Causes and Effects of Teenage Rebellion

Almost every child will have rebellion during their growing process. Some of them will behave quiet different from parents’ expectation. They often argue with their parents, easily get angry, do not do what their parents tell them to do, and even do some dangerous activities like drinking or having drugs. Knowing the important cause and potential effects of teenage rebellion is very necessary. The most important cause of teenage rebellion is parents’ unconscious control. Usually, parents always let children obey what they think their teenagers should do, instead of listen to their children. When children are young, parents need to think about everything for their babies. After their babies grow up, most of those parents still consider their children’s thing as their own way as going without saying. “You should do your homework right now!” “You should clean the table before you sitting in front of your computer.”

“You cannot go outside because you need to study.” Although they are trying to help make their children’s lives better, they ignore that their teenagers are growing with their own mind. They “want to make more and more decisions for themselves and don’t want mom or dad always telling them what to do.” (“5 Reasons Why Your Teen is Rebelling”, 2012). They are struggling for parents’ control. Of course some of their own opinions are right and some are not, but parents should respect them and listen to them. The fact is that some parents do not. It is this kind of “you should do” domination from parents that increases the growing degree of teenage rebellion, which causes that they begin to want to escape from parents and do what they want.

Teenage rebellion has three bad effects. Firstly, juvenile delinquency will increase with teenage rebellion growing. Teenagers do not have the judgment of what is right and what is wrong. When teenagers are obviously rebellious, the study “Risk-taking in Adolescence: New Perspectives from Brain and Behavioral Science” points out that “teenagers are almost hardwired to make more risky decisions and participate in behaviors their parents deem unacceptable.” (“Rebellious Teenagers”, n.d.). They may be influenced by misleading media or other people to do some bad things, stealing, bullying other students, fighting with people by using dangerous equipments, or taking drugs. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed that 84.7% of today’s teens who ride bikes to school did not wear helmets. 20.8% of students took marijuana within the last month. (“Rebellious Teenagers”, n.d.).

There was a survey reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2011 showing that nearly two fifth of teenagers in high school drank alcohol. (Loop, 2013). They may feel that it is fun or cool to do those things and also may not realize how bad what they do is until they get into serious trouble. On Canada.gc.ca, Mia Dauvergne gave us very clear statistics from 2011 to 2012. There were totally about 50000 youth court cases within these two years, including theft, break and enter, robbery, and drug possession. (Dauvergne, 2013). Although there may be youth protection act to help and protect them, what they do sometimes can also destroy their whole lives while it is terrible to see a teenager waking towards the life of crime.

The second effect of teenage rebellion is that the communication between children and parents reduce. Because children do not want to follow what their parents say, they tend to not talk with their parents anymore. No topic about interesting things or funny situation happening in school will be discussed during the supper time. Most communication between parents and children will be argument. Lacking communication in family and conflict between parents and children will also cause distrust. (Miller, 2011). “I have a rebellious attitude, and every time my parents tell me I do, it makes me even more rebellious.” Some teenagers say. Even though sometimes those children get in trouble, they will not talk to their parents. As a result, teenagers cannot understand parents’ warm caring heart, and parents become hard to understand what their girls or boys are thinking.

Teenage rebellion will also cause their school marks decreasing. Rebellious teenagers want more freedom, so they begin to “rebel against the authority figures in their lives.” (“Rebellious Teenagers”, n.d.). They want to play, dance with friends, or date with their boyfriends or girlfriends, so they may also not do boring homework. It is common that sometimes they have test tomorrow, while those teens still stay outside playing late. If you ask, “Is it okay to not study and go to school?” They may ask you why they should do that. Nevertheless, as a student, it is a very important task to learn necessary knowledge and skills. No good marks at this time, and more criticism from parents and teachers, finally they might lose their confidence, give up study, and do not go to school. The opinion that “I feel happier out of school” or “nobody cares me so why I need to go to school” deeply influences them.

Consequently, the more school marks decrease, the more their parents worry and are angry. The more they worry and become strict to teens, and the more rebellion those children will be. Therefore, parents should face to their children and find out the real important cause about why their children do not listen to them anymore. Try to not increase the degree of teenage rebellion because of the control from parents own perspective. It is also necessary to be aware of the very bad effects of rebellion, juvenile delinquency increasing, family communication decreasing, and bad school marks. Forecasting what may happen because of teenage rebellion and trying to fix the problem in the right way will help parents rebuild the inside world in those teenagers’ heart.

Works Cited

5 Reasons Why Your Teen is Rebelling. (2012). Marks Blog. Retrieved October 21, 2013, from http://www.markmerrill.com/2012/06/26/5-reasons-why-your-teen-is-rebelling/ Dauvergne, M. (2013). Youth court statistics in Canada, 2011/2012. Government of Canada, Statistics Canada. Retrieved October 21, 2013, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2013001/article/11803-eng.htm Loop, E. (2013). The Effects of Teenage Rebellion. Livestrong.com. Retrieved October 21, 2013, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/1005346-effects-teenage-rebellion/ Miller, E. (2011). Main Reasons for Lack of Communication between Parents & Their Children. eHow. Retrieved October 21, 2013, from http://www.ehow.com/info_10062861_main-reasons-lack-communication-between -parents-children.html Rebellious Teenagers. (n.d.). AllPsychologyCareers.com. Retrieved October 21, 2013, from http://www.allpsychologycareers.com/topics/rebellious-troubled-teenagers.html