Roles Of Parenting

2 Pages 571 Words

Adolescence: Whose Hell is It?
Essay written by: uhcroll
Throughout the article, “Adolescence: Whose Hell is It?” by Virginia Rutter, there is an astonishing analysis on the way teens behave today and how parents are responding to their behavior in return. Rutter points out that as the adolescent rates of depression, suicide, substance abuse, delinquency, sexual activity, and health problems drastically increase, there are too few parents who are responding to the needs of their adolescent children. Parents are clearly the most influential models outside of the school, which can altar the amount of success in the classroom.

The author discusses how adolescents are emotionally and mentally separate from both children and adults because they can’t reason like adults, however they think more maturely than children. In this scenario it is very easy for a parent to continue to treat their teenage son or daughter like a child, which could lead to an early decaying relationship with the parent. Within American society, kids entering into their adolescent years usually bring a social stigma that culturally depicts teenagers as rebellious and lazy youths. Rutter explains that parents also continue to carry this social stigma with their own children. A report within the article stated that teens overall still have high levels of respect towards their parents. However, “when fighting does occur, it’s in families with younger teenagers, and it has to do at least in part with their burgeoning cognitive abilities” (Rutter 119).

Rutter also explains that while teenagers naturally develop a surge of hormonal activity during the first few years of adolescence, there can tend to be more aggression and depression within the adolescent. However, Rutter believes that it is the parents who

truly effect the way the teenager thinks and acts. The relationship through parents and their adolescent children will always be a mutual one. If...