Adolescent children, who are junior high and high school students, are at an age when they are more likely to become irritated or repulsed by trifles. Here are four reasons why adolescents are prone to emotional instability, including the effects of sex hormones and peer stress.
Table of Contents
What is puberty? Causes of irritability during puberty
“Puberty” that middle and high school students face. During this period, it is easy to get hurt or irritated by small words and attitudes from others, and it is easy to repel.
There are many reasons for an adolescent’s emotional instability, but here are four of the most common.
Causes of adolescent irritability 1. Effects of hormonal balance specific to puberty
When children reach puberty, the secretion of sex hormones increases rapidly, and both men and women are prone to mental and physical instability. For this reason, you may feel uneasy for no reason, and your emotions may be stimulated and irritated by even the slightest things.
Also, during puberty, you become more self-conscious, so it’s easier to care about your body shape and appearance. For example, when others criticize you for being “chubby” or “dark in color,” you feel hurt and embarrassed. If someone in your family said something similar to you, you would be outraged.
Read Also: Three tasks that students should tackle during the moratorium period
Causes of Adolescent Frustration 2. “Second Birth” and Beginning of Independence
Puberty is called the “second birth”. During this period, children distance themselves from their childhood selves and try to build a new sense of values based on what they learn from the new environment of junior high and high school, and from their peer relationships. This is the beginning of “independence”.
Children feel very uncomfortable when their parents interfere or meddle in this period of independence. This is why we keep parents away by saying things like “Don’t look at us without permission!” or “Don’t enter the room!”
If you are unable to notice the feelings of your growing child, you may be trapped by the rough words and attitudes that your child uses, and you may feel that you are rebelling or making fun of adults. Hmm. However, even if such a child’s attitude seems “rebellious” to adults, it is an “independent” behavior for the child himself.
If adults don’t take these circumstances into account and treat them with a high-handed attitude, they end up hurting the child’s emotions. As a result, children develop a sense of rebellion against adults, which can strengthen their prejudices against society.
Causes of adolescent frustration 3. Adolescents’ immaturity of vocabulary
I’m happy to be with my friends. But relationships can be stressful adolescent do not know as many words as adults. Being able to express one’s feelings and thoughts in a concise manner with a rich vocabulary is something that is difficult to achieve. Unable to find words that fit the emotions that suddenly spring up, they often substitute “slang” peculiar to young people to express their emotions in rough words.
For example, even though you really want to say, “I want to think for myself, so please leave me alone for now,” I can’t say it in the right words, so I just say, “It’s annoying” and “Go away!” I have a child. Actually, I should tell them, “I want you to stop because I’m in trouble.”
If you substitute slang for emotional expressions in this way, you will match your feelings with short-circuited and rough words, and you will be irritated by the violence of the words you spew out.
Causes of Adolescent Frustration 4. Peer Pressure and Stress Fatigue
For adolescents, “peer approval” has the same meaning as “social approval.” This is because the realization that “I am recognized by my peers” creates the confidence that “I will be able to do well in society.”
However, it is difficult to get “approval from peers”. To avoid being left out, you have to deal with uninteresting topics, follow the majority, and get along. To avoid being looked down upon by your peers, you have to take care of things such as reading the atmosphere in the group and creating a bright atmosphere.
These efforts will help you develop your own communication skills, but they will also bring you a lot of stress. Therefore, as much as you care about your relationships with your friends, you may bring the accumulated stress into your home and end up hitting your family.
If you care about the heart of adolescents, you can “watch over”
In this way, adolescence is a time of many changes and emotions. As a result, they can become irritable for no reason or aggressive over trifles.
If you know in advance that adolescents are in this situation, you will not be able to provoke their anger by arousing their emotions or reprimanding them unnecessarily. You might be able to sense the child’s feelings, gently keep a distance, and wait until the anger subsides.
The unstable feelings of adolescents will subside as they grow up. It is important to support children with an appropriate sense of distance while keeping an eye on their mental growth.