Challenges Faced by African American Male Teens

Challenges Faced by African American Male Teens

Since time immemorial, African American male teenagers have reported they endured untold challenges as compared to their white counterparts. This is because racism has hitherto continued to be a thorn in the flesh even after there have been a plethora of concerted efforts to root it out from contemporary society. Teenage is the age when most children experience tremendous transformations physically and emotionally, and it is correct to term it as a sensitive period in one’s self-development. The United States of America is composed of a bulk of the African Americans, and it registers most cases of maltreatment, especially among the Black community. Although the ascension of Barack Obama into power as the 44^th President of the United States was perceived as a remarkable step towards the complete eradication of racism and other related affliction against the Black, the vice has hitherto remained intact despite the efforts initiated to mitigate it. The chances are that the trend of racism has been augmented, especially in the current administration of President Donald Trump. As some conservatives of white supremacy term it, racism during the Obama regime was just but on life support but not dead. In any case, the current administration has rejuvenated it.

The African Americans have been disposed to a myriad of cases of mistreatment, which the conventional society was meant to believe was right. For instance, they were not entitled to similar bus rights as their white counterparts. When it comes to employment rights, the white majority were favored outrightly as opposed to blacks irrespective of whether or not they had similar or even better qualifications. Such blatant unjust treatments have always been perpetuated to the African American teens who are obliged to endure a big wave of discrimination as they undergo a transition from childhood to adulthood. This is equal to double tragedy as challenges that are associated with adolescence already form a significant burden to them. On the other hand, their kinsmen who should come to their rescue are helpless as they, too, are victims of the circumstance of the same discrimination that is brewed and practiced within the precincts of power.

Left with no hope in the unpredicted future, some of the teenagers have fallen prey to a spectrum of evil social acts that have left most of them more devastated than one could ever imagine. A lot of them often find themselves on the wrong side of the law for having committed one or several unlawful acts, thereby plunging into prison. There are also several who become drug addicts and live miserably for lack of immediate rehabilitation services offered to them. Discrimination in job placement has also subjected a considerable populace of African Americans to appalling conditions of life, and therefore they cannot afford decent schooling for their children (Breiner, Ford, and Gadsden & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.), 2016). This reality has left most youthful boys with little or no education and are consequently reduced to mere paupers in their later lives if at all their moral principles do not permit them resorting to criminality. The essay explores challenges faced by African American male teens and how they can overcome these challenges to fit in contemporary society and live a useful and meaningful life.

Self-Esteem and Body Image

Self-esteem is a very significant part of one’s personality. It entails viewing oneself as having unquestionable worth, which guarantees one to competitive advantages when it comes to social, economic, and political participation in society. Self-esteem happens to be among the challenges that African American male teens go through following the racial stereotypes that most of them go through. It is factual that most of the black teenagers in the United States belong to the lower social class and some partly from the middle class. This social alignment already reaves them the required esteem to compete favorably with their peers from the upper social class, which is mainly comprised of the white supremacists.

Besides, given the harsh environment within which most Black American male teens grow, some of them usually grapple with identity crisis resulting from their low self-esteem. This crisis has dire consequences on their self-image, which ultimately makes them become social misfits. Failure to fit comfortably in the social class, especially of the peers, comes with so many consequences, including plunging into depression, stress that can trigger suicidal thoughts and drug and substance abuse, among others. The victims of this reality mostly fall into delinquency as well and sometimes end up in prison for being caught on the wrong side of the law.

Stress

Stress is another severe challenge affecting African American male teens. This implies a reaction of one’s body to any given change, which calls for a response or some form of adjustment. More often than not, the victim’s body may react to such changes with mental, physical, and or emotional reactions. Though it is a normal part of life, stress can be overbearing, especially to teenagers, as they can be overwhelmed, especially if the triggers of anxiety are multiple. In this case, their bodies trigger stress as they undergo emotional and physical transformations. The environment within which they hail can also be another big source of stress, primarily educational and religious institutions, social amenities, and residential estates.

African American male teens are often reported to go through a lot of stress as compared to their white male counterparts because they are marginalized in their environment. Furthermore, these teens have been subjected to racial stereotypes many times, and as they grow, the reality about their racial affiliations dawns on them and somehow drives them to oblivion. Those who are lucky to go through counseling may be salvaged from the trauma, but since not everyone has the privilege to enjoy such crucial services, the majority of the teens usually suffer untold effects of stress. Stress can make some children go into depression or even become highly aggressive towards their peers and even parents and teachers. Such young people can become a big threat to the security of society if left unattended. As it is with the American security agencies, any unlawful case involving African American teens is usually dealt with in a ruthless manner, evident of the perpetual racial stereotypes that are entrenched in American society.

Bullying

Bullying refers to an unwanted behavior characterized by aggression and which is so common among school-going children and, in particular, the male teens. Bullying involves an actual or merely perceived imbalance of power in which an individual strives to cope with. Bullying is a repeated behavior, or it has a high probability of being repeated, over and over. Research has depicted that bullying is double faceted, whereby the bully and the victim may both have grievous lasting problems.

Aggressive behavior towards others may only be considered to be bullying if it includes an imbalance of power and is repetitive. Teenagers who mostly bully others utilize their special ability, for instance, popularity, physical strength, and access to discomforting information in controlling or harming others. It should be noted that power imbalances can vary over time, depending on the prevailing situation even though the perpetrators may be the same people. Besides, bullying behavior takes place severally or is likely to recur. The bully may be fond of threatening their target, spreading defamatory information about them, verbal and physical confrontation, and or purposeful exclusion of someone from a grouping or a faction.

Bullying, which is mostly coupled with peer victimization, comprise a more significant percentage of social challenges that the African American male teen grapple with, especially in schools. Studies have consistently indicated that the pervasiveness of peer victimization and bullying has often been reported to be alarming among African Americans, even if some findings have proved to be inconsistent. Unfortunately, most empirical research works examine characters and the direct level influence in silos as opposed to the constellation of aspects within a sophisticated setting, such as schools, homes, and larger neighborhoods. The Urie Bronfenbrenner’s social-ecological framework acts as a facilitator for examining the consolidation of risk triggers and the availability of defensive aspects in connection to peer victimization and bullying of African American male teens(Coates, 2015). Given that very few research works have been documented considering protective aspects as compared with risk factors, some studies investigated research findings of protective elements that have the potential to buffer incidences of peer victimization and bullying among African American male teens. In particular, the studies examined the risk together with protective aspects happening in the micro- such as peer relations, schools, parenting, as well as the wider community; Exo- such as parenting-related stress; and macrosystem levels such as normative notions regarding aggression as well as hyper-masculinity.

In the same breath, the prevalence of peer victimization coupled with bullying has often been recorded to be alarming among African American male teens, even though the findings have been reported to be inconsistent in certain instances. In comparison to the White male teens, for example, African American male teens are more often than not implicated in perpetrating verbal, physical, and even cyberbullying. Nonetheless, statistics also portray that the probability of these male teens getting ill-treated by their peers is nearly nil. According to the national representative sample of youth, the African American male teens report a higher rate of bullying and peer victimization as opposed to the White teens and, by extension, teens affiliated to other races. Correspondingly, other researchers established that African American female teens are more susceptible to peer victimization as compared to Latina and Asian counterparts. It is interesting to note those African American male teens are termed to be easily lured into the trap of their peers as opposed to their Hispanic/Latino and White counterparts. Teachers in most American schools also observe that African American male teens easily display aggressive behavior in comparison to learners from other races.

Besides, it is significant to try to understand the constellation of aspects happening at various levels of the social ecology, given that African American male teens who are embroiled in cases of bullying are at sensitive risk of deprived outcomes of mental health. The relevant example is a research carried out by Alexie, Forney & Zusak (2016), which established that a sample of 2,532 African American male teens who were in grades five to twelve who identified themselves as bullies or victims of bullying recorded higher degrees of symptoms of depression as opposed to their counterparts who are not bullied or victimized. Considering that behavioral and psychosocial results of peer victimization and bullying are grave among African American male teens, it is essential for researchers to identify risks as well as protective aspects, which are relevant to these sections of the society. The severe initial step necessary for developing and executing preventive strategies against culturally relevant school violence is to examine the risks and protective aspects at several levels.

Depression

Depression among teenagers is considered to be a serious challenge of mental health, which triggers persistent feelings of unhappiness, accompanied by a loss of interest in common activities. Depression affects the manner in which these teens think, feel, and behave, and it can often result in physical, emotional, and functional problems. Even although depression can take place at any given time in one’s life, symptoms have always differed between teenagers and people of other ages.

Such issues as academic expectations, peer pressure, and physical and emotional transformations can cause a myriad of challenges for teens. Nonetheless, among the African American male teens, the lows have reportedly been more than mere temporary feelings as they are symptoms of depression. Teen depression should not be confused with weakness or something to be surmounted by willpower. Depression comes with grievous consequences to the depressed person and needs proper long-term treatment. The most common treatment for depressed cases encompasses psychological counseling as well as medication where necessary.

The mainstream trigger of depression among African American male teens has been attributed to the socioeconomic statuses. Some researchers proposed mechanisms for the unexpected observations positive links between psychopathology and socioeconomic statuses of Blacks, especially the male teens. The initial explanation happened to be structural racism that influences the differential treatment of African American male teens by society. At the same time, the African American teens have disproportionately been discriminated against mainly by the system of education, labor market, the housing market, together with the police. Another description is that physiological, social, and psychological expenses of upward collective mobility are relatively higher among the Blacks as compared to their Whites counterparts. This perception is backed by some researchers who have recognized weaker bonds between the attainment of education and the health conditions among the Black Americans in comparison to the White Americans. African American male teens have been said to use high-effort coping mechanisms in the upward social mobility as opposed to teens drawn from other races in similar conditions. Furthermore, interpersonal discrimination is another mechanism. This implies that perceived racial discrimination (PRD), which is greater a higher socioeconomic statuses lowers the health gains, which are characteristically generated by high socioeconomic statuses (Growing Absence of Black Men in Medicine and Science: an American Crisis (Workshop), Laurencin, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.). & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.), 2018). Irrespective of the real mechanism, research depicts that socioeconomic statuses like income and education may not merely fail to provide health gains for the African American male teens. Still, it may instead raise the risk for psychopathology among them.

Cyber Addiction

      The habit of video gaming, in conjunction with the prevalent Internet use, has been connected with diminished mental health as well as dismal educational results among teens, especially African American males. Various researches show that racial/ethnic minority teenagers largely utilize these media extensively as compared to the White youth. This trend signifies that the use of the Internet and playing video games among teenagers who live with mental disorders and educational difficulties may vary according to ethnicity or race in ways that are clinically meaningful. Besides, differences were also noticed among the significant minority-White in the connection between mental health and media use and educational achievements. Gamification was comparatively higher among the African American male teens and females who had prior mental health diagnoses that were associated with higher internalizing symptoms.

Drinking alcohol and Smoking

Different studies show that between the White and Black male teens, Blacks are less probable to abuse alcohol and drugs such as tobacco, and are less prone to abuse marijuana depending. Nevertheless, among addicts of the drugs and substances, African American male teens happen to have steady progress from using to being dependent faster than their White counterparts. This trend implies that the African American male teens adopt a longer duration of using, and therefore and likely to experience more consequences than are substance-related as opposed to other male teens in racial groups. Exclusively, African American male teens often experience social and legal interpersonal challenges associated with drug and substance abuse, arrest or incarceration for offenses associated with the use of marijuana, and injury, among others. At a later stage of adulthood, Black males record higher mortality rates due to lung cancer and cardiovascular results. The reasons for the difference in race and ethnic contrasts in the patterns of substance use, and in the effects of abuse, both among male teens and as persons advance through the life course, among addicts of drugs are unknown. Most of the influences happen way later in the life course as opposed to young adulthood, indicating possible justification of the contrast.

Explanations that underlie the highlighted observations are emerging. Despite the fact that generally rates of alcoholism, use of tobacco, and marijuana among the African American male teens are virtually lesser as observed among Whites, some significant epidemiologic researches depict a convergence in drug and alcohol consumption by age, whereby rates become more similar, or even cross-over by age. Even though some researchers differ in the age at which the cross-over happens, overall, the ages between the 20s and mid-30s are established to form a critical developmental period for cross-over in the use and abuse of substances. In other words, although lower general prevalence of drug and substance use among African American male teens in comparison with the White male teens is motivated by patterns within the early stages of life, higher rates of abuse among African American as compared to the White male teens in later stages of adulthood may bring about greater load of substance abuse effects among the Blacks.

Underage Sex

Adolescence doubles up as a transitional phase of physical, cognitive as well as emotional human development. This stage takes place just before the onset of puberty and ends with adulthood. Sexual orientation, the expression of interest, together with the preference of sexual partner, is part and parcel of adolescence. Sexuality in teenage comprises multiple aspects like gender identity, culture, religion, and developing intimate partnerships, among others.

Nonetheless, sexuality among teenagers has changed rapidly over the past several decades, with young people now attaining physical maturity earlier than before and, therefore, able to marry shortly thereafter. Puberty is the noticeable physical development that comes during the initial stage to the middle stage of adolescence, and it is viewed as the period for the possible inception of sexual feelings as well as experimentation. Averagely, middle teenage years happen to be a time when teenagers start showing interest in more friendly relationships together with experimenting with themselves.  Parental as well as societal concerns about untimely sexual activities encompass sexually transmitted infections (STIs), an unexpected pregnancy, sexual harassment and abuse, and possible emotional effects of sexual demeanor. The concerns underline the significance of facilitating adolescents with wide-ranging education on sexual health as well as preventive health services.

Based on the statistics documented by the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey in the United States, African American male teens were less likely to engage in sexual interaction with at least one partner as compared with the similar age bracket in the 2003 survey. Besides, the number of African American male teens who report the use of condoms within their last sexual intercourse remained constant. According to the survey, 46% of these teenagers got involved in sexual contact with at least one partner of the opposite sex, and 6.4% of them were involved in sexual activities for the first time before attaining the age of 13 years. Similarly, according to the study by the National Survey for Family Growth which was carried out by the National Center for Health Statistics and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC), 14% of the African American male teens were involved in heterosexual oral sex with at least 12% of their female counterparts but not anal sex (Weisburd, Majmundar, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.) & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.), 2018). A small percentage of 14 males within this age bracket were involved in sexual intercourse with more than four persons in their lifetime.

These statistics are evidence of how much African American male teens struggle with the challenge of underage sex. Parents, teachers, and the society at large may be trying their best to facilitate sex education as a measure to mitigate the escalation of the habit, but more is needed to be done to lower the prevalence; otherwise, the trend is alarming.

Defiant Behaviors

For years, the studies about somatic symptoms exhibited among the African American male teens have been conspicuously absent within the documented empirical literature. However, it should be noted that somatic grievances form a natural development of the efforts of the African American men in coping with socio-cultural stressors. Somatic symptoms refer to physical symptoms, which are reported subjectively, such as headaches, muscle pain, together with stomachaches. Some studies have suggested that African Americans, males in particular often express their distress in the form of a somatic idiom like then physical complaints serving as metaphors meant for psychosocial situations (Jensen & Nutt, 2015). Alternatively, findings that are anchored on data sourced from the seminal study of Epidemiological Catchment Areas (EGA) point out that somatic grievances were outstanding among African Americans.

In several reviews of literature about somatic symptoms exhibited among different African American male teens, defiant behavior observed among them emanates exclusively from these sorts of symptoms. By extension, the trend is linked to nature and the harsh environment within which most of the Black Americans have been brought up. This culture is also quite different or minimal among male teens of other racial affiliations. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder are largely responsible for these somatic symptoms, which trigger defiant behaviors among this population of youth in the United States (DiAngelo, 2018). Similarly, as regards depressive disorders among the same category of teens, it is established that the male teens that exhibit greater depressive symptoms will most likely experience persistent somatic complaints as opposed to those who exhibit lower somatic levels of symptoms.

Peer-Pressure and Competition

      Peer pressure refers to the direct influence on other persons by peers. It can also be referred to as the effect on someone who is encouraged to follow their peer group by altering their values, attitudes, or behaviors in conformity to those of the influencing person or group. Peer pressure can, therefore, be positive, negative, or both.

Negative peer pressure is often connected to substance abuse, risk-taking behavior, as well as dismal academic achievements. Nevertheless, young people who hang around peer groups that are academically disposed of though they do not come from family backgrounds that stress academics always end up getting better grades. This trend implies that peer pressure is able to influence learner outcomes, both negatively and positively. It is particularly troubling to African American teens who appear to be influenced negatively by both White and Black friends with regard to academic performance. There have been cases where some African American male teens reported dismal performance in school just because they were under pressure from their White counterparts who regularly made fun of them (Weinstein, Geller, Negussie, Baciu, & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.), 2017). Sometimes they allege having gone through verbal and physical confrontations from their peers to explain why they had to perform better than them in class.

Additionally, there are instances where African American male teens that scored higher grades in their various exams ended up making more friends from the Whites and other races as well. In fact, African American students who tried to speak Standard English or even read a book were likened to acting White, which gave them an upper hand in associating with the Whites. The phobia about acting White standpoint affirms that African American teenagers tend to reject academics as well as studiousness due to acting smart, which transforms into antagonistic customs and acting like Whites. Apart from that, school and societal discrimination influences community factors, like notions of unemployment and Black oppositional customs are among the interrelated aspects connected to peer pressure and the success of African American male teens.

While most high academic achievers among the Black students are subjected to teasing by their white peers, academic achievement can be perceived as selling out. In most cases, negative peer pressure forms a big barrier to academic accomplishment for African American male teens. Some researchers have asserted that the fear of being detested from negative peer pressure is what influences the majority of African American learners to underachieve in their academic pursuits. At the same time, acting White is not only related to the manner in which someone talks in front of others but also how they participate in co-curricular activities like theatre and band (Vance, 2017). Some victims of peer pressure device mechanisms of circumventing their tormentors, such as putting his exercise books in brown paper lunch-bags to abate stigma from being viewed as being smart. The struggle to avoid being perceived as studious in an effort to fit in is a survival technique as well from being bullied.

Moreover, it is notable that social accommodation for especially the African American male teens is such intensive such that they can internalize all frustrations to the point that it translates into a barely concealed rage. On the other hand, this helps some African American male teens who manage to cope by holding back their anger to have considerably fewer dear friends as well as members of the family to engage in conversations about their individual problems and aggravate thoughts of segregation from their peers. This is an imperative aspect during teenage because it is the period whereby children spend less time with their parents and more time with their friends, making peer relationships to become more complex.

Recommended Remedies to these Challenges

To curb the above-mentioned challenges among the African American male teens, there is a dire need to employ concerted efforts involving parents, teachers, and the teenagers themselves. The below highlighted are significant steps that are geared towards building healthy relationships with these male teens as a sure way that will ensure their concerns are handled effectively. It should also be noted that none of the recommended remedies to these challenges work in isolation, implying that it is necessary to combine some or even all for an effective outcome.

Early Identification

Parents, teachers, and guardians are required to be on alert to identify symptoms of stress among their teenagers. More often than not, eating habits, varying sleep patterns, diminished interest in regular and healthy activities such as bathing, playing, and so on, dwindling grades in school or colleges, and chosen segregation are just among the few signs of depression that appear in the initial stages. Similarly, they should also reduce unnecessary demands on their children to perform or forcing them to compete favorably with friends as that may also trigger unwanted stress. If parents and caregiver remain vigilant towards such signs at an early phase, they may help to avert further damage that is brought by escalated stress levels among their children. They also need to perpetually guide them to adopt healthy and credible ways while dealing with their concerns, whether at home, schools, or in social gatherings.

Understanding Transitional Aspects from Childhood to Adulthood

It is common for teens to feel authenticated in their thoughts and even feelings since what they go through is an actual part of their lives. Parents, teachers, and guardians are required to restrict themselves from criticizing or rather judging their children’s thoughts or feelings but rather allow them space and time to air their grievances freely. Teenagers are usually exposed to a broad spectrum of emotions as they transform from childhood to adulthood. This stage can be confusing and disturbing at the same time as some may not exactly understand what they are going through. It is, therefore, important for the adults living with them to be sensitive towards them to understand their transition and support them accordingly (DiAngelo, 2018). Some of the emotions and feelings characterized by teenage encompass confusion, anger, disliking their parents and siblings, jealousy, secrecy, non-compliant attitudes, just to mention but a few. In most cases, defiant behaviors among teenagers emanate from their incapability to handle the magnitude of their emotions properly, thereby intensifying common problems associated with teenage.

Imparting Knowledge

Among the concerns, which emanates from curiosity and need for autonomy and a deep sense of control is the act of experimenting with juvenile use of drugs and substances like alcohol, bodily intimacy as well as teenage pregnancies. Although most people believe that imparting knowledge about sex to the juveniles arouses curiosity in them wanting to experiment, this is just but a myth. It is necessary for adults to talk to their children to equip them with the necessary information and to eradicate the biding taboo revolving around the subject of sex. It is obvious that the degree of exposure that teenagers have these days, especially due to the Internet is unsurpassed, and adults cannot bury their heads in the sand, claiming that their children are still naïve about sex education. It is better to take responsibility and educate them the right way other than forfeiting their roles and subjecting their children to illicit sources of information. According to Castenel, Grantham & Hawkins (2018), cyber dependence is another problem that has grown so fast among others that teenagers are grappling with, and it is necessary to stipulate measures to abate its effects on the young people. Parents, guardians, and teachers ought to talk to their teenagers and help them become conscious about cyber safety and ways of protecting themselves from the negative effects of the Internet. Parents and teachers may as well formulate rules and regulations, which clearly outline when to utilize the Internet, the appropriate sites to visit, and the suitable safety measures to follow to avert plunging into more problems. Nonetheless, timely, factual, healthy, together with regular conversations about these issues, will assist teenage children in acquiring the capacity to make informed choices.

Respect

When handling teenagers, it is imperative for the parents, teachers, and even guardians to handle them with the utmost respect. This is a section of the society that is at crossroads, not sure if they are adults or children. At the same time, they are undergoing a lot of changes physically and emotionally while struggling to meet other requirements of life such as education, religious and cultural initiation rites, among others. It is, therefore, possible that this stage might overwhelm them, thereby blowing their actions out of proportion. At this stage, parents, guardians, and teachers ought to listen to their opinions and respect their decisions as well. This act will avert the tendency of interfering with their self-esteem and self-confidence. More often than not, teenagers’ self-esteem and confidence get easily affected following consistent criticism that their parents, teachers, and guardians keep making against their actions. Parents, guardians, and teachers can, therefore, develop stronger bonds with their teens by making respect a mutual virtue such that the teens are obliged to reciprocate in equal measure.

Rapport

It is factual that different parents have varied outlooks towards parenting as a vocation. Nonetheless, during teenage, all parents are required to establish healthy relationships with their children, for they would have grown at a level where they need their parents to reason with them, but not like them or for them. Parents are required to realize that when children were below ten years of age, obedience was a must, and they were obliged to do anything as long they were authorized to do that by an adult. However, during the teenage stage, parents should understand that their children have grown and developed their reasoning capacity and can as well analyze and make the judgment of situations on their own. What great parents can do is to establish rapport, which will make the child feel comfortable speaking to them and sharing their feeling with them freely. Besides, parents, teachers, and guardians need to find an accurate balance between being a parent or teacher and being a friend. Rapport is significant in parenting as it augments the confidence of children in their elders and helps them grow up without fear and self-doubt. Rapport can also help teens open up about their distressing experiences during their development, education, and social interactions, among others. Their opening up can help the elders know how best to assist them in finding solutions to their challenges.

Trust and Acceptance

Trust is the foundation of healthy relationships in parenting. Parents and guardians are required to create an environment that permits their children to trust them. For this culture to be effective, parents should as well ensure that they trust their children at all times. Cases of spying, questioning, cross-checking with their peers, and doubting them can only hamper the efforts of bonding, thereby resulting in defiant traits like stealing, lying, hiding as well as being disrespectful. It is crucial for elders to accept their teen children as they are and to build unquestionable trust in them all the time. Communication and Safe Space

Clear and open communication channels help to open up many possibilities among teenagers as they transform into adulthood. Communication does not just foster relationships but helps children confide in their parents, guardians, and teachers regarding sensitive subjects such as peer pressure, bullying, drug, and substance abuse, among others. Parents should feel to talk to their teenagers about some common teenage challenges such as underage sex, dating, drugs, and alcohol because they form part and parcel of the day to day problems that affect humanity. The inability to engage teens in discussing good and bad aspects, which drive them towards taking erroneous steps out of curiosity, is attributed to poor communication among the elders who live in their vicinity. The act of effecting the use of communication enhances the building of respect, trust, and acceptance between parents, teachers, guardians, and teenagers.

Seeking Necessary Help from Experts

Following the ever-changing times that contemporary society finds itself, the act of parents and teenagers seeking professional help, especially from counselors, has become a universal practice. Seeking help is a significant step that can easily empower and equip teenagers with the necessary information about their growth and development and about other issues associated with their stage of growth. It is also imperative for parents to realize their individual needs and limitations and therefore opens up to seek professional help as well as accepting help in situations that are demanding. Teenagers in present-day society face multifarious concerns and are interrelated in various ways. Parents, guardians, and teachers ought to be well acquainted about issues that confront their children on a daily basis and get adequately prepared to mitigate them appropriately. The professional who is sought after should also become the best friends of the teenagers to guide them without having to be so demanding. These professionals understand well that teens within the age bracket of 13 to 19 years are often clustered as a turbulent group because they go through a myriad of growth changes, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Professionals also understand that the best approach toward the teens’ concerns is by showing love and empathy. Professionals will help parents, teachers, and guardians established innovative ways of connecting with teenagers, thereby building a relationship to support them during the problematic growth phases efficiently.

Solutions for Preventing Negative Peer Pressure

As regards negative peer pressure, parents, guardians, and teachers can help augment the teens’ self-esteem as well as their racial pride merely by imparting in them wide-ranging knowledge and information about the achievement of Black people in the USA and in other nations around the world. This should go hand in hand with the arrangement to have these teens play and associate with their peers from other families within the neighborhood, especially those who place greater value on studies and achievement. It is also significant for the parents to strive to set a good and positive example by being involved actively in their children’s education. Through this involvement, they will encourage children to confide in teachers, mentors, and the school system at large such that they can reach out to them, especially in cases of harassment, bullying, and loss of property, among other grievances.

Using Affirmations

Affirmation statements are powerful in instilling confidence and courage among teenagers. Given that their stage of growth comprises a plethora of challenges, which converge almost at the same time, and when the teenagers do not have the capacity to handle them effectively, it is vital for the parents and teachers as well as guardians to adopt a way of encouraging them using affirmations. Through self-affirmations, the teens will be able to reaffirm their individual beliefs as well as personal identity in line with their aptitudes and aspirations they have in life. If well reiterated, affirmations can help teenagers deal effectively with problems like an identity crisis, low self-esteem, and low confidence, among others. Studies have depicted that African American male teens displayed tremendous improvement where they were guided to utilize self-affirmations after being subjected to intense racial stereotypes. Affirmations can effectively serve the intended purpose when they are accompanied by routine mentorship, especially conducted by not just professional but trusted and experienced mentors. A good mentor works within a specific framework, and mentorship also needs to be done consistently using a hands-on approach (Pedersen, Lonner, Draguns, Trimble & Scharrón-del, 2015). There are cases where mentor relationships characteristically dwindle following the failure of assigned mentors to show commitment in time, as well as the effort required to make a meaningful difference. Furthermore, to effectively comprehend the value of the results of participation, assigned mentors need to be cognizant of the involvement competence expectancy as well as participation results expectancy. This comprises the capacity to understand how to agree on bureaucracy, how to establish and build allies, as well as to teach mentees the best way of reading, and transmitting social cues. Finally, it is necessary to consider facilitating library and campus tours as well as classroom visits or going on a specific launch together with mentees, which makes them have unquestionable trust in their mentors.
CONCLUSION

Teenagers often face actual life problems as they undergo the most self-conscious growth phases of their lives marked between thirteen and nineteen-years-old. As they grapple with this reality, many teenagers do get exposed to certain overwhelming internal and external struggles, which not many people usually know nothing about. They have to go through and at the same time required to cope with the associated hormonal alteration, academic pressures, parental and social forces, puberty, together with encountering several problems and inevitable conditions. In most cases, these struggles overwhelm these teens with extraordinary stress connected with the school, college, and career situations, most of which are confusing. Teenagers whose parents or guardians are absent from their lives often get exposed to different states of life that are more unfavorable. Issues, which most teens encounter in the present-day society may differ depending on their varied social backgrounds, but the issues can easily be resolved if parents, teachers, and guardians are willing to understand the nature of symptoms and possible triggers of the same problems. Parents are required to carefully approach their teenagers suffering from one of several teenage problems and possibly in a friendly way to deliberate about the underlying problem(s).

Sometimes a majority of teenagers feel misunderstood by the people who are charged with the responsibility of raising them. It is, therefore, crucial that the thoughts and feelings of these teens are fully justified, and that just needs to originate from their parents, guardians, and by extension teachers. It is surprising that most of these teenage problems are closely related to each other, just like a series of reactions. For instance, when teenagers face issues associated with body image and self-esteem, they quickly get frustrated, leading to certain eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. They may as well begin feeling stressed, especially when exposed to peer-pressure, together with academic competition, or child exploitation in their home environment. Many of the teens who experience these problems resort to habits of smoking and drinking alcohol to relieve stress, which is just but a short term relieve. Others may flee their homes, indulge in online gaming activities, or initiate online conversations sometimes with strangers, which is highly detrimental to their innocence as it can result in serious addiction. In this technological dispensation, a number of teenagers experience further stressful moments online as they get bullied by the people they meet and engage on social platforms. In such cases, they may become trouble-free targets of predators found online, and once they are maltreated, they may resort to practices that are more harmful to themselves and those around them. Teens that are unable to find love from their close family members and relatives or necessary support at schools often begin establishing relationships with their peers in local areas or school, which may sometimes lead to underage or illicit sex and probable teenage pregnancy. Those who become addicted to drug and substance abuse can easily cause untold harm to themselves and their peers, especially when they fail to get the expected outcomes. There are others who may indulge in one or more criminal activities once they realize they cannot get the support they need from those around them.

Summarily, the process of parenting teenagers is not easy, and those responsible for their upbringing need to be well prepared psychologically and materially to journey with these teens all along until they become independent to live on their own and make informed decisions regarding all aspects of life. It is normal for parents and relatives or teachers feeling exhausted following the laborious processes they go through while raising their children, but the reality is that once they persistently apply the right methods at every stage of child development, the outcomes will no doubt be satisfactory to every party in the society. Disaster dawns on the society where erroneous styles of parenting are adopted because the consequences may not be limited to parents alone but will affect the entire community, including distant relations. It is for such reasons that the government, in conjunction with the civil society, usually gets concerned whenever certain parents or teachers fail in their mandate to raise the children entrusted in their hands. Everyone gets concerned because the consequences will always be suffered unanimously and indiscriminately.

References

Alexie, S., Forney, E., & Zusak, M. (2016). The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. London: Andersen Press.

Breiner, H., In Ford, M. A., In Gadsden, V. L., & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.). (2016). Parenting matters: Supporting parents of children ages 0-8. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

Castenel, L. A., Grantham, T. C., & Hawkins, B. J. (2018). Recruiting, Retaining, and Engaging African-American Males at Selective Public Research Universities: Challenges and Opportunities in Academics and Sports. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Incorporated.

Coates, T.-N. (2015). Between the world and me. New York: Spiegel & Grau.

DiAngelo, R. J. (2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for White people to talk about racism. Boston: Beacon Press.

Growing Absence of Black Men in Medicine and Science: an American Crisis (Workshop), Laurencin, C. T., National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.). & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.). (2018). An American crisis: The growing absence of black men in medicine and science; proceedings of a joint workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Jensen, F. E., & Nutt, A. E. (2015). The teenage brain: A neuroscientist’s survival guide to raising adolescents and young adults. New York, NY: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.

Pedersen, P. B., Lonner, W. J., Draguns, J. G., Trimble, J. E., & Scharrón-del, R. M. R. (2015). Counseling Across Cultures. Thousand Oaks SAGE Publications.

Vance, J. D. (2017). Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a family and culture in crisis. Farmington Hills, Mich: Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning.

Weinstein, J. N., Geller, A., Negussie, Y., Baciu, A., & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.). (2017). Communities in action: Pathways to health equity. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Weisburd, D., In Majmundar, M. K., National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.)., National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.)., & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.). (2018). Proactive policing: Effects on crime and communities. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.