ADOLESCENCE
Adolescence is a tempestuous phase of human
development. In our first decade of life, we are children; in our third, we
become adults; some- where in between, adolescence is initiated by the
physiological event of puberty, which has a profound influence not only through
the physical changes it brings but also through its impact on social interests,
behavior, and emotional life. The adolescent is trying to discover himself and
to move from dependent childhood to independence. He brings to this time of
life his psycho- logical characteristics and whole personality configuration,
of course, but no matter how fine and healthy, they are now under tremendous
stress. Emotional conflicts are triggered because the still immature adolescent
has not yet succeeded in mastering his now-increased instinctual drives; he
experiences strong urges for immediate expression of both sexual and aggressive
impulses. Society does not help him. It flaunts attractions of adult sex before
him, caters to his whims in entertainment, but then prolongs his dependence far
into the teens and even into the twenties, insisting that long years of
education and training must precede marriage and family.
Teen- agers have much to contend with, not
alone their own inner churnings but the contradictions and confusions of the
world they live in. The development of the sex organs is a natural
event but nil without problems. Emotional illness must be guarded against,
including schizophrenia, which often chooses its victims from this age group
(see page 645). Every generation frets about adolescents who, seemingly, will
go to the devil in no time at all unless they listen to their elders.
Adolescents have rarely listened in the past; most have managed to come through
all right. But more will come through with less difficulty if we understand the
problems associated with this phase of life-problems, of course, for parents as
well as the younger generation. This is a time for parental self-examination. It
is important for parents to determine whether their responses to their
teenager's behavior are really justifiable, or whether they are responses to
their own anxieties.
They may exert inappropriate pressures on
their adolescent sons and daughters to adopt certain social customs, prepare
for certain careers, go to certain schools, and behave in a certain manner. It
is certainly not easy for parents who have devoted themselves to caring for a
child for 15 or 16 years to realize that he is no longer a baby but is now
seeking to become what he must become, an independent, self-reliant human
being. So adolescence is trying for both parents and teen-agers. Given under-
standing on both sides, controversies in the home will be reduced to reasonable
proportions.
They are not likely to be eliminated
completely. Emotionally, the "birth" of an adult is scarcely less of
an event than the actual, physical birth of a baby. But it is fully as
rewarding. If parents make an effort to remember their own stormy adolescence,
and if adolescents make an effort to understand parents' anxieties and
dilemmas-and if they can talk freely to each other and even joke a bit about
their respective problems-tensions will be markedly reduced.
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