The Stress Of Adolescence |
|
|
|
|
||
|
Adolescence can be a highly stressful time for all the family, as anyone who has coped with teenage mood-changes will know all too well. To understand and sympathize with the special stresses and strains of adolescence, it is helpful to consider these in the context of the powerful changes, physical and emotional, which characterize this 'awkward' life stage.
Adolescents have to cope with all the body changes of puberty, which can be overwhelming, and at the same time with their changing attitudes towards the opposite sex; orientation in this respect can be a complicated and often painful process. They will also undergo deep changes in their attitudes to the family, which may range from point- lank refusal to go on the usual family annual holiday, to total rejection of parental authority and values as they learn to distance themselves from the family's protective environment. This is also a time when attitudes to school and peer groups may change quite drastically, as part of teenagers’ new awareness of themselves in relation to society and the law.
It can be especially difficult to help children cope with stress at this time because rejection of such help is itself part and parcel of the growing-up process. Endless patience and tact as well as a strong sense of humor are required; it may help to recall frequently that this period of experimentation with whole sets of new values is temporary, but a crucial transition period in the process of becoming a well-balanced human being.
It is sometimes worth bearing in mind that adolescents may prefer to talk over any specific or more general problems they may have with another relative or close family friend, or the parents of a school friend, rather than their own parents.
|
||