Why More Teens Are Dealing With Anger Management Issues

Just as in years past, teenagers are being viewed as rebels, or even simply as overgrown children. The older generation simply does not understand the teenage generation. In fact, many older people feel antipathy towards everything about the current “teen” culture. They hate the music, they hate the movies, and they hate the clothes. Unfortunately, most of them have reason to: teen culture is simply not ideal, and leads many teenagers down the proverbial wrong road. Drug abuse, promiscuity, and reckless risk-taking also characterize the current teen culture.

These days however, one issue seems to be coming to the fore. This issue is teenage anger. Teenage anger asserts itself in many different ways – we can see it in the individual teenager who rebels against his parents, dressing the way he wants to and dating the girl his parents despise. We can also see it in the structure of street gang, which is invariably filled with teens that come from broken homes. The movies, music, and activities of many teens today show a level of repressed anger which they do not know how to express.

The Outbreak of Anger

But the question remains: Why are more teens dealing with anger management issues today than ever before? The answer may lie in what is happening to society at large. For instance, take the family unit. Whenever something happens in a family, it is the children that suffer the most acutely. In a divorce, for instance, one or both partners may only be exercising a personal choice when making the decision. But the children have no say in the matter – in fact, they are completely helpless.

This type of experience ingrains in a child a type of trauma, but how that trauma will affect the child is up to the child himself. Some children withdraw into themselves and lose confidence when an event such as a divorce happens. Still others become angry at their parents – and sometimes the world.

The point is this: Much of the anger than teenagers now manifest is due to the problems they face in their homes. This is not to suggest that these teenagers have no responsibility for how they behave – far from it. But it does help adults, especially those in positions of authority, to understand exactly what these children are going through. Many times, it is the neighborhood toughs – the guys who bully the other kids and deals in guns and drugs – who are the most needful of help. They come from families where there is little or no parental love, where money is a constant problem, and where violence is the rule, not the exception. Faced with these conditions, it is no wonder that we will see the same kids repeating the same patterns, unconsciously building the same type of life that their parents did before them.

So, instead of condemning teenagers mindlessly when they express anger – even in unconventional ways – society must understand that the problem is largely one of its own making. If it wants to address the issue, it must work at its causes, not at its symptoms.