Influence on Adolescent Behaviour

What is Adolescent Behaviour?

First, who is an adolescent?
An Adolescent is an young individual going through the stages of puberty and adulthood.

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Adolescent Behaviour are the thoughts, the actions, feelings these young individual between the ages of 10 to 19 naturally exhibit.

This particular stage is very delicate and how you handle it most times determine how the child is going to turn out to be as an adult.

It's important to note that this stage is full of rollercoaster emotions. It's a period teenagers experiment will almost everything they come across. From fashion, music, good, religion, friends, etc. Changes will take place, choices will be made, growth will occur.

You'll probably not understand half the things they say not with their Gen Z and Gen Alpha slangs that's mostly abbreviated like they expect you to understand them. You will probably hear a lot these phrases

• "I'm fine"
• "Mom, I don't like this"
• "You don't just get me"
• "Please, leave me alone"

As a parent, you will gamble between going through the soft love or the tough love parenting route.

They will either rebel against some of your decisions or go according to your plan.

Sometimes, you will make hard decisions too as you go through the tough choice and clashes of their need for independence with your need to give them full parental guidance. It could lead to peace or serious disaster.

In all of these, it's all about having the perfect amount of patience and humour to deal with adolescent behaviors.

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Explain at least 3 factors influencing adolescent behaviour.

• Peer Pressure: Adolescent is a period everyone is trying to figure out who exactly they are, having the urge to fit into the circle they find themselves, which sometimes makes them be somebody they're not. And unless, it's constantly checked, it becomes uncontrollable.

• Family Environment: It also plays a huge role on adolescents. Your environment says a lot about you and sometimes, guide the next decision you take outside the home. You are chaotic or calm sometimes depend on the environment that trains you.

• Social Media: You can't mention adolescent behavior without social media. It has 80% impact of how a child acts. People are easily Influenced by what they see and hear.
  They see dressings presumed to be the lastest fashion and what dress like that.

The hear words being said, and before you know it, you are hearing your child saying things you know as a parent you didn't teach but gotten from social media.

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How does social media and family influence adolescent self-esteem and perception of others?

As I said above, social media palys a huge role in how adolescent dress and talk. Do they do it because it's fun, they don't usually know. They dance, prank each all to chase likes and comments🤷

All they know is that it sounds and looks good, so why not?

Family is the first place an adolescent has his first education. They look at how their parents treat themselves and their children. They observe the words being said and go outside to replicate these things they've observed.

A positive home limits the impact social media has on their child and act as a buffer between what they learn online and what they see offline teaching them more important values than chasing likes.

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Do you think their mental health is affected by peer pressure or social media?

Yes, an adult is affected by social media talk more about an adolescent.

At the stage they are, they are still trying to discover who they are, what they like or don't, and usually these things are influenced by social media.

When they feel like if they don't fit into what society presume as better, it could lead to social anxiety and low self-esteem.

Social media makes it seem like you must be perfect at this and that while it's not in real life.

It's left to us as parents, teachers and older siblings to talk to them, teach them the right thing outside social media and help them prioritize self-care and wellness.

I invite @peachyladiva, @jilljie, and @etiluv to take part in this contest.