Swimming upstream: parenting girls for resilience in a toxic culture

305 Pages·2015·13.847 MB·English

by  Choate, Laura Hensley

Swimming Upstream

Swimming Upstream
Parenting Girls for Resilience in
a Toxic Culture
Laura H. Choate
1
1
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Dedicated to my daughter, Abby. May you continue
to stay strong and resilient!

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction  xi
PART ONE: Taking a Tour of Girl World
1. Appearance, Attention, Accomplishments: Toxic Cultural
Expectations for Today’s Girls  3
2. Girls in Transition: Who Am I?  35
3. Vulnerable Girls: Common Mental Health Problems  59
PART TWO: Parenting for Resilience
4. Resilience Dimension One: Parenting from Your Inner Core  99
5. Resilience Dimension Two: Developing a Positive Body Image  137
6. Resilience Dimension Three: Cultivating Healthy
Relationships  169
7. Resilience Dimension Four: Keeping Success in Perspective  205
8. Resilience Dimension Five: Charting My Life Course  235
Conclusions  265
Recommended Resources  269
Indexing for SUS 277

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, as always, I would like to recognize the continued love and support
of my husband Michael and my children Benjamin (age 12) and Abby
(age 10) as they encouraged me to complete this book. I also thank my
parents, Lloyd and Judy Hensley, who offered many prayers, meals, and
hours of child care during my long writing days over the past year. I am
also deeply grateful for the support of Petra Hendry and Jackie Bach, my
writing group members at Louisiana State University (LSU). They encour-
aged me to write the book in the first place, read early drafts of the manu-
script, and gave me invaluable feedback at every step along the way. In
addition, I could have never completed the book without the help of the
LSU Counselor Education graduate assistants, especially Shannon Smith,
Helen Wilson, Merritt Guercio, Alexandra Ambeau, and Erin Savoy.
They didn’t blink an eye when I asked them to conduct massive litera-
ture searches or handed them reference lists to create. I was continually
impressed with their excellent work and positive attitudes. Finally I would
like to thank Dana Bliss and his team at Oxford University Press for their
incredible support of this book. I so appreciate both their enthusiasm and
professionalism during the publication process. I am fortunate and grate-
ful to have had the opportunity to work with an editor who believed in
the book from the outset and has remained committed to its successful
publication.