5 Major Social And Emotional Problems In Adolescence
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It is inevitable that your cherubic baby grows into a terrific toddler to a delightful child and… oh wait! Is he now an adolescent? You are in for interesting times!
As your kids become adolescents, you will tend to spend lots of time worrying about their social and emotional development in adolescence. Let us assure you that it is normal at this age – both professionals and parents will agree that adolescent behaviors often veers on the risky side!
5 Major Social And Emotional Problems In Adolescence:
While the definition of acceptable behavior may vary from one culture to the other, we would all probably agree with one thing that we want adolescents to grow up as happy adults. The adolescents generally have to deal with five major emotional and social issues during their adolescent years.
1. Establishing Identity:
Most adolescents seem to be fraught with the important question, “who I am”. Those who lack secure identities, find it difficult to fit themselves in their immediate world (i.e., home, school etc.)
2. Establishing Autonomy:
The word autonomy must not be mistaken to be independent from others. Teens need not turn “rebels”. Autonomy means a self governed person. An autonomous teen can make their own decisions and become self sufficient.
[ Read: Teenage behavior ]
3. Find Difficult To Get Intimate:
Intimacy first develops within the same sex group and later expands to romantic relations. You are intimate with a person when you are caring, honest, open and trusting. Disturbed pre-teens have a tendency to equate intimacy with sex, even though they are not same.
4. Getting Comfortable With Their Sexuality:
Adolescent and pre-teen years is when young adults develop their sexuality. The way they are exposed to sexuality is determined by the way they develop a healthy sexual identity. According to medical reports half of the high school teens are active sexually.
5. Success And Competition:
Success and competitions are fostered by our society. Teens must be able to figure out what they want to achieve and what they are good at. This will help them strive for success.
[ Read: How To Motivate Teenager ]
What Are The Social Changes In Adolescence:
The social changes around tend to affect teens in different ways. Here are few social changes in adolescence:
- Dynamics With Friends And Family:
While spending time with friends and family members, teens imbibe social skills. They can easily identify behaviors that are acceptable and those that are not. However, they conform to the ideals of their parents when it comes to values, long-term decisions and values.
- Elusive Behavior:
When asked about the plans in the evening they may simply answer “nothing”. When asked with whom they will be, they may answer, “just friends”.
- Argumentative Behavior:
When teens start growing their own way, they have their own judgments and values. They may argue and start going their own way.
[ Read: Anger Management For Teenagers ]
What Parents Can Do?
Parents have a very important role to play in helping adolescents deal with the emotional and social problems in adolescence:
- You can participate in the social and group activities in school. This will help you know the friends she interacts with and also recognize her skills and efforts.
- Celebrate their success.
- You must not feel discouraged if they tend to change their minds frequently.
- You can establish certain rituals that mark the beginning of adulthood from the teen stage. You can have a mother-daughter lunch after your daughter gets her first period.
- If you are a father, you must regularly have father-child bonding sessions too! Have father-son lunch when your son starts shaving for the first time.
- You must be careful about what your teen in doing and the friends he/she is spending time with.
[ Read: How To Talk To Teenagers ]
This is only the start… but with patience and understanding, you can make this confusing time in your child’s life as easy and possible. You and your teen can share a wonderful relation when you start understanding your child. Be your teen’s best friend and guide him all through the way.
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