Troubled Teen Prevention
The first and foremost way to deal with escalating troubled teen behaviors in our society today is to take the necessary steps for prevention of problems in the first place. The best way to prevent these tribulations is to know as much as possible about some of the more disturbing areas for young people.
Education therefore is our most important tool in the war on distressing adolescent behavior.
Some of the more significant areas that need to be our focus for prevention include:
- School behavior problems and failures
- Crimes and other run-ins with the law
- Gangs and violence
- Addictions
- Sexual promiscuity and pregnancy
- Runaways
- Suicide
Parents, teachers, and other caregivers need to become familiar with the signs and symptoms for each of these areas so we can all learn how to recognize them long before they become full blown out of control problems for teenagers, parents, families and society at large.
The more we as adults know about these adolescent problems and how to prevent them…
…The sooner we can nip them in the bud before they become major ills for our families and society.
…The more we can educate our teens about the dangers associated with these destructive behaviors.
…The sooner we will be able to recognize them when they affect the young people in our care and seek the appropriate help to turn the problems around.
…The more teens’ lives we can save and the brighter the outlook will be for the children under our care.
…The more our teenagers will know about the destructive nature of these behaviors and how to identify them.
…The more our youth will be able to help themselves as they become more aware of these negative actions when they begin to affect their own lives.
…The more our teens will be able to help their friends when they see these behaviors affecting their friends’ lives.
…The less problems there will be in our communities and society at large due to caustic out of control teenager actions.
So, we now know that prevention is the place to begin if we are to improve the lives of the young people under our care, our families and society in general.
We also know that prevention is only the first step in our war on troubled teen behavior. Despite our best efforts there will always be youngsters that will be in need of intervention and treatment for their tribulations.
Prevention is just another tool; in fact it’s our first tool, in our line of defense when it comes to helping our teenagers to transverse this most difficult developmental stage. Adolescence is well known for its turmoil and destructive tendencies.
We as adults, parents, and other caregiver must do our part as effectively as possible to help the youth in our care to make it through these disturbing times as unscathed as possible. Often time’s prevention can be the best medicine. But when it fails to do the trick, we need to reach out for professional help as soon as possible.
We need to look for and use every avenue available to us in the way of troubled teen solutions and resources and not fear being seen as failures when we are unable to prevent the problems in the first place. Our free teen Parenting Guide has lots of tips and suggestions for anyone dealing with the daily struggles of parenting a teen and our article section on Troubled Teen Prevention offers guidance and support.