Building Self Esteem in Children: Tackling Teenage Stress

Teenage Stress Management

Stress can affect anyone from children to adults. In between this age gap are the adolescents who also suffer greatly from stress – but for different reasons to those of adults. The symptoms remain the same but we need a different strategy to tackle teenage stress.

The total population consists of about 20% teenagers. Yet teenagers are sometimes that neglected group of the population with regard to their stress levels. Somehow as adults we just dont think of them as being a stressed group for they seem to be always having fun with their friends and being as irresponsible as possible (in a nice way!). However adolescence is the intermediate group between dependent childhood to independent adulthood and this transition is never easy. So it should be no surprise that the teenage group is very vulnerable to physical and emotional stress.

Their stress may come from their families, their peers or their education. For example they may be compelled to follow the footsteps of an elder brother to avoid comparison from their parents, or teens can be stressed from trying to work out their image in society - or they can be terribly stressed with the need to perform well in exams.

Character Formation And Stress

This stage of life can cause major changes both in the physical and mental aspects of a person. Physical changes in a person during adolescence include; increase in weight and height, change in voice, the development of secondary sexual characteristics, and for girls the beginning of menstruation. On the other hand emotional changes may involve; attraction towards the opposite sex, the feeling of independence, aggressiveness, experimentation. All of these changes can cause stress to teenagers. It was found in a survey at a secondary school that one third of teenagers undergo at least one really stressful episode every week.

The fact is that teenage girls are more affected or prone to stress than boys. But they also manage it better as they tend to seek help from others for help with their stress while boys respond to stress by dealing with it alone and refuse help from others or by engaging themselves in activities that would help them focus on things other than the stressor. The family members and friends, for example, are usually both the cause of stress and the source of support for teens. Without proper guidance, teenagers use a variety of healthy and unhealthy ways to cope with their stress.

Tackling Teenage Stress

The first step in tackling teenage stress is to identify what caused their stress. The teenagers should be enabled to talk freely about their problems and they should be supported by adults who live and work with them. Older people around them should help and coach the young person by teaching them stress relief methods and setting realistic goals for them in both curricular and extra curricular activities so that they tackle things in a step by step manner. Because of changes in their brain teenagers are often not good at self organisation and it is a better plan to help them learn how to do this than get exasperated with them and expect them to do something that at this time of their lives they will find hard.

Parents or teachers can ask the teenagers to think about the stressful events they experience and help them brainstorm solutions. Advice about normal stress responses and ways of tackling stress can be given to them but only if they ask for it. To just give it to them will cause some resistance! The best way to help them is by modelling how you deal with stress really well.

During the time that a teenager feel stressed, different levels of support can be given by the people around them. Teenagers, like children and some adults, are not ready to face major problems by themselves and help, whilst not obviously appreciated at the time, is much needed.