GENESIS
OF PROBLEMS DURING ADOLESCENCE
PROBLEMS OF ADOLESCENTS – A SPECIAL NOTE
According to James S. Ross, “Adolescence is best
regarded as recapitulation of the first period of life. The adolescent no
longer exhibits the stability that marked his later childhood. He is badly
adjusted physically and mentally, being clumsy and awkward physically and
extremely moody in his behavior. Living under the delusion that he is the focus
of everyone’s attention, he is extremely self-conscious and is given to
blushing in a word like the infant, he has to begin again the work of adapting
himself to his environment”.
Moreover, adolescence is a period of rapid growth, development and
change and therefore is most likely to be accompanied by a number of difficulties
and problems. It is because of these that adolescence has been called a period
of stress and strain.
The adolescent has many needs which are peculiar to his stage of
development. If his needs are not satisfied, the adolescent faces problems.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of the teachers and the parents to see that
the needs of the adolescent are properly satisfied.
Fundamental
needs and problems of adolescence:
1. The Problem of Rapid Growth and
Development: The characteristic of rapid growth and
development at this stage itself creates a big problem for the adolescent. The
change is so rapid and sudden that he finds it difficult to properly cope with
it. He is neither a child nor an adult and therefore feels awkward in the
company of others. This poses adjustment problems for him. The remedy lies in
providing congenial and understanding environment.
2. The Problem of Sex:
James S. Ross says, “Sex then is the
fundamental fact of adolescence if not of all life”. Slaughter says, “Like the overflow of a great river it irrigates
and fertilizes great tracts of life’s territory and the whole business of
adolescent education is the long circuiting of the instinct, the redirection of
its energy into legitimate and useful channels, but it is not so easy”.
Sexual energy poses a number of problems like anxiety a feeling of guilt
and adjustment problems. Because of social taboos, the sexual energy cannot
find the desired outlets and consequently the sexual feelings are repressed.
These repressed feelings may often outburst into undesirable behavior or often,
otherwise may cause mental imbalance or abnormality. The individual may become
introvert and lose all interest in outer world. If so, it is a case for the
psychiatrist to tackle.
The remedy is not to repress but to
sublimate the sexual instinct. This means channelizing the sexual energy for
the attainment of some desirable objectives, specially in the field of art or
literature. Physical exercise and keeping busy also helps in solving this
problem.
3. The Problem of Emotional
Instability: An adolescent is emotionally highly
unstable. He experiences intense emotional feelings. These mood-swings are
quite normal with the adolescents, but if these are more frequent and are
extremely intense in nature they may be an indication of a deep sense of
dissatisfaction or frustration. May be that his emotions are being thwarted,
resulting in frustration and instability of mind.
What is needed is
that the parents and the teachers should try to understand the feelings and
emotions of the adolescents and should try to satisfy them. The remedy lies in
the psychological understanding of the adolescent s and fulfilling their needs
and emotional requirements.
4. The Problem of a Sense of
Insecurity: For a balanced development of
personality a feeling of security is absolutely essential. Generally children
at the adolescent stage are dependent upon their parents for the fulfillment of
their needs. They have physical needs, intellectual needs, emotional needs,
needs regarding recreation and needs regarding their friends or social needs.
All of these may not be important from the point of view of children. If all
such needs are not properly satisfied and if they are refused point-blank, they
begin to experience a sense of insecurity, a feeling that they are not being
looked after properly. This feeling of insecurity is very damaging for the
balanced development of personality and may lead to serious psychological
problems.
Therefore, it is
imperative for the teachers and especially the parents that the various types
of needs and requirements of the children are properly attended to. The remedy
lies in handling the adolescents psychologically.
5. The Problem of Proper Adjustment:
A
balanced personality is a well adjusted personality. An individual is required
to adjust to his total environment. For an adolescent, it means adjustment with
parents and other members of the family, adjustment with the teachers and the
educational institution, adjustment with society etc. Due to the reasons
inherent in the adolescent and prevailing in the environment and society, the
adolescent experiences a number of adjustment problems. For example, the
generation gap between the parents and children causes serious problems of
adjustment, the taboos the moral code prevailing in the society is generally
not acceptable to the adolescents, mainly because of their high sense of
idealism and hatred for the rituals and false values of life. The basic reason
of the clash is that nobody is willing to see the point of view of the other or
perhaps, they find it difficult to understand each other. This clash of values
results in serious problems of maladjustment and heavy mental strain for the
adolescent.
The remedy perhaps
lies in allowing more freedom to the adolescent, because it is his natural
craving to think and act independently at this stage. The necessary guidance
may be given, but very tactfully and indirectly. Let the adolescent take his
own decisions and enjoy freedom of course within limits.
6. The Problem of Lack of Maturity: Another
important problem of the adolescent is that though he lacks experience and
maturity, he is not ready to accept his fact. He definitely has his own
intelligence and he has begun to see the world form his own point of view; he
is naturally craving of independent thinking and in his actions; he has formed
a lot of ideals and ventures to transform the whole society, but the difficulty
is that he lacks maturity which is by-product of experience. This seriously
affects his judgments and there is a clash between the idealism of adolescent
and the realism of the environment. This leaves the adolescent bewildered and
confused.
Guidance therefore, is very essential at
this stage because experience and maturity is something that you cannot buy or
borrow. The rashness of adolescent must be subdued by the maturity of the
adult.
7. The Problem of Social Values: Every
society has its own customs and traditions, which it wants to maintain and
perpetuate. Every individual has to follow these social values or social code
of conduct. But the adolescent may not see eye to eye with these social values
which are out of date and therefore; superfluous. His independent of thinking
may come into clash with the prevailing values. But he is told that he has to
accept the traditions and values of society. This clash of values produces
various types of complexes in the mind of the adolescent.
This is indeed a very serious problem
because the values and traditions of society are so powerful that the
individual has to bow before them. And if he does not do so, he may have to
face social disgrace. The situation can be remedied only if the society begins
to take a liberal view regarding these things. After all the society will
progress only if certain modifications are accepted and incorporated in it. The
outmoded traditions must be discarded and new and reformed customs must be
incorporated if the society is to make any progress. The adolescent also must
try to understand the usefulness and utility of social values and thus try to
adjust with the society in which they are living.
8. The Problem of Economic
Independence: Economic independence is fundamental
to the development of a balanced personality. It is rather a condition of
existence. An adolescent wants to be independent in almost everything more so
in the case of money matters. The educationists in India seem to have paid
little attention to this fact. It is not essential that the individual should
take up some vocation at the adolescence stage, but it extremely essential that
there should be a bright prospect before them. In precise terms we may say that
jobs should be guaranteed utterly lacks in this respect. The adolescent is not
sure about his future even after spending a number of years at studies. This
adds to the frustration of the youth.
The remedy lies in
educational and economic planning. In an underdeveloped country like India, it
is difficult to provide jobs to everyone. If everyone is guaranteed suitable
job, most of the problems of adolescents will automatically be solved.
Need
for a Special Study of Adolescence Period:
The adolescent
is neither a child nor an adult. This fact is often omitted by the teachers and
parents. At one moment they call him to be young to take an independent
decision and interfere with his plans off and on at the other moment they look
down upon him if he is unable to arrive at a decision which they expect from
him.
There is need for making a special study of this period because at this
period the cases of delinquency are maximum. The child learns to smoke and to
run away from school. The teachers can apply correct remedial measures only
when they are able to clearly understand the main characteristics of this
period.
At this period sexual urge becomes predominant and hetero-sexual love
develops. The type of sex education which is to be given and the sexual
adjustment which is to be facilitated should be clearly understood by the
teachers and parents.
