Troubled Adolescence
Troubled Adolescence
Adolescents today are growing up in a totally different setting than the generation before them. New problems and choices are entering these young, and influential kids lives. There are a lot of different factors in children's lives that weren't as common one generation ago. Adolescents today are filled with stress due to everyday problems in their lives.
There are many factors that are playing into all of this stress put on children. One of these factors is divorce, one-parent families. Since 1960, the divorce rate has almost doubled. Almost one half of all marriages end in divorce. With this, about one quarter of all births are to unmarried women. Adolescents growing up in a single parent family are more likely to try health compromising activities, like drugs, alcohol, unprotected sex, and smoking. Also, with the separation of their parents comes a higher rate of mental illness, and dropping out of school. Worst of all is the increased suicide rate. (Losing Generations 43-49)
Children also have a lot of stress put on them at school. This is a place where children are supposed to have fun and learn basic fundamentals of life. Instead they are getting picked on and even beat up. They go through school scared, and this takes their minds off of schoolwork. Then when their grades fail, their parents punish them. The children need support and a sense of well-being. If all they know is getting made fun of and picked on, there is going to be hatred and aggression built up.
While all these angers are building up inside of them, it lets their defenses down a little. It makes them vulnerable to peer pressure. They tend to be more daring and experimental, and they fail to think about the physical attributes that come into play. Like having unprotected sex, doing drugs, smoking, and drinking alcohol. These could have a major affect on their physical, and even mental state of being. The really sad thing is that the kids don't even understand what they are doing to themselves. They are caught up in a world of separation, and aggression.
Adolescents with all of these problems and aggression have been known to bring on some of the most violent crimes in the country. This is a...