“Relax! The horror stories you have heard about adolescence are false.”

This is Dr. Laurence Steinberg’s reassuring message to parents in this newly revised edition of his classic book You and Your Adolescent, which Publishers Weekly says is “filled with solid advice for the parents of adolescents.” Among the new topics in this updated edition:

* An expanded definition of adolescence to age 25, recognizing that college graduates often remain dependent on their parents for an extended period, creating a new parent-child dynamic

* A discussion of social media that addresses whether parents of preteens and young teens should monitor use of these new communication tools

* What new research into the adolescent brain tells us about teenage behavior

As Dr. Steinberg writes, “Most books written for parents of teenagers were survival guides (many still are). Nowadays, adolescence is too long—15 years in some families—for mere survival. Knowledge, not fortitude, is what today’s parents need. That’s where this book comes in.”