Adolescents

I was in the car this week listening to public radio, and heard the second half of an interview with Malina Saval, author of THE SECRET LIVES OF BOYS: Inside the Raw Emotional World of Male Teens. While the author, herself, was not too impressive, and the research a little flimsy, I was intrigued with the subject matter. Granted, most people come to therapy to alleviate some kind of pain. So obviously, the bulk of my interactions with teens come from those who are in some kind of pain. The developmental tasks of adolescence are significant, and the hormonal changes that teens go through make it that much more challenging. Add to that the middle-age transition issues that most teens' parents are attempting to make sense of just as they are working on their own. It's no wonder then, that these years can feel like "stormy seas" for many families.

Since hearing this interview I've been thinking about all the current social and cultural issues which have been added on top of teens' normal developmental "stuff". First, there's the family concerns. Many families I work with describe feeling lack of support in so many areas: being single parents, parents who work more and often bring home less disposable income and extended families are spread around the country. Add to this the threat many households are currently facing related to job cuts and layoffs. Second, are the social concerns. More and more it seems to me that the increasing pressure to excel academically and/or athletically adds to many families' feelings of chaos. Running here and there for select sports teams and other extra-curricular activities for multiple children can leave any family feeling "out of gas". In addition, I am curious about the impact of electronic communication on this and future generations. Teens are now able to say, electronically, things so harsh and cruel that most would not have had the courage to say them to another in person. While many teens struggle with feelings of isolation, resorting to fully electronic communication with peers increases loneliness as they lose the entire element of non-verbal communication that happens when you are face to face. The loss of non-verbal cues increases misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the true intent of the writer when communication happens electronically. All in all, it feels that for as much as we evolve as a society and become psychologically open and aware, we are increasingly challenged with new social and cultural issues which leads me feeling that the challenges we face developmentally don't so much improve but change.