Adolescents Behavior

Family Lifestyle and the behavior of members within the family have been shown to have a direct affect on a teenager's behavior everywhere. Any older person, especially a family member, can influence a child very easily because he always looks up to that family member. If a person in the family is involved in a criminal activity then the children can be turned on by this and become interested in doing the same thing. If the guardian or parent of a teenager does not punish him for doing something wrong, this can only lead to repetition of the bad behavior. Failure to stop a child from doing something wrong could lead the child to believe that his behavior is acceptable. Also, a child thinks that the people that are supposed to love him don't even care that he is doing something bad so he will continue to do it. Teenagers also commit acts of violence to get their parents' attention. If parents ignore what their teenagers are doing, then the teenagers will continue to do more negative things just to get their parents to notice them.

There are many different situations that can cause teenagers to do violent things. When a student has an argument with other students or a teacher that student may only know how to deal his anger by striking out. Often, teenagers do not know how to talk things out and instead, react violently. If a teenager doesn't like what someone has said to him, he might also let out his anger in violent ways. Sometimes, even if the other person has not done anything wrong to him, but rather to another person he can still get angry (school violence).

The neighborhood that a teenager lives in can also cause him to be violent. If a teen lives in a bad neighborhood, where violent acts are going on all the time and he will most probably be influenced by it. As a teenager sees more and more negative behavior happening daily in his surroundings, these behaviors will become acceptable and result in the teenager committing these same negative behaviors. Some of these negative behaviors include theft (lunch money, jewelry), vandalism, demands, threats, bullying, murder and rape.

Here's how adolescence behave if they were given freedom to do what they like.

"Once during the course of a conversation with the famous poet Samuel Coleridge a visitor remarked that he believed teenagers should be given a free reign to think and act and thus learn at a young age to make their own potential. At this point Coleridge interrupted the man and took him to see his garden. On seeing the garden the visitor took one look and exclaimed loudly saying that it was nothing but a yard full of weeds. Coleridge then told them that once it was full of roses but he had that year let the garden grow as it willed without his tending to it. He then told him that this was the result." [Chris Crutcher , United States Authors Series Young Adult Authors, edited by Patricia J. Campbell. New York Twayne, c1997.] Is this what we want for our teenagers too?

The answer is an obvious no and so to prevent this from happening to teenagers, they should be given freedom to do what they like but with certain limitations. Without the guidance of parents and teachers the teenagers generally is bound to be influenced by bad company due to peer pressure. This may further influence them to develop negative habits such as smoking, drinking and drug dependency.

"A teen who experiments with marijuana is not the same as one who is using cocaine or heroine. Yes, in a small percentage of cases marijuana use can lead to more serious drug abuse but this is the exception, not the norm."

[Dr. Tobin , Newsletter for Intellectual Freedom (May 1999) ]

Now, I often remember how a couple of years back, one of my friend's older brother (who had been given too much freedom) got involved in drugs just when he was on the threshold of his career. Now this boy is a hopeless case of drug addiction. Thus prevention in the beginning is better than trying to get rid of the habit later.

As teenagers are in the transitory stage that if they are given total freedom, they wont know how to cope with it. They may not set their priorities right and so bunk school or college eventually becoming school dropouts. They might become disrespectful to their parents and teachers and there might be a degradation in moral values.

Freedom is very important for individuals but the new generation today is wild and full of crazy ideas. Like, if teenagers are to be given too much pocket money they might just misuse it and wont realize its value. Having no aim in life ad due to lack of motivation teenagers may resort graffiti and vandalism and may even become juvenile delinquents and thus become a threat to society. "All over the world, many fatal, car accidents are caused due to rash and reckless teenager drivers. The reason is that, most teenagers try to act like adults but in reality are actually vulnerable." [ClubMom's AutoPro, Jayne O'Donnell, Washington, D.C]

All children need an opportunity to explore the world physically and emotionally without constant interference from their parents in order to become confident, responsible and independent adults. They may also be able to think for themselves and learn from their mistakes. Plus, if too many restrictions are laid down, the teenagers might rebel and become a misfits in society.

Here's how adolescence behave to over-protective parents.

Frequently you see parents taking protection to the extreme and as a result, their children are unprepared to face the world.

"The most recent example happened at my daughter's swimming lesson last week. The teacher took the young swimmers (my daughter and one other girl) into a deeper area of the pool. While they are certainly not water-safe yet, both girls could swim from one end of the pool to the other without assistance. The teacher took them to work on new strokes in the deeper area, so the girls would not rely on being able to touch the bottom. The mother of the other child quickly ran over to the teacher and told her that she doesn't allow her