Warning Signs ─ How to Protect Your Kids from Becoming Victims or Perpetrators of Violence and Aggression

The first comprehensive parenting guide to violence and aggression in youth,Warning Signs provides practical methods to reduce harm to and by children. Doctors Johnson and Berdahl present the most common risk factors and warning signs, along with practical parenting advice and strategies for raising strong, safe kids and protecting them from becoming either perpetrators or victims. They explain and illustrate how the “old” risk factors—child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, sexual assault, and poverty—have been compounded by new ones in the past 20 years, such as violent media, kids’ entitled attitudes, parents’ fear of intervention, and increases in childhood mental illness, disrupted families, substance use, bullying, access to weapons, and social media. The authors suggest it iseveryone’s job to act to reduce childhood violence and they provide sample language for tough conversations with kids and with other adults, such as approaching the parents of a child exhibiting risk factors and expressing concerns in a productive, supportive way. Full of specific, practical ideas, lists, charts, strategies, tips, and data, this book will appeal to any adult who is fed up with a world in which hyperviolent kids’ media, unsafe public spaces for our children, social media bullying, and youth suicide are all on the rise, and those who want to raise kind, compassionate children of their own.

Brian D. Johnson, PhD, is a licensed child psychologist who earned his PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Iowa. Now a professor at the University of Northern Colorado, Dr. Johnson has been teaching graduate students as well as seeing children and families in private sessions for 20 years. Laurie Berdahl, MD, is a board certified obstetrician-gynecologist who earned her medical degree from the University of Iowa, and completed her residency training at the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. She writes and speaks about parenting as well as adolescent and women’s health.Drs. Johnson and Berdahl have two children and together are the authors of7 Skills for Parenting Success.