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0 Introduction
extreme growth and changes in life. According to Arnett, 2000; Kagan & Coles, 1972;
Keniston, 1970 and Lipsitz, 1977, social scientists usually divide adolescence in to three
categories which are early adolescence (10 through 13 years of age), middle adolescence
(14 through 17) and late adolescence (18 through 22). Nevertheless, the age range may
differ from books, authors and theorists. Therefore we decided to take the average age of
12 to 21 years old.
There are many theories that attempt to explain why adolescence seems to be the
fundamental point in an individual’s life. Different theorists come up with their own view
With childhood days as memories and adulthood right in front, adolescence have
a short period of time to develop physically, mentally and most of all, psychosocially. The
various hardships faced by adolescence during these few years will help to discover their
own capabilities and as well as self-assets. Those who are unable to cope up will face
various problems in their lives. This is where the period of storm and stress begins to take
place.
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1.1 Definition
from the Latin word adolescere, which brings the meaning of “to grow in maturity” or
“to grow into adulthood” (Kimmel & Weiner, 1995; Kaczmarek & Riva, 1996). Lerner
emerging identity that spans the second decade, during which individual changes from
stress. Lazarus (1966); Lazarus & Folkman (1984); and Lazarus, Folkman & Kanner
there is something at stake for the individual and where the situation taxes or exceeds the
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2.0 Hall’s Interpretation of “Storm and Stress”
conflicts, and exaggerated peer- group conformity. This view was later taken up and
changes that alter the structure of identity or self-concept is needed if the changes are to
involvement of biological and hormonal changes are said to manipulate the adolescence
sense of well being and generate a considerable amount of mood swings, irritability and
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2.1 Biological Transition
The term puberty refers to the physical changes that occur in a growing girl or
boy during the transition from childhood to adulthood. According to Marshall, 1978,
body height and weight. Next is the development of primary sex characteristics that
includes further development of the gonad or sex glands. The gonads refer to the testes in
males and the ovaries in females. The third manifestation is the development of
secondary sex characteristics, which involve changes in the genitals and breasts, the
growth of pubic, facial and body hair, and the further development of the sex organs.
After that comes the changes in body composition, where it refers specifically to the
quantity and distribution of fat and muscles. Finally are the changes in the circulatory and
respiratory systems, which lead to an increase in strength and tolerance for exercise.
According to Brooks-Gunn, Graber & Paikoff (1994), puberty can affect the
following are the examples of the biological changes of puberty that can affect the
adolescent’s behavior. Firstly, the biological changes of puberty can have a direct effect
of sex drives and sexual activity among adolescent boys (Halpern, Udry & Suchindran,
1996).
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Besides that, the biological changes of puberty will cause the changes in
adolescent’s self image. As an example, “C” who undergoes puberty may seek more
privacy at home when he is dressing or bathing. “C” will tend to spend more time alone
On the other hand, the biological change of puberty also will transform the
adolescent’s appearance, which in turn may elicit changes in how others react to the
adolescent. An adolescent girl who has recently matured physically may find herself
suddenly receiving a lot of attention from older guys who previously had not paid her any
attention. The girl might be confused and nervous because she does not know how to
different sort of reactions. Due to the feelings of comparison among their peers on
physical differences, it will lead them in to becoming over aware of their level of
maturation (early or late maturation). Maturation are often treated and viewed differently
According to research on boy’s pubertal timing, early maturing boys feel better
about themselves and are more popular than late maturing peers (Graber, Lewinsohn,
Seeley & Brooks-Gunn, 1997; Jones & Bayley, 1950; Mussen & Jones, 1957, 1958).
Boys who are mare physically mature than their peers are reported to have more frequent
feelings of the positive aspect, attention, strength and being in love. On the other hand,
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Boys with delayed puberty indicates the boy’s feelings of competing especially in the
Girls on the other hand have more difficulties with emotion such as lowered self-
image and higher rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorder and panic attack. According
to Peterson, 1998, these difficulties seem to have great deal to do with girl’s feelings
about their weight, because early maturers are, almost by definition, heavier than their
late maturing peers. More over, early maturating girls may have heightened emotional
arousal, which in turn may make them feel more vulnerable to emotional problems.
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Jean Piaget believed that thought develops in a sequence of stages. The first two
thinking. It involves the period from infancy till 2 years old and from 2 till 6 years of age.
The children in the school- age stage which includes children aged 6 to 11 years old is
categorized as concrete-operational stage and the final stage in Piaget’s theory is the
In this stage, adolescents expand their thinking beyond the concrete facts
according to Piaget. Adolescents are able to think hypothetically and reason abstractly as
their thinking matures. Their sophisticated thinking is also shown in their ability to make
Stress results from a problem when adolescents are not able to process and
develop answers to certain questions. In their opinion, their cognitive level has already
developed fully and should be able to answer questions related to abstract and
hypothetical reasons. This is very normal in adolescents especially when they can not
understand or cope with their studies. All adolescents who are students will suffer from
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Kohlberg’s theory of moral development is broken into three levels where the first
stage is the preconventional level, which is dominant during most childhood; their moral
reasoning is the next stage, which is dominant during late childhood and early
adolescence. Where else the final stage in Kohlberg’s theory is the postconventional
moral reasoning, which is also called the principled moral reasoning. This stage emerges
and physical world. Children in this stage make decisions are not based on society’s
Conventional level refers to adolescents and adults who look to society norm for moral
guidance. One behaves properly in order to receive the approval of others as well as to
maintain in the respecting social order. The correctness of the society rules however, is
not questioned. Moral issues will focus more on how they will be judged by acting in a
certain way. According to most studies of moral reasoning, majority of adolescents and
adults think primarily in conventional terms where they evaluate reasoning through a set
The third stage is the postconventional level, which is relatively rare, social rules
and conventions are viewed as relative and subjective rather than a definitive. It is based
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on a personal moral code. In this stage what is right and wrong is based upon the
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Erikson views a person development through a series of eight psychosocial crises
over the life span. In Erikson’s model, each psychosocial crisis defines an age or stage of
the life span. Besides that, he also describes that each of the eight crises as a continuum
with positive and negative poles. For example, the crisis of infancy is labeled as “Trust
versus mistrust”, early childhood is labeled as “autonomy versus shame, doubt”, play age
We will focus on the fifth stage of adolescent, which is the “identity versus
identity diffusions”. The maturational and social forces coverage at adolescent causes
adolescent to reflect their role in society. Besides that, adults often view adolescent as the
future leaders, which will create a pressure to them. They face difficulties in achieving a
balanced and coherent sense of identity. This is because they do not have a clear view
about what they plan to do. For example, their friends about what courses they plan to
take often influence them. Therefore, adolescent need to have the mental or emotional
Apart from that, the key to resolve the crisis of identity versus identity diffusion
lies in the adolescent’s ability to interact with others. Through interaction, they will tend
to observe others reaction or behaviors towards certain issues in discussion and select
from among the many elements that could cohesively become a part of their adult
identity. Through the information collecting process, adolescent might be confused about
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the schemas they want to develop for themselves. This is because, during this period most
of them are confused about “What they want to do and how sure about the things they
choose to do”
People who the adolescents choose to interact with, often serves as the mirror that
reflects back to the adolescent “whom they are” and “who they ought to be”. Through
this environment, the responses of others will influence and shape adolescent’s
developing sense of identity. Through others reactions, adolescents will tends to compare
and think whether they are attractive or ugly, competent or clumsy or others. The
causing adolescence to feel stress and tense if there are some obvious deviations from the
people they observe. They will feel stressed up when the people they observe are the
dominant society. This is because the views they collect will make them feel confused
On the other hand, Erikson placed a great deal of weight on the role of adolescent
in society in shaping the sense of self. The adolescent’s identity is the result of mutual
recognition between the young people and the society. The social context that the
adolescent develops also determines to a large extent whether the youngster’s search for
self-definition will take the form of a full-blown crisis or whether it will be a more
manageable challenge.
modern society have created a need for psychosocial moratorium- a “time out” during
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adolescence from the excessive responsibilities and obligations that might restrict the
adolescent can experiment with different roles and identities in a context that permits and
personalities and ways of behaving. Having a time to experiment with the roles is an
moratorium, full and thorough explorations of the options and alternatives available to
the young people can not occur, and identity development might be impended.
one’s body,” a sense of knowing where one is going, and an inner assuredness of
recognition from those who count. It is a sense of sameness through time; a feeling of
continuity between the past and the future. Establishing a coherent sense of identity is a
lengthy process.
There are different approaches in which adolescent take to resolve different crisis
of identity versus identity diffusions. Problems in identity development can lead to stress
when an individual has not successfully resolved early crises or when an adolescent is in
an environment that does not provide the necessary period of moratorium. Three sorts of
problems that received special attentions from Erikson are labeled as identity diffusion,
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Identity diffusion or known as identity confusion is characterized by an
incoherent, disjointed, incomplete sense of self. It can vary in degree from a mild state of
not quite knowing why you are while in the midst of identity crisis to a more severe,
is the identity foreclosure where some young people bypass either willingly or
unwillingly the period of exploration and experiments that precedes the establishment of
prematurely commit themselves to roles, and settle upon certain identification as the final
identity. Thirdly is negative identity where adolescents tend to select the identities that
are obviously undesirable to their parents and their community. For example, the child of
devoutly religious family who insist he or she is confirms atheist. Because of the
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Harry Stack Sullivan was one of the first theorists to suggest that adolescence go
explains that the principal forces in life are due to social and not biological as said by
Freud. According to Sullivan (1953), positive peer relationships will result in healthy
development while negative peer relationship will lead to unhealthy development such as
Sullivan’s theory is categorized into three parts, which are preadolescence, early
adolescence and late adolescence. Preadolescence begins with an abrupt need to form an
intimate relationship with a same-sex playmate, and ends when they begin to experience
a yearning for genital sexuality. During this period of time, it only involves interpersonal
closeness but not genital contact. Best friends as what Sullivan refer to as “chums”, most
likely have the same characteristics and will share love, loyalty, intimacy and opportunity
for self-disclosure but will not encounter “lust dynamism”. This will help adolescence
gain insight into how others see the world, which will belittle their egocentric thoughts.
Genital maturation that occurs at the beginning of puberty will challenge the
adolescence previous intimate relationship with the same-sex playmate due to the
emerging need for sexual intimacy with opposite-sex partners. Three separate needs will
arise as a result of adolescence that had only experienced intimacy with someone of the
same sex. They will have a need for sexual satisfaction, a continued need for personal
intimacy and a need for personal security, which includes self-esteem, value as an
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individual and an absence of anxiety. Sullivan says that early adolescence leads to late
adolescence when they have found a way to satisfy the genital drive they have acquired.
satisfying their sexual needs and ends with the establishment of an intimate and sexual
relationship. This combination of lust and intimacy will result in love that will lead to a
From what we can see from Sullivan’s theory, the inability to form a healthy peer
interpersonal relationship, thus bringing about stress and more complicating problems
3.0 Stress
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There are a few types of stress which are mainly emotional stress, stress due to
illnesses, allergic stress, burnout stress, environmental and finally hormonal stress. All
these different kinds of stress involving adolescence can occur regardless of the time and
place.
conflicts that can cause changes in your personal life. Next is the stress due to illnesses of
either catching a cold, breaking an arm, a skin infection, a sore back or any other
diseases. When we are sick, we often feel uncomfortable with our body because of the
Allergic reactions are a part of your body's natural defense mechanism. When
confronted with a substance, which your body considers as toxic, your body will try to
get rid of it, attack it, or somehow neutralize it. If it is something that infects your nose,
you might get a runny, sneeze nose. If it infects your skin, you might get blistery skin. If
you inhale something, you might get wheezy lungs. If you eat something wrong, your
skin might break out in to itchy red hives all over your body. Allergy is a definite stress,
requiring the large changes in energy expenditure on the part of your body's defense
system to fight off what the body perceives as a dangerous attack by an outside toxin.
Another type of stress is the burnout stress where too much work is done in a
short period of time continuously and reduced the available time of rest. For example if
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you are working 16 hours a day, you will have limited time of rest. Sooner or later, your
energy system will be drained out and cause the body to fall behind in its repair work.
There will not be enough time or energy for the body to fix broken cells, or replace used
up brain neurotransmitters. Changes will occur in your body's internal environment. If the
situation continues, permanent damage may be done. The body's fight to stay healthy in
the face of the increased energy that you are expending is major stress.
Environmental stresses are the stress, which comes from the external world. A bad
situation or weather will also cause stress. Climates, which are too hot or cold, can be
stressful as well as high altitude. Each of these factors in the external world threatens to
Hormonal stresses are due to the various reasons in the hormonal changes. In
adolescence, puberty is the main cause of hormonal stress as the vast hormonal changes
of puberty are severe stressors. A person's body actually changes shape, sexual organs
begin to function, and new hormones are released in large quantities. Puberty, as we all
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Stress is a serious and most common problem faced by adolescents. According to
a research that had been done in the Minnesota High School, at least 39% of the students
suffer from mild stress. The following are the Minnesota study of common events that
There are at least six factors that cause stress in adolescents. Firstly is the family
stress. Adolescents will tend to have problems communicating with their parents as they
have to work through age old struggle. They face difficulty in identifying three major task
which is the need to belong, independent need and confusion about the need of taken care
of. They feel that, they have already grown up and need more freedom, as adolescent
tends to misinterpret their parent’s behaviors in protecting as controlling their life. The
misunderstanding that occurs will develop stress feelings in themselves. Besides that,
parents often have strong views and comparison about the lifestyle that they had when
they were teenagers with their child. This will lead to pressure as the old day’s lifestyle is
different from the current lifestyle of adolescents. A part from that, adolescents might
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argue with their parent’s conservative thinking. They will tend to act ageist of what the
Besides that, biological factors also contribute stress in adolescents due to the
physical changes in them. For example, a girl whom have rapidly grown by the age of
twelve to fourteen will tend develop excessively self-conscious. The rapid changes in
their body will lead them to assume that everyone will stare at them. (Pimples on their
face), the prolonged self-conscious will lead them to stress and this will lead to low self-
On the other hand, adolescents also face stress in schools. They are afraid of failing
in exams. They are too afraid of failing as their parents and relatives place high hopes in
their academic achievements. Besides that, some adolescents face problems in learning.
For example, when the message that is passes on by the teachers during class is well
received by their friends but not by him, he will feel stressed up as he will start to wonder
about his competency or ability to cope with their studies. Some of the students might
even feel that they are stupid. This kind of study environment will tend to discourage the
Apart from that, adolescents also face societal stress. They are confused about what
role they going to play in society as they are not belong to adult group. Adults often view
that adolescents are big enough to handle the “huge” problems. This will in turn cause
confusion and lead them to think that, they can inherent all society’s “huge” problems
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like wars, pollutions and others. The confusion they have will increase the stress levels in
themselves and sometimes, due to this reason, they will tend to act like adults when they
are not.
Adolescents also tend to face difficulties in their social activity. For example, if
the personality of the “A” adolescents is very passive, he will tend to have stress because
he does not know how to communicate effectively with his friends. If “A” was rejected
by his friends or does not achieve certain degree of acceptance at the very first time, this
will make him feel isolated, low self-esteem and will discourage him from meeting with
others. Some of them might act in a way they are not, for example smoking or acting cool
in taking drugs or alcohols in order to get the acceptance of their peer group. The stress
they have in social activity will therefore lead them to act abnormally.
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There are several symptoms that you may notice when you are experiencing
stress. These symptoms are categorized in to four groups such as feelings, thoughts,
behavior, and physiology. For feelings you might feel anxious, scared, irritable and
moody. These feelings may change rapidly or have all the feelings at the same time.
The thoughts that you may experience when you are in stress mode are such as
having low self-esteem; you do feel not like socializing with others and lose confidence
in yourself. The fear of failure will inhibit you from giving another try on anything.
Inability to concentrate makes you not know what to do and where to begin. Being easily
embarrassed, worrying about the future, preoccupation with thoughts and task, and
When facing with stress, you might have these types of behavior; crying for no
apparent reason, acting impulsively, startling easily, laughing in a high pitch and nervous
tone of voice, grinding your teeth, increased frequency of smoking, increasing use of
drugs and alcohol, being accident prone, losing your appetite or overeating. Such
behavior will cause you to act in different ways that you normally would.
There also some physiological changes that occur when you are facing stress.
Those symptoms are perspiration or sweaty hands, increased heart beat, trembling,
nervous ticks, dryness of throat and mouth, tiring easily, urinating frequently, sleeping
problems (for example insomnia), diarrhea or indigestion, headaches, pain in the neck or
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lower back, and loss of appetite or overeating. These physiological changes will affect
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Stress is associated with so many physical and psychological problems. Sometime
stressors are often outside of our direct control because you cannot prevent the death of a
valued friend from accident or illness. But techniques are available for coping with
stressors when they are present. We use coping strategies to manage conditions of threat
that tax our resources. Effective coping techniques include relaxation training, the use of
The stress response is incompatible with relaxation. Relaxation training can help
lower components of the stress response, such as blood pressure and heart rate. In
groups in the body, note whether they seem tense, and then relax those specific group.
For example, you might begin with the muscle groups around the neck, then slowly
moving to the shoulders, and so on, first tensing and than relaxing each group. By this
way you learn to pay attention to how muscles in your body feel when tense or relaxed.
physiological feedback that people are given about the effectiveness of their relaxation
efforts.
Social support is the resources received from other people who can help you cope
effectively with stress. Social support is a form of comfort, caring, or helps by having a
good friend or loved to lean on during a time of stress. If a person has social support with
them, he or she will not have irrational thoughts such as suicide. Example, if a person has
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very high social support from his or her friends, family or loved ones, he or she will not
have the thought of suicide. This is because friends and family help us maintain a healthy
lifestyle, boost confidence, or simply by providing a venue for us to open up and express
our feelings.
Stress depends on how you interpret the threatening or demanding situation, it can
often be managed effectively through cognitive reappraisal. Actually, there are many
instances of stress, which are caused by the little things, the daily hassles of life like
getting stuck in traffic, or in the wrong line at the supermarket, which makes us feel
stressed. In fact, it is not the delay that is creating the stress but the things we tell
ourselves about the delay that causes the problem. By identifying the kinds of situations
that creates stress, as well as the negative thoughts of those situations induce; you
become better prepared to reinterpret those situations and thoughts in a more adaptive
manner.
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Stress can be dangerous if it is prolonged. According to Taylor, stressful events
will reduce the body’s natural defenses against disease. More surprisingly, stress can lead
to life changes either good or bad. A person who is able to cope with a moderate level of
stress will encourage the person to perform better. But, if looked at the negative side of
Chronic or repeated stress can damage physical health, as well as upset emotional
bodily damaged or damaging changes in bodily functioning. For example, the most
and asthma), eczema (skin rash), hives, migraine headaches, rheumatoid arthritis,
hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart disease. Besides that some muscles aches,
Apart from that, stress also can affect our body’s immune system, which
mobilizes defenses (such as white blood cells) against invading microbes and other
disease agents. The immune system is regulated, in part by the brain. Because of this link,
according to Miller, Conen and Ratchey, 2002, stress and upsetting emotions can affect
the immune system in ways that increase susceptibility to disease. For examples, studies
show that the immune system weakens in students during major examination period.
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According to (Binodiand Zannino, 1997), lowered immunity explains why the “double
whammy” of getting sick when you are trying to cope with prolonged or severe stress is
so common. Stress can cause the body to release substances that is high in inflammation
as the body’s self-protective responds to threats, but it can also prolog infections and
delay healing.
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4.0.1 Substance Use and Abuse
Mixed messages are being sent to adolescence about drugs and alcohol.
Television programs urge us to avoid and say no to drugs and alcohol but the televised
football games and adult comedies state the opposite. Research shows that cigarette
marketing does in fact lead adolescence to become smokers, and that they are especially
drawn to advertisements aimed at them (Arnett, 2001; Biener & Siegel, 2000).
than at a later age (Fergusson, Lynskey & Horwood, 1996). This is because younger
adolescents may lack the psychological maturity of judgment to use drugs in moderation
and will be faced with unique developmental changes (Baumrind &Moselle, 1985;
Hingson, Heeren, Jamnka & Howland, 2000). A heavy drug use may hurry adolescence
through the psychosocial tasks of adolescence at too fast a pace thus interfering with the
Studies have shown that adolescents, who have not experimented with alcohol or
marijuana by the age of twenties, will be unlikely to ever use any other drugs (Chen &
Kandel, 1996; Kandel & Logan, 1984). Alcohol and marijuana are considered gateway
drugs because it forms a gate through which individuals pass before trying harder drugs.
Six groups of users can be identified which are the nonusers, alcohol
experimenters, low escalators, early starters, late starters and finally high escalators.
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Nonusers rarely experimented with substance during any period of adolescence while
alcohol experimenters are those who first tried alcohol early in adolescence and continue
to drink occasionally but do not try other drugs. If they began using substances early in
adolescence and increase their use slowly over time, they are called low escalators. Early
starters show very high use of substance in their adolescence that develops to frequent
use. Late starters on the other hand used substances infrequently during adolescence but
increased their use rapidly. Lastly, high escalators showed moderate use in adolescence
Factors that causes adolescents to be drug users can be summarized in to four sets
of risk factors which is psychological, familial, social and contextual (Hawkins, Catalano,
& Miller, 1992; Newcomb and Felix-Ortiz, 1992; Ritchey, Reid & Hasse, 2001; Petraitis,
and inattentiveness are more likely to result in drug abuse (Chassin et al., 2004; Scheer &
Unger, 1998; Tapert, Baratta, Abrantes & Brown, 2002; Wills, Sandy, Yaeger & Shinar,
2001). In the familial context, distant, hostile or conflicted family relationship will also
drive them to substance abuse. As for socially factors, it involves the influence from
peers. Contextual issues are the availability of drugs, the degree of law enforcement and
many others.
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Adolescence is a time of emotional gloomy introspection, great drama and
individuals may also fail to live up to their potential, doing poorly in school and staying
Depression often occurs when the adolescents feel helpless to control the
situation. The breaking up of a relationship or a poor evaluation in class can lead to low
spirits. Sometimes sadness comes on for no apparent reason. The lack of social support
and the absence of avenues for fulfillment also predispose some to the dangers of
depression.
Recent studies have shown that greater than 20% of adolescents in the general
clinics suffer from depression. The suicide rate for adolescents has increased more than
200% over the last decade. Adolescent suicide is now responsible for more deaths in
this age group is greatly under diagnosed, leading to serious difficulties in school, work
Each year in the United States, approximately five thousand individuals between
the ages of 15 and 24 take their own lives. A major cause of suicide is mental illness, very
commonly depression. Most of those who die could have been helped. An individual
considering suicide frequently confides in a friend, who may be able to convince the
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person to seek treatment. When the risk is high, concerned friends and relatives should
Suicidal acts are generally associated with a significant acute crisis in the
teenager's life and may also involve depression. The loss of a boyfriend or girlfriend, a
may be precipitant to a suicidal act. Suicidal ideation and acts are more common among
children who have already experienced stress in their lives. There some common signs
for a person to revert to suicide such as threats of suicide, preoccupation with death,
change in eating or sleeping habits, loss of interest in activities that were once important,
marked changes in personality, persistent feelings of gloom and helplessness and giving
adolescent’s interpretation of life events. Suicidal individuals often try to convince others
that the "worst" thing would be to let anyone know of their plight. Friends put in this
position should consider the possible consequences of failing to obtain professional help.
It is a sign of caring to bring a person to treatment that may alleviate suffering and save a
life.
5.0.2 Analysis
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For our research purposes, we were very fortunate to have recruited 20
participants to help us with our interview. Overall, we are able to get 15 male participants
We decided to find out about the adolescent’s family financial status as well as
development in one way or another. Our emphasis on the family constellation also shows
its importance in the development of adolescence. The child’s position in the family can
and will cause stress if not properly handled. Rivalry between siblings, comparison made
by parents on adolescents can lead to burnout. Besides that, the number of siblings will
also effect the child’s growth as it determines how much attention they got from their
We relate the storm and stress of adolescents with the family income because it
will indirectly influence the adolescent’s emotions. As we are living in a world where
money comes as a very important aspect, the family income has become one of the
factors that can lead to stress not only to adults but adolescents as well. Refer to appendix
Adolescents who are working part time are partly due to the financial instability
of the family. This will in turn lead the adolescence to greater responsibility than they are
supposed to cope with. It will pressure the adolescent to meet with the society standards
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thus refuse them from their actual life and finally stress seeps in. (Refer to appendix –
figure 1.4)
Next, we found out whether are the adolescents nowadays satisfied with their
lives. From the information we got, (refer to appendix – figure 1.5) it seems that there are
still adolescents who are unsatisfied with their lives although new technologies have
eased our lifestyle. Then again, the society is evolving and the need for comfort, love and
There are a few main problems which are faced by adolescents during their
growing up days. We have divided the tribulations in to four major groups which are
financial, academic, self performance and relationship problems. Under the relationship
group are family, peers as well as love relationships. (Refer to appendix – figure 1.6)
The main problem which is clearly shown from our interviews is the trouble with
their academic performances. Adolescents nowadays are very aware of the importance of
education, therefore the pressure to perform well in their studies have become sort of a
burden to them. From the feedback we got, some adolescents say that their lives are too
packed with studies that they are not able to enjoy life. This building up of burden in
From our interviews, we found out that more than 50% of adolescents are
currently experiencing stress due to their daily lives. Refer to appendix – figure 1.7 to
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view the statistics of our respondents. Out of the 20 participants, 14 of them are reported
to having stress. To further specify the level of stress faced by adolescents, we asked the
respondents to rate their level of stress from 1 to 10, where 10 being the highest. (Refer to
Adolescents are not really sure whether all the stress and tension are benefiting or
likewise. Some have the opinion that all the pressure will lead them to destruction and
emotional problems where else others think that stress is useful to motivate them.
Appendix – figure 1.9 shows the rough figure of whether adolescents think of stress as
beneficial or not.
Next up is the reactions we got from our respondents on how stress affects their
main groups which are physical, emotional and mental effects. The physical effects
include aggressive behaviors plus with isolation of self while emotional consequences
involve mood swings, emotional instability and impulsive anger. Motivation and mental
approaches. Refer to appendix – figure 1.11 to view a chart based on our findings. Most
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reside to sports whereas the rest either socialize with others, smoke or drink, or sleep
from stress and other problems in life. Storm and stress in not something that can be
avoided but rather an issue that needs to be coped with. This situation needs to be
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6.0 Conclusion
To conclude, there are many theories of human development that tries to explain
the occurrence of certain events that happen in life. This does not exclude adolescence’s
period of life. Numerous theorists such as Erikson, Piaget and Kohlberg have explained
how adolescents develop according to their own theory. Some may be true but on the
These tribulations often include conflicts with parents, mood disruptions and risky
behaviors which are called the storm and stress of adolescence. Within this period of
time, adolescence tends to act more rebelliously and have a certain tension in life.
All these problems will later on cause the stress levels to be high which will then
trigger a string of all other problems such as substance use and abuse, antisocial behavior
and depression. The tendency of teenage suicide is also high if the adolescent cannot cope