New Releases by Ellen Galinsky

Blending cutting-edge research with engaging storytelling, The Breakthrough Years offers readers a paradigm-shifting comprehensive understanding of adolescence. “Just wait until they’re a teenager!” Many parents of newborns have heard this warning about the stressful phase that’s to come. But what if it doesn’t have to be that way? Child development expert Ellen Galinsky challenges widely held assumptions about adolescents and offers new ways for parents and others to better understand and interact with them in a way that helps them thrive. By combining the latest research on cognitive neuroscience with an unprecedented and extensive set of studies of young people nine through nineteen and their families, Galinsky reveals, among other things, that adolescents don’t want to separate completely from their parents but seek a different type of relationship; that they want to be helpers rather than be helped; and that social media can become a positive influence for teens. Galinsky’s Shared Solutions framework and Possibilities Mindset show you how to turn daily conflicts into opportunities for problem-solving where both teens and parents feel listened to and respected; how to encourage positive risk-taking in your child like standing up for themselves, making new friends, and helping their communities; and how to promote five essential executive function–based skills that can help them succeed now and in the future. The Breakthrough Years recasts adolescence as a time of possibility for teens and adults, offering breakthrough opportunities for connection.

The book contains the results of the author’s in-depth interviews and representative surveys of how children view their parents working. The author presents the first comprehensive study ever conducted that asks children and parents their views on work and family life. This book was five years in the making. The author covers all the typical areas of thinking today about parents whom work and their children. The result is stereotypes are destroyed and politically correct ideas challenged. The reader will find practical advice for a better family life and a new set of operating principles to help the parent be more in command and control at work and at home.

“Ellen Galinsky—already the go-to person on interaction between families and the workplace—draws on fresh research to explain what we ought to be teaching our children. This is must-reading for everyone who cares about America’s fate in the 21st century.” — Judy Woodruff, Senior Correspondent for The PBS NewsHour Families and Work Institute President Ellen Galinsky (Ask the Children, The Six Stages of Parenthood) presents a book of groundbreaking advice based on the latest research on child development.

Recent expansion of media coverage of early childhood issues and increased funding for early childhood programs are due in part to deliberate efforts to increase public engagement in efforts to improve the lives of young children and their families. This brief describes recent early childhood public engagement efforts and outlines lessons for public engagement leaders. The report is presented in three parts. Part 1 of the report defines public engagement and describes how national, state, and local leaders have engaged the public in early childhood issues. Part 2 outlines seven key lessons that informed these efforts. These lessons are: (1) see a campaign in stages; (2) know how people see the issue before beginning; (3) target people who have the power to elicit change; (4) delineate costs of not taking action as well as the benefits of change; (5) create different messages for different groups; (6) timing is crucial; and (7) unexpected messengers make a difference. Part 3 offers concrete tips for how a wide variety of community entities can take action to promote the healthy development of the nation''s youngest children. Two appendices contain Starting Points Projects contact information and a media resource list. (Contains 16 references.) (KB)

This study surveyed a representative sample of 1,057 companies with 100 or more employees to assess how U.S. companies are responding to the work-life needs of the nation''s changing workforce. Specifically, the study sought to identify the extent to which companies provide benefits, programs, and policies and create supportive workplace environments addressing employees'' work-life needs, and the characteristics of companies most likely to provide this assistance and support. The findings indicated that companies typically allowed workers to leave work to attend school/child care functions; employees were also allowed to return to work gradually following childbirth/adoption. Only 10 percent of company representatives thought that using flexible time and leave policies jeopardized employees'' advancement opportunities. Companies were more likely to provide low-cost child care options such as dependent care assistance plans than high-cost options such as on-site child care. More than half the companies provided Employee Assistance Programs addressing work-life issues. Twelve percent of companies offered some type of program for teenage children of employees. Companies were most likely to train supervisors in managing diversity and least likely to have career counseling programs for women. Almost all companies offered health insurance for full-time employees, but only 33 percent offered benefits to part-time employees. Companies most likely to provide work-life program and supportive work environments were involved in finance/insurance/real estate services, were larger, had a larger proportion of top executive positions filled by women or minorities, a larger percentage of women or part-time employees, a lower percentage of hourly or union employees, a larger number of company sites, and reported difficulty in filling positions. (KB)

The 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) surveyed 2,877 employees regarding the relationship between workers'' lives on and off the job and changes in the nature of work. The report also provides a historical perspective by comparing data from 1997 with data from the 1992 NSCW and from the U.S. Department of Labor''s 1977 Quality of Employment Survey. Guiding the study was a model hypothesizing causal pathways connecting characteristics of employees'' jobs and workplaces, characteristics of their lives off the job, and aspects of personal well-being. Among the key findings are the following. Over the past 20 years, the U.S. workforce has become more balanced with respect to gender, older on average, better educated, more racially and ethnically diverse, and more concentrated in managerial and professional occupations. Work has become substantially more demanding. The number of employees with employed spouses/partners has increased. Employed married women spend more time on chores than employed married men. Over half of employed parents with employed spouses rely on relative child care. Nearly 25 percent of employees have experienced stress often in the past 3 months. Over 60 percent say that their chances for job advancement are poor. The majority of employees have access to traditional benefits, with a minority having access to dependent-care benefits. Employee satisfaction, commitment, performance, and retention is associated with high-quality jobs in supportive workplaces. Emerging issues include employers'' concerns about Generation X workers, the impact of workers'' elder care responsibilities on the labor force, and the potential for work-family backlash. Based on findings, it was concluded that creating a highly supportive workplace is a challenge that is worth the effort. (Author/KB)

In 1994, the state of Georgia adopted a model of education reform that defined new education goals and formalized a structure that involved state policymakers and local communities. The system operates on the premise that regular assessments of progress should drive innovations or strategies for achieving results. This guide presents an introduction to using benchmarks and indicators to measure educational progress and results in young children, based on the knowledge and experience of national experts and states and communities that are currently developing and using them. The sections of the guide address: (1) definitions of the benchmarks, indicators, and other results-based evaluation concepts and terms; (2) why states and communities are interested in measuring progress and results; (3) the importance of measuring progress and results; (4) principles for assessing progress and results; (5) advice on developing and using benchmarks and indicators; and (6) additional resources for more information about measuring progress and results. (JPB)

"... A study of 820 mothers and 225 of their children in the homes of 226 providers [of family day care] in three communities: San Fernando/Los Angeles, California; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; and Charlotte, North Carolina"--Executive summary, p. 1.

Provides information on the programs and policies selected nonfederal employers have used to help their employees balance work and family responsibilities. Also describes how these employers decided they needed work/family programs, implemented them, and evaluated them. Finally, the report compares federal and nonfederal efforts in this area, noting certain barriers to federal work/family programs. Charts and tables.

Based on a telephone and mail survey of 188 companies conducted between 1988 and 1990, describes 76 work-family programmes introduced by companies and rates the 188 companies according to a "Family-Friendly Index".

This guide to preschool-age children examines some of the problems faced by parents and offers a range of solutions.

Few parents will be able to resist tracing their own "passages" with the help of this book, and all those who do will find new insight and enjoyment at each stage.