QUESTION;

A group of parents seeks advice on how to support their teenagers during adolescence. How
would you guide them in addressing adolescent issues?
According to Santrock (2011), state that “parents are the primary caregivers and socializing
agents who influence a child’s development through emotional support, discipline,
communication, and role modeling.”

Parents are individuals, typically the biological or adoptive mother and father, who raise and
nurture children, shaping their values, behaviors, and overall development (arke & Buriel, 2006).

According to Maccoby & Martin (1983), they define parents as a key socializing agent who
interact with children in ways that influence their psychological and social development, often
categorized by parenting styles.”

Generally; “a parent is a person's father or mother; a caretaker who raises and nurtures of a child,
whether biologically related or blood or relative related who provide for the physical, emotional,
social, and intellectual needs of children, and have the responsibility to ensure their rights and
welfare.

According to Oxford English Dictionary (2020), Advice is guidance or recommendations offered

with regard to predict future action.

According to Jones, (2014), state that "advice refers to the process in which one person suggests
a course of action to another, often based on experience, knowledge, or expertise.”

Advice in counselling refers to direct suggestions from the counselor about what the client
should do, which is generally discouraged unless in educational or directive settings (Corey
2013).

Generally; Advice is a specific form of helping behavior that involves telling another person
what they should do, often based on a logical or moral standpoint that is given to influence
decisions, behavior, or beliefs.

According to Santrock (2019), Teenagers are individuals typically between the ages of 13 and
19, undergoing physical, emotional, cognitive, and social changes as they transition from
childhood to adulthood.
According to Erikson (1968), define teenage as the teenager period is a stage of psychosocial
development where individuals face the crisis of identity vs. role confusion, seeking to establish
a personal identity.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), (2014), teenagers are persons aged 10 to 19
years, representing a unique developmental phase of physical and psychological growth.

Generally; teenagers are individuals experiencing a transitional phase marked by biological

maturity and social dependence, where cognitive and emotional capacities are still developing,
that period known as a time of storm and stress that characterized by emotional turbulence and
conflict with parents, and risk-taking behavior.

Santrock (2019), Adolescence is the developmental period of transition from childhood to

adulthood, it involves biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes typically beginning
from around age 10 to the early twenties.

Adolescence; is the period in human growth and development that occurs after childhood and
before adulthood, from ages 10 to 19, characterized by rapid physical, cognitive, and
psychosocial growth (World Health Organization (WHO), 2014)

Adolescence; is a critical stage in the psychosocial development where the main task is to form a
coherent sense of identity, resolving the crisis of ‘identity vs. role confusion (Erikson, 1968).

Generally; Adolescence is a transitional phase from dependency to independence, marked by

significant brain development and increased sensitivity to peer influence, risk taking, and
emotional regulation, adolescents often experience emotional clashes with parents due to a
growing desire for independence.

The following are some characteristics of teenagers according to Santrock (2019)

a) Sexual attraction
b) Cognitive development
c) Rapid physical growth
d) Experiencing shines and greater interest in privacy
e) Increase desire of independence
According to Johnston at el, (2020) the following are the examples of adolescent issues that
should be addressed to the teenage students by parents or any other peoples

a) Parent Teen Conflict

b) Sexual desire challenges
c) Substance Abuse
d) Early and unplanned pregnancies
e) Academic pressure

The following below are the strategies on how to advice parents to support the teenagers and to
address adolescent issues to their teenagers.

Through guiding parents to promote mental health awareness to the teenagers: mental
health challenges among Tanzanian youth are significant. According to Kutcher (2019), says
"with over 80% experiencing issues like anxiety and depression. To address this problem the
parents should provide mental health awareness to the teenagers and using other institution that
provide mental health awareness to the teenagers like AHADI digital mental health platform that
have been established to provide mental health services that are culturally relevant, also it
provide stigma free care through a mobile app, SMS helpline (15061) and hot call helpline (199)
providing access to mental health support, crisis counseling and professional care. So as a parent
support your child seeking help when needed, emphasizing that mental health is important as
physical health. This strategy can be used to solve unplanned pregnancy, and solving the issue
like children engaging in early childhood love affairs

Through guiding parents to encourage teenager's active participation in community

activities: According to Alkahtani, & Al-Qahtani, (2017) state that by engaging in community
activities will make the teenagers or adolescent to become busy, by being busy it helps to avoid
some adolescent issues like conflicts, engage in lover affairs and irrigable practice like rubbery.
Active participation also helps a teenager to gain the skills and positive socialization that make a
teenager free from risk of to engage in improper actions (Nickki, 2006). So as a parent should
encourage students to engage in community activities. This strategy can be used to solve
adolescent issues like depression, feeling of loneliness and unplanned pregnancy.
Through guiding parents to have sense of active listening to the teenager’s problems: In
case if an adolescent or teenager children come to seek for help or express his or her challenges
to a parent, a parent should pay attention to him or her and listening very carefully by showing
care on what is said by a child, active listening will help a parent to know how to help a child
based on reported problems. By active listening also will help a child to be comfortable as he or
she feel he or she is at a right place, and by showing inactive listening the child will be feeling
with stress and any other negative attitude by lacking help from his or her parents. For example,
a female child seek help by a problem of failure in academic at school to a parent, as a parent
you need to give him or her the support and techniques on how to perform well and failure at
once is not means that is a failure forever. This strategy can be used to solve the problem of
stress (Doda, 2008).

Through guiding parents to encourage teenager open communication: A parent should

create an environment with a teenager, the environment where open and honest communication
is encouraged to make sure that a teenager knows that he or she can talk to you about anything
without fear of judgment or punishment. This will help your teenager to be very open for
anything that facing him or her, and by doing this will help you as parent to found solution of
adolescent’s specific problems and show him or her ways of solving the problem and avoid the
coming risk related to the adolescent problem. Example when an adolescent child come with
pregnancy problem make her to have freedom to express her problem without interrupt
negatively while she speaking, like showing angry, catching a stick and any other thing that can
create fear to the teenager and that fear lead to lack of open communication. This is used to solve
adolescent problems like anxiety and stress, and academic failure problems (Loewenberg, 2009).

Through guiding parents to strengthen family bonds: A parent should create family bond by
creating environment for quality time together. Spending quality time together as a family to
strengthen bonds and create a supportive home environment, family activities and traditions can
provide a sense of stability and connection, this can create enough time to a teenager to spend
time with parents and also a parent being together with a teenager, this it help to understand and
identify teenager challenges and a parent know how to help a children, but also family bound it
help to reduce the time for a teenager to engage in risk actions and behavior by spending enough
time together (Falconier, 2022). This will help to solve adolescent issues like conflicts, engage in
love affairs and engaging in substance use.
Through guiding parents to support teenager's self-esteem and identity formation: A parent
should create positive reinforcement by encouraging and acknowledging the teenagers to know
their strengths and accomplishments. Positive reinforcement can boost their self-esteem and
confidence. Not only that, but also a parent should support the teenagers in exploring their
interests and developing their own identity, celebrate their uniqueness and encourage them to
stay true to themselves. By teenagers understand themselves they be able to do the right things
while they are in teen age or adolescent age (Pazer, 2024). This it helps to solve the adolescent
issues like anxiety and stress.

Through guiding parents to foster problem-solving and critical thinking: According to

(Nickki, 2006) Instead of solving problems for them, help teens learn how to think through
challenges themselves Example: If your teen forgets their homework, don’t rush to fix it. Ask,
“What can you do differently next time so this doesn’t happen again?”Talk through
consequences of decisions: “If you skip studying, how might that affect your test score and your
goals?”Encourage them to come up with solutions before offering your own.

Through guiding parents to encourage academic responsibility without pressure: According

to Nelson-Jones, R. (2014). In School is important, but so is mental health and well-being
Excessive pressure can lead to anxiety, burnout, and even resentment toward school.Teens are
still developing time management, focus, and emotional regulation. Encouraging a growth
mindset (learning from mistakes) helps long-term success more than chasing perfect
grades.Example: Instead of asking “what did you get on the test?” ask “How did you feel about
the test? Was it hard or manageable?”

Through guiding parents to encourage physical exercise to the teenagers: The parents should
encourage exercise in which during adolescence period the teenager their bodies changing
quickly so this help to improve their mood, reduce stress,keep their muscles and bones strong
and make to confident.This lead to the changes in their life example staying active and take care
of their health and to develop team work skill.

In general summary: Adolescent period is time that a child need intensive care from parents,
teachers and other majorities in order a teenager to handle the situations that facing him or her,
the changes that occur in their bodies, emotional changes, psychological changes sometimes go
beyond of a adolescent control, so in order a child or teenager to be safe a parents and teachers
need to pay much attention to the teenagers by using various ways to help them, so, provision of
education and getting enough time to be near with the teenagers will help to reduce the
adolescent issues and make a teenagers to be safe from the risk behavior.
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