SOCIAL PROBLEMS AMONG TEENAGERS

A social problem is a condition that at least some people in a community view as

being undesirable. Everyone would agree about some social problems, such as murders
and theft. Other social problems may be viewed as such by certain groups of people.
Teenagers who play loud music in a public park obviously do not view it as a problem,
but some other people may consider it as an undesirable condition. Some nonsmokers
view smoking as an undesirable social condition that should be banned or restricted in
public buildings. According to Medical Webends.com on medical terminology, social
problems is Situation affecting a significant number of people, that are believe to be
sources of difficulty or threaten the stability of the community and that require programs
amelioration. From the definition, we can say that social problems actually give bad
effects not only to individual, but a large number of peoples. Besides that, the act of
social problems can give threaten and need to do something to make a recovery or to
make it better.
Nowadays, social problems among teenagers are at the level of concern and
become more serious year by year. We can hear or read about social problems or even
crime which done by a teenagers in very young age through news in television or
newspaper. During these years adolescents are faced with difficult tasks of discovering
their self identity, clarifying their sexual roles, assenting independent, learning to cope
with authority and searching for goals that would give their lives meaning. At this stage,
parents play an important role to guide their children and avoid them from involved in
crime or serious problems. Various cases of crime also include Juvenile cases. In 1995,
1895 cases involving teenagers in various kind of crime such as theft, housebreaking,
rape, robberies, murders and baby dumping.

Major problems among teenagers are smoking, alcohol and drug use. When
teenagers start smoking, a few of them might not end with smoking only. They are using
and abusing drugs such as marijuana, ecstasy, heroin and morphine. Adolescent involved
with alcohol and drugs in many ways. Unfortunately, they do not see the link between
their action today and the consequences in the future. Using alcohol and tobacco at a

young age increase the risk of using other drugs later. Some teens will try and stop, some
will continue to use drugs seldom without serious problems but others will become
addicted to it and will use more dangerous drugs which can harm themselves. There are
few reasons why teenagers involved in drugs, smoking and alcohol. Some of them will
say that they took alcohol, drugs and tobacco because they want to feel grown up which
they will make their own decisions and also be able to do what they want to. The most
important and natural part of growing up is to fit in and belong to a group. It is natural
that teenagers want others to accept and like them. Sometimes the group they want to join
is using the illegal stuffs and they may be attracting to use it too just to fit in the group.
Another serious problem among teenagers today is baby dumping. Baby dumping
is a social crisis and has a chronic increase as many cases are occurring in Malaysian
society. The baby dumping refers to discarding or leaving alone a child younger than 12
months of age for an extended period of time in a public or private setting with the intent
to dispose of the child. Based on Bukit Aman Police Headquarters statistic found a total
of 580 babies were found dumped between year 2000 to 2006 and the number increase
every year. Usually, teenagers always seen to be involved in this situation. For example, a
teenage girl give birth in a motel room and leave the child to be found by other people or
more worse throw the baby into the garbage bin. They viewed the baby as a problem to
be thrown away rather than gifts to be appreciate. The causes of baby dumping are
uncontrolled relationship between boys and girls, lack of parents supervision and
prostitution.
Illegal racing is also a serious problem which occurs among teenagers. Illegal
racing means riding on a motorcycle or driving by doing dangerous style and action with
over speed limit and racing with each other in a group without a permit from the
government. This activity will cause a very serious danger to themselves and other road
users. They are riding and driving a modified motorcycle or car with over speed limit and
doing many dangerous actions like supermans style, stand on the motorcycles seat
while riding and drive carelessly. They race with each other just to get the prize which
usually some amount of money, girls, to show off and also to get praises from their
friends on their victory and bravery. Their behavior can cause a serious accident and also

death. But most of them did not aware of all these consequences. They are only looking
for excitement and self-satisfaction.
The three problems mentioned above are the major among others. There are more
other social problems which involved teenagers. There are few questions we can ask
ourselves. What are the causes? Why teenagers get involved in such unhealthy activities?
Who should be blamed on the problems? How to prevent the problems from ruining the
teenagers?
In the young age, the level of curiosity in a teenagers life is very high. Whatever
they hear, see, read and learn about, they will always ask what, why and how. This
feeling will encourage them to try a new thing without bothering the effect in their lives.
When they see an adult smoking, taking alcohol and drugs, they wonder the taste and the
feeling. At this stage, adult especially parents should guide their children and tell them
about do and dont, right and wrong. Teenagers need a clear and transparent explanation
why they have to and do not have to do something. Give them the right information
without hiding any fact, so that they will understand well the reasons. Never lie to them
in order to stop them from doing the wrong things. This action will leave a bad
perspective to the teenagers that adults like to lie and make them find the answer through
other uncontrolled sources.
Besides curiosity, a teenager love to take risk. In early adolescent years, youth are
courageous and may have high risk behaviors. For them, the more challenging and risky
the activities, the more excitement and satisfaction they get. This will be a good thing and
also bad, depends on how they manage the challenge and what are the activities. As
parents, usually they will not allow their children to involve in a risky situation. So, we
can assume that the teenagers who love to take risk are always influence by their friends.
In this situation, the role of parents is important to know all their childrens friends and
their activities. The examples of good challenging and risky activities are hiking, rock
climbing, water rafting, diving and jungle tracking. But on the other hand, the bad
activities are like illegal racing, vandalism and gangsterism.
Family especially parents play an important role to make sure that their children
did not involved in unhealthy activities. There are many teenagers who involved in

serious problems lack of love and attention from their parents. Nowadays, the parents are
going out early in the morning to go to work and reach home at midnight. They do not
have sufficient time with the children. So, who will teach them to be good girls and boys?
Who will tell them what are good and bad actions and also what the effects if they are
doing the bad things? Having a working parents will be either good or bad thing. When
both of them are working, the conflict in the family can be avoided due to double income
but for the children, they may be do not have a person to share their feelings, problems,
happiness and sadness rather than their friends or outsider.
From the factors we have discussed, we can conclude that education is the most
important agenda to prevent our young generations from being manipulated by the tough
situation. Parents should enlarge their knowledge and skills on how to teach their children.
They should monitor their children from useless or harmful activities. Love your children
and develop them to be humble young generation. Therefore, education comes in two
forms, informal education from parents and friends, and formal education from school,
where knowledge is gained especially in academic fields.
The government also done a lot to be together to control and prevent social
problems among teenagers. Many events exhibitions were held to attract youngsters to
have healthy lifestyles. For examples, last month there was an event held at Putrajaya
known as Million Youth Assembly in conjunction with the National Youth Day 2012 and
have many interesting activities. Rather than that, there are many youth club which can
be joining by the teenagers according to their interest. So, all teenagers should not waste
this opportunity to involved in such healthy activities and enjoy their young age.