Category: Youth Challenges

Being a teen means having to go through a lot of changes in life. Be it physical, emotional, or lifestyle change, it will affect how they socialize with other people. It is also the stage where people take a lot of risks and make mistakes.

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Pressure from the people around us can be difficult to handle, most especially when we are in a relationship. This type of pressure is more pronounced in the teenage years as these adolescents are becoming more exposed to bigger things.

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According to Alicia H. Clark, PsyD, “Long-distance relationships (LDR) are proliferating, with an estimated 14 million couples defining their relationships as such and a staggering 75 percent of engaged couples reporting having been in a long distance relationship at some point.”

Long distance relationships, no matter how strong love is, can pose challenges for the couple. Despite the general doubt of the majority, research in the Journal of Communication stated that long distance relationships do work. However, like any other relationship, there can be some problems and difficulties that challenge the couple.

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As promised, this is Part 2 of the article from last week – How Teens Can Deal With The Divorce Of Their Parents. If you learned a thing or two about coping with the divorce of your parents from last week’s article, you would get some more information in this content which will help you move on from this struggle.…

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Divorce is never a good thing. This can mark a traumatic phase in a child’s life, especially in teens who are capable of understanding the divorce process. Without the proper support, your child will be significantly affected that will show through their performance at school and home.…

Source: positivepsychologyprogram.com

Finally, you’ve made up your mind and decided to get help for your precious son. You may have chosen a psychologist, psychiatrist, or another mental health expert. Now you try to find out what the therapist can do for your son, and in turn what you can do to help in the process. As you continue reading, you will learn how to establish a harmoniously effective working relationship, successfully set realistic goals and expectations and understand your responsibility in guiding your child to see positive results. We will also provide some tips and techniques on how to surpass the challenges that you and your child will face through the journey towards happiness and positivity.

The First Meeting

Being transparent is one of the best moves to make for a relationship to work. Child psychiatrists recommend coming to a first appointment prepared to not only open up about your concerns and worries but also to talk freely about his childhood before and after he became a problem child. You should talk about your priorities for your child’s treatment as well.

Additionally, it is vital to tell the therapist the methods that you have tried, what worked, and what didn’t. The more information you provide, the better. Details about his school performance, his friends, and his daily activities can be acquired with the help of the therapist.

What To Expect

Concerned parents are anxious about how the treatment goes when it will start, and how long it will go. Learning about the factors that impact the outcome of the treatment can help you set realistic expectations and avoid frustration and further anxiety.

Source: positivepsychologyprogram.com

There are various forms of talk therapy. Some are open-ended, but cognitive behavioral therapy utilizes skill-building strategies that have been thoroughly tested and have been proven to show factual results. This means that not all children follow the same rate of progress, but at least the therapy provides the parents with an approximated time frame.

How swiftly your kid will improve will depend on the depth of the problem and the level of the challenges that he goes through. If your son is extremely anxious, for example, he may have a hard time interacting in therapy, and the therapist may recommend that he take prescription meds to see more progress. A depressed teen may not want to be on therapy and needs more help in seeing how she is going to benefit from it. A divorce, relocation, or domestic violence can be barriers to a fast outcome, including missed appointment and arguments between child and parents about therapy can also slow down treatment progress. Remember that one key to successful therapy has a loving and supportive family.

The Vital Role Of Parents

No matter how skilled or seasoned the therapist is, he can only know so much about a child’s profile and mood within 45 minutes every week. Therapists would typically spare a few minutes to talk to the parents. How are the skills learned from therapy translating to the home or playground? Are your son’s depressive symptoms decreasing or worsening? How are his moods now that he’s on medication? Feedback from parents is very important, as they provide the clinicians with a more precise picture of the child’s status and requirements.

You may accompany your son or daughter to therapy, but it depends on their age as well as the kind of therapy. Nevertheless, you as parents are responsible for bringing the treatment in your home. You must keep track of your child’s progress, so you’ll know which traits need to be polished and how to improve the skills that he lacks practice on. If you think that five minutes a week is not enough to learn more about your child’s treatment, read about it or join parent support networks. Or better yet, you can ask for one full session with the therapist so you can talk about your child in greater depth.

Source: undeadremains.com

When There Are Messy Spots

As in any relationship, messy spots can’t be avoided. Sometimes, we get hurt by insensitive people who judge us or throw unpleasant remarks about us. When this occurs with your child’s therapist, we may feel angry or resentful. But the important thing is that we should know if what was said pertains to a problem or issue within the relationship or if it was simply a miscommunication (the messy spot). You can directly ask the therapist, “You said that this and that. I understood it to be this way. Is that what you wanted me to think?” Address the problem head-on. It’s the fastest way to clarify things and make them right.

If after everything that’s been done, you still are unsatisfied with the therapist or with your kid’s progress, it is more than okay to seek help from another therapist. Explore your choices.

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When people talk about teenage pregnancy, what do they usually picture? Most of the time, they pertain to the young mother who just lost her great future – the 18-year-old girl who struggles with taking care of a baby, going to school, and therapy to keep herself insane amidst the changes in her life. They visualize a young mom carrying her baby or pushing her in a stroller and having a hard time feeding and putting her to sleep. Whatever she may be doing, people probably imagine a teenage mother when they start talking about being a teen parent. Is that correct?

Through the years, society has influenced people, including me, to think this way, especially the media. We interchangeably use teenage parent and teenage mother or vice versa because we see teen pregnancy is typically a girl problem. Today, there are two popular television shows that center on the troubles of teen motherhood – but what about the young dad who got the girl pregnant? Where do we fit him into this? Isn’t there a show focused entirely on his experiences and the things he has to give up to be a responsible father?

Occasionally, the teen dads are given cameo roles where they get to appear on the show just to add drama to it. The situation can be an argument with the teenage mom about child support or custody, or the young mom shouting at him because he gives so little time and money to support the baby. Obviously, the heroes are the teen mothers and the babies who have been portrayed as thriving despite living without a normal family – without a good father.

But really, would there even be a baby if it were not for both the male and the female? So why do the teenage moms get all the praises?

The Forgotten Half

This is the reality in almost all cultures – the teenage father is often the forgotten one. His role frequently goes unnoticed, especially when the sides are picked and the mother gets to take care of the baby alone – and separated with the teen dad. He is just there to pay for child support and make occasional visits and takes the baby to the park or something. He is typically painted as an irresponsible guy who doesn’t worry much while the teen mom is so exhausted taking care of their baby the whole day.

Teenage fathers didn’t just get this rude tag because of the power of media. Two groups, the Pittsburg Youth Study and the Rochester Youth Development Study, proved that there is a strong connection between negligence and teenage fathers. A teenage boy’s past involvement in negligent behavior increases the likelihood that he will be a teenage father and will also become an irresponsible one. It has been deemed as a vicious cycle that has tremendously affected the perception of the society about teenage fatherhood.

This is not universal, though, as a lot of teenage fathers want so much to be a part of their baby’s life and future. However, this perception may also be a hindrance to the teen dad, preventing him from trying his best to prove the society wrong because he has already been judged.

Teen Fathers Deserve Support

If and when young dads are given equal opportunities and equal standing with the young moms, they are truly capable of making appropriate decisions for the betterment of his child and the child’s mother. He can make healthy suggestions with regards to his baby’s welfare.

Antonio Luciano’s Story

Antonio was only 19 when he became a father and a single father at that. He had his mother and sister to help him with his child. He has been working five days in a week with two jobs and no time to do what other 19-year-olds would be doing, which is going to school, going out with friends, and enjoying time as a teenager without major responsibilities.

Antonio got his girlfriend, Joanne, pregnant, who was barely 16 that time. After she delivered their baby, she decided to move to another state and leave the baby with Antonio because she wanted to build a future for herself and taking care of the baby would prevent her from doing that. So once or twice a month, she visits their son.

Antonio’s story is one that society would probably wish would be about the struggle and success of a teenage mom, but no. It is a rather touching chapter of a young dad who managed to be responsible for his actions despite instances when he would not be able to buy everything they needed.

There are perhaps more stories like this one out there that only need to be known and publicized. This is not to defend their mistakes but to shed some positivity on teenage fatherhood. Ultimately, stories like this should be put out there so that people will understand that teen parenting does not only mean motherhood but also fatherhood as well.…