Early Adolescence Creating Health Conundrum

A study released in The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health reveals that adolescence is now happening earlier.

This study was conducted by Liverpool John Moores University and they revealed that the earlier occurrence of adolescence have been more noticeable for the past century.

Teenagers are experiencing adolescence earlier by showing adolescent behavior at an earlier age. This has actually revealed some positive behaviors on some young individuals since they are now able to adapt to the various challenges in their life.

But this can also lead to trouble when they are not harnessed with the help of the community especially by their parents.

There are two major factors that have greatly contributed to the early occurrence of puberty. First is the increased awareness of the health benefits of some foods and practices.

The ability to provide healthier foods while providing protection from various diseases is a lot easier for today’s parents. This allows significant growth for their kids even at an early age.

The second factor that has contributed to this occurrence is actually social. Many kids are now hitting puberty earlier because they grew up in a community that pushes for independence.

Many young individuals are now in the care of single parent so they are actually forced to be independent and think like an adult in order to help their single parent and survive the current condition in their homes.

While the early occurrence of puberty seems like a good idea because it fosters independence on young children, this can also cause trouble that may prevent a healthy development into adulthood.

Parents see their kids growing up in a very rapid rate – faster than what they used to and they may fail to acknowledge this phenomenon. Instead of adapting to the rapid changes of their kids, they ignore this fact and continue to treat their young adolescents as kids.

This often causes friction at home and frustration on the kids’ end who seeks understanding and confusing behavior.

When parents ignore the fact that their young kids are growing rapidly into adolescents, the results are often discomforting. Among them is unprotected sexual behavior, violence due to bullying, drug use and rebelliousness because of parents’ misunderstanding.

The problem of dealing with the kids’ rapid emotional aging have also increased because of the role of the media. The ideas about increased sexual freedom and intimacy are often pushed in various outlets.

Easy access to adult related websites, videos and articles that focuses on adult content can easily lead to misconception about sexual encounter.

This is harbored by the media because sex and intimacy always stimulates curiosity among teenagers and if the parent is unable to adapt to the things they are learning at an early age, wrong ideas about sex and even violence could be formed.

This is very challenging for parents, educators and the community. Puberty is now hitting earlier than ever and everyone has to significantly adapt to this conditions.

By adapting to what they learn and see as their kids hit puberty, the right guidance could be easily implemented which eases the transition from adolescence to adulthood.