The fourth generation

Written in simple language and with a coherent and consistent foundation, The Fourth Generation discusses fundamental issues for thinking about the mental and emotional health of Brazilian youth and adolescents.

Hugo Monteiro Ferreira is a professor at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco and coordinator of the Center for Human Care and the Transdisciplinary Study Group for Childhood and Youth (GETIJ/UFRPE). Specializing in the mental and emotional health of children, adolescents, and young adults, his book is the result of research with thousands of young Brazilians in several state capitals. It highlights a worrying picture of intense suffering among young people faced with the Brazilian reality, new forms of socialization, and growing pains in our society.

There is a group of emotionally fragile girls and boys, aged 11 to 18, who demonstrate serious problems interacting with their peers and with the adults they live with. They spend more than six hours a day visibly isolated, demonstrating profound psychological distress. I've called this group of boys and girls the "bedroom generation," since they all share a common characteristic: they spend a lot of time in this room, with almost no communication with the people who live in the same house, great difficulty expressing their feelings, and a very intense, very strong potential for violence against themselves or others.

A great portrait of contemporary youth in Brazil, The Bedroom Generation is essential reading for parents, teachers, caregivers, therapists, and everyone who in some way interacts with children and young people.

In the book's blurb, Carlos Henrique Aragão Neto, a psychologist with a master's degree in Anthropology and a PhD in Psychology and Culture, states: "After interviewing approximately 3,115 people between the ages of 11 and 18 from five Brazilian capitals through questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups, Hugo Monteiro Ferreira shows how the socio-emotional condition of children and adolescents is a pressing issue, deserving full attention. The fourth generation, the raw material of Hugo's studies and research, remains 'isolated' in their home confines, overusing technology, sleeping poorly, lacking regular sports, experiencing serious socialization and language impairments, and sometimes deprived of contact with nature. Topics such as self-destructive behavior, bullying, cyberbullying, and psychopathologies are all present in this book. How do the media affect these children and adolescents? What are governments doing about them? How do schools act? And what is truly most relevant to the lives of our children?"

"Hugo understands that children and adolescents teach us, even through suffering of the mind and body, that lack of love causes illness, generates suffering, and causes destruction; and they also alert us to the importance of compassionate, empathetic, understanding, and caring practices," says Humberto da Silva Miranda, PhD in Childhood History, in the book's preface.