Adolescence

The years during the stage of adolescence have proven to be a very trying time for young people. According to Feldman (2011), people during this stage experience several changes both mentally, physically and emotionally. Many young people are trying to find themselves, desiring to test the waters, wondering what and why certain things are happening to them. Parents are left many times during this stage wondering where is my child and when will they return?

During adolescence there are many “major stressors” that a young person is likely to face from puberty, body image, sex, drug and alcohol use, self esteem and many others (Padilla-Walker, Christensen & Day, 2011). Most children in their early teens begin going through puberty and maturation, when arriving to early or too late at either can possibly lead a teen to self-esteem issues (Feldman, 2011). When a teen has low self-esteem it is easy for them to be unhappy with their body image, and turn to other things for relief, such as, alcohol, and sexual behaviors. Many teens are looking for a way just to fit in. Going through the stage of adolescence makes it tough to use good, sound judgment; this is due the lack of development in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. During adolescence the prefrontal cortex experiences a major development; however it is not fully functional until the 20’s (Feldman, 2011). Due to the lack of reasoning skills when presented with options poor choices are made, and to be a part of the in crowd a huge price is paid.

I believe that parents should adopt proactive practices as an approach when raising their children, and when trying to help them through adolescence. Proactive practices include “parental support, praise, monitoring and involvement” (Padilla-Walker, Christensen & Day, 2011). Many parents utilize proactive parenting when their children are young and throughout the early school age. During the younger years proactive practices are used to deter actions of misbehavior...