want to go to college. Some points were really interesting however I felt like most scenarios in the chapters were resolved really easily & quickly so may be setting parents up for thinking that all problems can be resolved that way.

It felt like a long read and may not be suitable for more chronic mental health sufferers.

The Stressed Years of Their Lives is written by two adolescent mental health experts . The book steps into many areas of stress that parents of college kids enter. It explains in detail step by step how to handle and approach these challenges. This book is practical and so very valuable. The book will open parents eyes to what can possibly be ahead for their college students before or during the college years. The adults will know how to deal with the challenges their college student will face and discuss the challenges in an open way. This book was given to me by the publisher and netgalley to review. I am not obligated to write a positive review. Thank you for allowing me to read and review this book. It is very well written. I will post my review on Goodreads, facebook, my blog, Amazon.

As both a professional counselor and a parent, I chose to read this book for advice and resources for myself and my clients. Drs. Hibbs and Rostain have done a great job of compiling helpful information in one place for those of us who need a point of reference to know what stress in normal and natural for college-age kids, and when we need to step in. Bravo and thank you!

Anyone who has been to college or who has a child in college can tell you those years can be stressful. But why does it seem so much stressful now than it did 30 years ago when I was in college? (30 years?? Yeah, I'm getting old. . . .) Psychiatrist Anthony Rostain and psychologist B. Janet Hibbs have first hand experience as counselors and parents observing and treating college kids. In The Stressed Years of Their Lives: Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years, they provide parents and educators with some tools they need to deal with their college kids.



Hibbs and Rostain write both as professional counselors and as parents. In their own families and among their college clients, they see the trends among students. Over the last few decades, college students are under stress like never before. They write, "We are now recognizing that our widely accepted education benchmarks--standardized tests, honors in high school, the increasing necessity of a degree from a name brand college--all intended to prepare children for adult success, are often toxic to emotional development." Getting into college is pressure-filled enough, but "the feeling that if you fail even once in college your entire future is over, that pushes students over the edge."



In this atmosphere of pressure, college counseling offices are busier than ever before. But it's more than academic pressure and social pressure that impacts many college students. Hibbs and Rostain explore mental illness and psychological issues that increasingly impact college students. Anxiety and depression often goes undiagnosed, or are dismissed, sometimes with tragic results. Thankfully, the stigma attached to these mental illnesses is disappearing, so hopefully college kids and others will be more likely to seek help.



The problem with The Stressed Years is that by the time most parents take time to seek out this book, it's probably too late. Unfortunately, most parents are not aware of the deep problems their students are having until they are deep into trouble. Hibbs and Rostain hope to give parents the tools and information they need to prepare their children for college and to recognize warning signs of anxiety, depression, and other issues. With lots of personal stories and practical steps, parents and their college kids can stave off the inevitable stress of college.





Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The book The Stressed Years of their Lives highlights many of the struggles that older teens are experiencing while also navigating the critical years of decision making for college and beyond. As a parent of a college aged teen, this book was helpful in amny ways. It highlighted the national problems that exist for the children (yes, they are still children) who are launching into the college years, and what struggles may be presented along the way. These struggles include the usual - time management, drugs and alcohol, study habits - but also anxiety, depression, adjustment delays, how to make a plan for success, crisis care, and adjusting to the possibility of a "boomerang" back home with the hope of a relaunch - and more.

The book is broken down into two parts - Part One: Of Stress and Resilience and Part Two: Of Crisis and Recovery.

I learned that most mental health disorders present themselves during the ages of 14-26 which is already the most tumultuous decade in a person's life. We read so many parenting books when the children are infants and toddlers, but when it comes to this age group of raising young adults, we need to immerse ourselves in more books that show us how to best accompany our college aged children along their journey to adulthood.

This book was enlightening and helpful and I will continue to use it as a reference for the years to come with the college aged child, as well as the siblings who will soon follow.

Gives information for not just the student but for the parent, family and the post-secondary institutions. There are stories to show points. More focused on US information, but can be related to other countries. It is straight forward and no real transition into the next topic.

The Stressed Year of Their Lives: Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive in their College Years by B. Janet Hibbs and Anthony Rostain was a book I read not as a parent, but an educator. As someone who still interfaces with students, I thought this would be something that I could still find beneficial. I liked how this book started with framing how to prepare for the college experience. Rather than waiting to be in the environment, it explained how to develop strategies now for success later. I also liked how they used a variance of teaching methods. There were case studies, statistics, and tips for how to approach issues. Throughout, they also normalized that these are realities of what might happen, and that's okay. Their focus was on how to help and address issues in a way that is helpful for all involved. The topic is a complex one, and you obviously can't cover every single aspect of all the things. However, this was a strong and quite comprehensive read regarding how mental health impacts the college experience. Thanks to NetGalley for the sneak peek on this April release that's a good one for parents and educators to check out.

This is a well written supportive book for both teens and parents. For teens and parents this book provides an understand that they are not alone in the way they feel. That being said, in my opinion, for this book to be real asset in correcting and changing teen depression, the over prescription of anti depressants and psychotherapy for so many young adults, this books better audience would be to those of younger children. If parents of 4 and 5 year old children read this book there would be still many formative years ahead where changes in life style and support could be implemented avoiding the pitfalls.

I am a grandparent so you may want to take that into consideration as you read my supporting review. I have often wondered "what on earth do these privileged, coddled, entitled young adults have to be so stressed out about?" I disagree with the author that times are more difficult and the stresses much greater for these kids than their parents, but I do agree that because of the society they are raised in (at least in the United States), they do not have the skills and coping mechanisms to assist them in stressful and adult decision making. It baffles me when I hear parents say that every team, win or lose, needs to be awarded a trophy so no one team feels like a loser. or gets disappointed. What the what?!

A good read. Much enlightening information. I will tell my daughter to read this, she has a four year old and a 15 year old. We shall see which one gets more of the benefit.

This book was received as an ARC from St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Anxiety is a topic that is in high demand at our library especially for those as parents with kids entering college. The studies and research found in this book is very insightful and potentially helpful advice and information for our patrons that are parents of students. As a former patient dealing with anxiety, it was easy to relate to some of the scenarios and research examined in this book so that made it more engaging and interesting. One way or another even if you are not a parent or a former patient suffering from anxiety, this book will potentially be beneficial.

We will consider adding this book to our Non-Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

As the mother of two high-school freshmen, and a licensed professional counselor, I was eager to gather as much information to prepare myself and my kids for the road ahead. I was not disappointed. Doctors Hibbs and Rostain validate our very normal parental angst as well as that of our children. I silently cheered for the support in publication that we are pushing our kids too far and too fast.....literally beyond what their biological development can keep up with. This leaves us with higher rates of depression and anxiety in high school as well as college age kids and all of the problems that this can lead to. This book took me by the hand and let me know that I, nor my children, are alone. It's now on the "recommended reading list" for every parent I work with!

Really good book and relevant as we just sent our son off to college. A must read for parents of college-ready kids!!

I’m the demographic for this book, middle class parent of high school senior. However, I would not recommend it to others. The first half contains a tremendous amount of parenting advice that is found in many other sources and should be explored well before this age. Also, if I had the conversations in the manner suggested, a teen would not hear past the first few words. The second half gives advice for parents when a child runs into difficulty in college. This could be pulled out and marketed directly as a reference in that situation. Overall, it reads like What to Expect When You Are Expecting a College Student. Too much information, too negatively focused.

If you or anyone you know has kids in college or getting ready to go to college they should read this book. College is so stressful for our kids and we should be worried about the mental health. Dr. Gibbs and Dr. Rostain have written a informative book that college age parents should read.