Adolescence is one of the most challenging periods in the life of every individual because they go though in an understanding of life, establishing a personality, and creating a specific worldview. At the same time, this can be also hard for teenagers’ parents because they sometimes face the disrespect, indifference, and bad choices of their children. Therefore, it seems essential to understand why teenagers make these specific choices in order to relate to them and help to overcome this challenging stage of life.
Various development theories can help explain different decisions that children make. For instance, the Psychosexual Developments theory created by Freud states that “child experiences, experienced at different ages in childhood, directly go on to dictate personality and behavior patterns in the later adult” (“5 theories of child development”). Thus, parents can use this philosophy to analyze the environment that their children grew up in and reflect on the reasoning behind specific actions and opinions.
In addition, Bandura’s Social Learning theory can also contribute to a better understanding of teenage development, choices, and behaviors. This belief suggests the establishment of individuals’ personalities does not come from direct experiences and interactions but rather from observing and modeling the behaviors of other people (“5 theories of child development”). For this reason, parents can use this philosophy to be more attentive of their personal choices because they influence the way their children create their own characters and distinguishing features.
Overall, adolescence is a challenging period for both teenagers and their parents. However, instead of punishing children for their choices and behaviors, their caretakes should try to understand why this happens and hoe it can be changes. Thus, this paper discussed 2 theories that can be used to understand the period of teenage adolescence.
Reference
5 theories of child development (n.d.). Web.