Help for Parents of Troubled Teens
Welcome to 4 Troubled Teens, where we focus on the special needs of parents who are struggling with an adolescent. If you are the parent of a teen who is showing signs of behavioral, emotional, or academic problems, you will find great articles on how to assess your teen and how to help them.
It is a normal part of the teen years to have some conflict with parents - they are starting to crave more independence and they will want to make their own decisions more and more. However, if your teen appears to be doing self-destructive things, you should not write this off as "normal teen behavior." If your teen's behavior has resulted in dropping grades, complaints from teachers, or other negative consequences it's important to intervene as soon as possible.
Teens tend to respond better to intervention when behavioral problems are caught early and dealt with quickly. Parents often find it difficult to identify when a child is at risk for dropping out of school, drug or alcohol use, suicide, and other dangerous or self-defeating behaviors. Our goal is to connect parents of troubled teens to the information and resources they need to quickly identify risk factors and take appropriate action to help their troubled teen.
Featured Articles for Parents of Troubled Teens:
- Getting Your Runaway Teen to Come Home
When a teenager runs away from home, your first priority is getting them to come home. What brings most runaways home is simple: their family. more...
- Dealing with the Bad Influences in Your Teen's Life
A sudden change in behavior, dress or attitude often can be traced to the friends your teen is hanging out with. You may not be able to choose your teen's friends, but they are counting on you to relieve some of the peer pressure they're likely confronting at school. more...
- Help Your Teen Deal with Pressure in a Healthy Way
Helping your teens manage the pressures of adolescence can ensure that they don't turn to prescription medications to help them cope. more...
- 'Slut List' Calls Attention to Prevalence of High School Hazing
Recent revelations about the existence of an annual "slut list" at one of the nation's top high schools has brought renewed attention to the prevalence of hazing and bullying in U.S. high schools. more...
- Get Your Teen to Trust You and Stop Lying
Since today's teenagers spend a lot of time away from their parents, trust issues between parents and teens are more important than ever. more...
- Teen Dating Violence Increases During Recession: Talk to Your Teen
A recent increase in teen dating violence has been linked directly to the economic downturn. When it comes to teen dating violence prevention, the most important thing you can do is talk to your teen about healthy relationships. more...
- Boarding Schools that Offer Something Beyond Academics
Boarding schools traditionally have the highest academic standards, and their structured daily schedules, with regular hours for study, meals, exercise, recreation, and sleep create a work ethic and discipline that helps students gain admission and success in college. more...
- Why Your Teen Takes Risks (And What You Can Do About It)
Many teenagers are attracted to risky behaviors. And many recent studies have postulated a number of reasons for teens' dangerous tendencies, with possible causes including incomplete brain development and increased feelings of hopelessness. more...
- Don't Let Depression Take Over Your Teen
While it may be normal for your teen to go through many moods and emotions during their teenage years, it is important to make sure that their moods are not extreme enough to constitute teenage depression. more...
- Teens Using Drugs and Alcohol to Cope with the Stress of an Ailing Economy
Teens already have a lot to worry about, and the troubled economy is only making matters worse. Find out how to help your teen cope with stress and avoid common pitfalls like drug or alcohol abuse. more...
- What Parents Need to Know About Sex Ed
While some have mocked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her family for their less-than-consistent statements about teens, sex, and pregnancy, many parents find their dilemma familiar. These parents prefer that their teens do not have sex until early adulthood, yet they want them to use contraception if they do have sex. It puts them in a bind of giving out contradictory advice: Dont do this, but if you do, use protection. more...
- The Role of Bystanders in Teen Bullying
Rather than focusing on the bullies or their targets, experts call upon bystanders to stop the problem of teen bullying. more...
- Teen Depression Less About Genes More About Environment
Although adolescent depression has a genetic component, researchers have discovered that environmental factors play a much larger role than previously thought. more...
- Risk of Depression Eating Disorders Suicide Among Girls
It can be tough to be a kid really tough. And for girls, the challenges of youth appear to be intensifying, as evidenced by rising rates of depression, suicide, eating disorders, and self-injury. more...
- Pressure, Harassment Raise Risk of Depression, Eating Disorders, Suicide Among Girls
It can be tough to be a kid - really tough. And for girls, the challenges of youth appear to be intensifying, as evidenced by rising rates of depression, suicide, eating disorders, and self-injury. more...
- Beating the Bully: How Smart Parents Respond to School Bullying
Research suggests that the emotional scars caused by teen bullying are deep and long-lasting. Here are a few ways parents can help their child deal with a school bully. more...
- Sexual Bullying: A New Generation of Bullies Taunts Victims with Anti-Gay Slurs and Sexual Harassment
Sexual bullying in the form of anti-gay slurs and sexual harassment can be severely damaging to the teen psyche. more...
- Bullies Push Young Victims Beyond the Breaking Point
Once viewed as little more than an annoying rite of passage, bullying is now understood to be a devastating, even deadly, behavior that poses a variety of dangers to both victims and perpetrators. more...
- Summer Jobs Can Reduce Risk of Teen Suicide
Researchers with the University of Iowa report that teens who hold down a summer job are less likely to commit suicide than are their unemployed peers. more...
- How to Detect and Prevent Dating Violence
Recent surveys of teens across America show that while a large portion of teens agree that hitting a woman is wrong, a startling number believe violence is sometimes justified. more...
- Genographic Project Helps Teens Gain Insights Into History
Young adults at wilderness program Passages To Recovery learn about their personal histories through The Genographic Project, a National Geographic-sponsored effort to gain a greater understanding of human migration patterns over the past 150,000 years. more...
- Youth, Violence, and Crime
While recent research has indicated a decline in violent crimes by America's youth, certain aspects of youth crime remain troubling. more...
- Is Your Teen Sexting? Risque Online Behavior Puts Young People at Risk
Today, the proliferation of instant-messaging services, keyboard-and-camera-equipped cell phones, and a lax attitude toward what is and isn't private has led to an alarming increase in the amount of sexually suggestive and violent information that is being posted, e-mailed, and otherwise electronically shared by teenagers. more...
- When Anger Crosses the Line - Is Your Teen's Aggression Causing Problems in Your Family?
Anger is a natural emotion that almost every sentient adult experiences from time to time. When healthy, well-adjusted individuals witness or learn about incidents of injustice, cruelty, or senseless violence (to name just a few), they are likely to become understandably angry. In the best cases, this anger is channeled into positive action. But when anger leads to continued destruction, or when it prompts violence toward another or oneself, then a problem exists and help is required. more...
- Boys Engage in Self-Harm, Too
When most people think of self-injury they tend to think of girls. But though girls do tend to participate in self-mutilating on a larger scale than boys do, this does not mean that boys are immune to the behavior. more...
- Troubled Teens in the Wilderness Learn to Love Learning
There aren't a lot of textbooks in the Idaho desert, but Sean Tomkinson, a therapist with SUWS Adolescent and Youth Programs, believes that the students who spend weeks in that wilderness environment emerge more motivated and better prepared to pursue academic success when they return to the classroom. more...
- How Do Young Kids and Teens Respond to Trauma? Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) a Concern?
We hear it on the nightly news all too frequently: young kids and teens becoming the victims of life-endangering violence or witnessing frightening events first-hand. Based on research from Oklahoma City, high rates of PTSD may also be related to exposure to media coverage and to children who have a friend or family member that was killed or injured. more...
