Empowering Adolescent Girls

In Empowering Adolescent Girls, LeCroy and Daley outline the issues, review the research, and offer specific strategies for social workers, psychologists, and educators to use in their work with adolescent girls. Mary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia awakened the social service and education communities to the need for gender-specific programs tailored to the unique issues girls face. LeCroy and Daley provide a systematic approach to addressing those issues. Their framework incorporates new information and research about adolescent girls and conceptualizes gender-specific developmental tasks as part of a Go Girls curriculum. These developmental tasks for girls in early adolescence include: achieving a competent gender role identification, establishing an acceptable body image, developing a positive self-image, developing satisfactory peer relationships, establishing independence through responsible decision making, understanding sexuality, learning to obtain help and access resources, and learning to plan for the future. There is a companion workbook for participants in the Go Girls program, or for therapists, parents, and educators working with girls.