Issues Affecting Teenagers at Adolescent Stage, And Roles of Parents and Teachers in Dealing with them

1. Introduction

Issues Affecting Teenagers at Adolescent Stage, And Roles of Parents and Teachers in Dealing with them

There are many effects associated with the puberty stage in teenagers. One of the factors is the decrease in performance in school, according to various studies that have been undertaken worldwide. There are many duties that parents, together with parent’s teachers, should perform to ensure that students are maintained adequately in shape and also tracking the performance of the students. Puberty stages are known to begin at the age of 10 to 11 and comprise emotional, physiological, social, and neurocognitive changes. This is the essential stage in human development, and also a stage that changes the performance of school children and adolescents.

1.1 The problem to be solved

The main purpose of this to identify how puberty affects education and, possible ways teachers, guardians and parents can solve this.

1.2 Importance of this study

Parents teachers and guardians have for an extended period faced challenges in dealing with teenagers that are in the puberty stage that has developed negative attitudes toward education. Coping with such teenagers might be hard sometimes. This study will enable the mentioned characters to deal with teenagers facing challenges and ensures that they are back in track in their studies. Different findings in this study will help parents, guardians and teachers to understand the main effects and controls of teenagers, from the data collection and analysis made. Some teenagers might also get to understand the impact of puberty, and might help them go through the stage successfully without difficulty, as they will be aware of good things ahead of them after successful education period.

1.3 Scope of the study

This study concentrated only on the effects of adolescent among the teenagers to education, and roles parents, guardians and teacher can play in order to make teenagers understand the stages and manage stage successfully. This study also focused on the negative effects of the adolescent stage to education, main causes, and how it can be solved. It involved collecting data from different sources, to help the audience understand fully how the problem is to be addressed adequately. The data of this study were collected during the beginning of 2020.

2.0 Related literature review

School institutions play a role in promoting health, and ethical behaviour among teenager’s students in their school (Vinecent et al. .2014) but are healthier students better learners? This literature in its investigations based on the effects of most dominant health-related behaviours such as the use of alcohol and marijuana, nutrition, smoking physical activity bullying, sexual intercourse and excess use of screen (internet, television and video games)-on the academic performance of adolescent teenagers. This literature obtained thirty studies from medical, educational psychological and social research that dates back to 1992. From this literature, it was found that healthy nutrition and participating in various games have a tremendous positive effect in the performance of teenagers, on the other hand, early sexual intercourse, alcohol consumption, smoking, bullying and some scree time behaviours have an overall of negative effects. In general, health-related behaviours and academic performance and were found to be dependent on contextual factors and often mediated by social structures. Psychosocial problems and demographics. Findings in this literature were interpreted by the use of sociological theories.

Another review by (Daniel & Russel) claims that education is known to be a determinant of health, but there is increased claims that health in puberty may also influence educational performance and how life would be in future.in their review they examined associations of health in adolescent and outcomes in academic and job performance and strategies of interventions. This literature study used the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. Puberty health was measured at waves that is 1 and 2. Results included an educational performance at the age of 16 and those who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) at the age of 19 years. They adjusted their association for ethnicity, area-level deprivation and early adolescent academic performance. They also examined the role of mediators, including attendance and truancy, classroom behaviour, psychological distress and substance use.

From their results, health conditions in early adolescence showed poor education and employment outcomes they had an OR that ranged from 1.25 to 1.72, not including long-term chronic conditions and NEET status that were not associated. The main effects of leading health in this study was social exclusion, truancy, and lousy school behaviour.

They concluded that health is a crucial role in academic and vocational goals. Investing in health is a way of uplifting life chances. Identification of key mediators like social exclusion and truancy shows areas were screened for health conditions and provision of ideas that could help in improving educational, health and employment outcomes.

3.0 Methods of the study

3.1 Where Data was Obtained From

A questionnaire was prepared and distributed to the student’s staff and lectures of Southwest state university, providing them with issues possible that might lead to teenagers in adolescent stage to have mixed reactions on education and their response percentage was recorded, and do teachers and parents have a role to play to contain this mixed reaction among the teenagers. The parcel with questioners was randomly distributed to a sample of eighteen individual in the university six of parcels to students, six to university staff and six to lectures. There was a total of eighteen parcels each carrying three questions.

3.2 Selection of the Sample

In order to find long-range data from students, university staff and lecturers, stamped parcels with questions was given to an individual, so that the outcomes would come from individual-based opinions. The parcels had addresses of where to deliver the parcels to, after answering of questions is completed. This helped because the information was based on individual reasoning and understanding. The parcels were made confidential, and each participant was able to give results with no influence from others.

3.3 Methods of Computing Data

During data computations, simple techniques were used, in computing the percentage of response among students, lecturers and university staff, and a large population that chose specific issue as the reasons as to why teenagers have mixed reactions towards academics. Out of the three parties that is students, parents and lectures the respond was high in lectures because of the eighteen samples, many lectures gave more feedback compared to teachers and students.

3.4 Limitations of Data Collection

Questionnaire as a method of data collection has a lot of limitations since everyone answers questions in his or her comfort zone it is difficult to read their facial expression, on the other hand, it is not an accurate method to contact survey as some participants might not wish to give real results. The questionnaire also does not cover extended range; it is limited to a few individuals that are lucky to give their feedback. Also, all the issues in the questionnaire may not have covered all the issues that are affecting teenagers in education matters.

4.0 Findings

4.1 Demographic profile

Based on the number of respondents, lectures are the leading in percentages, followed by university staff and lastly the students. Every respondent was told to write their occupation, either lecture or student or staff. This made it possible to know the number of respondents in all three fields, and simple computation of percentages was used to reflect the area with a higher number of respondents. Lectures were leading with feedback the gave this is demonstrated in the figure below.

Figure 1: One respondent percentage

Feedback on the issues that might lead to mixed reactions of teenagers towards education

Every respondent was provided with a number of items, and they were to pick on the issue that mostly leads to mixed reactions toward education among the youths. Below is the table showing the results.

Table 1: Issues affecting youth.

From the above table, there is a lot of information that can be obtained. There is a range of issues that affects the youth, but respondents from lectures, the staff of university and students shows that substance use is the leading issue that has affected the performance of youth in school. Cyberbullying (10%) on the other hand from the finding has shown that it is an issue that affects the performance of the teenagers. Teen violence (63%) also contributes to the reasons some teenagers lose focus on education; from data collected, it is the second issue that most affects the youth. From these similar research findings as that of (Vinecent et al. .2014), bullying and drug abuse are the ones that have greatly affected the youth so much.

For the second question about the weather parents and lectures have a role to play or not, there was a larger percentage in the number of those who supported the fact that the parents and teachers have a role to play in dealing with teenagers, and their changing behaviour. The data is represented below by the use of the table.

Table 2: do parents and teachers have a role to play?

From the response of students, lecturers and staff, it has shown that parents and lecturers have a role to play in teenagers, to improve their performance in school.

Conclusion

Bullying is the worst problem that teenagers face and has affected millions of youth. Bullying makes the victim be very fearful, and thus makes teenagers fear to go to school daily. Some teenagers may be exposed to extreme bullying that might lead to mental problems because they hardly feel the effect instantly. The main reasons teenagers face bullying is their facial appearance and social status. Also, addiction to the internet from the study, shows that it also affects most youth. There are advantages of the internet such as the ability of the teen to grow with changing technology, earning technical ideas and other advantages, however, when teenagers use social network websites, unsafely possess risks to teenagers. Teenagers may become cyber addicted is they spend most of the time on the internet. Use of substance among the youth is also another challenge that can make deviate from learning activities and concentrate on unnecessary activities. Most youths that are affected by the use of drugs are those who are at their early stages of adolescence. They take drugs and substances, mainly due to peer pressure. From the study, most of the respondents agree that the parents and school have a role to play leading teenagers to the good life. Teenagers look up to the system of education and also how parents treat them and guide them.

Recommendations

1. Education systems should introduce guiding and counselling sessions to help guide students in school
2. Units in school such as drug abuse and effects should be introduced, educate the youths on the effects of drugs, and how they should abstain.
3. Most teenagers watch porn that affects their view of education, teenagers accessing internet should be controlled by the parents in keeping track on what they are accessing on the internet, and limiting their time in the internet
4. Parents should always reach the teens, and understand them, and make teens understand some of the things they are going through in their stage of adolescent to avoid them thinking otherwise.
5. Introducing possible punishments of teens that bully other teens based on facial appearance and social status discrimination.
6. Talking to paediatrician whenever there are changes in the performance and behaviour of a teenager.

Appendix A

Questionnaire

Issues Affecting Teenagers at Adolescent Stage, And Roles of Parents and Teachers in Dealing with them

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A survey is being conducted at south-west state university, to determine how adolescent in teenagers affect education and the roles of parents and teachers in solving associated problems. Kindly return the questionnaire in the enclosed envelope by Tuesday, April 21.

1. What are the main issues that affect teenagers and their education? Please mark one response in one line.

2. Which one area from question one do you think to affect teenagers most?

3. Which of the issue in question 1 do you think has the least effect in teenagers?

4. Do you think parents and teachers have a role to play when dealing with teenagers? Kindly choose on in the box provided below.

Note: question 5 helps in developing the demographic profile of the respondents.

5. You are lecturer, a student or staff of the university? Fill in the below.