Evaluating the seriousness of adolescent adjustment reactions

• Published in: Primary care Vol. 2; no. 2; p. 281
• Main Author: LeBow, J A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-06-1975
• Subjects: Adolescent; Affective Symptoms - epidemiology; Behavior; Female; Humans; Male; Mental Disorders - epidemiology; Neurotic Disorders - epidemiology; Personality Assessment; Social Adjustment; Stress, Psychological; Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology; Suicide, Attempted
• ISSN: 0095-4543
• DOI: 10.1016/S0095-4543(21)00175-5

Adolescents can be expected to inflict some pain on their environment periodically, and complete conformity of an adolescent is not necessarily a sign of mental health. With the exception of some particular behaviors such as a suicide attempt, auditory hallucinations, or a school phobia, one cannot make a prediction about the existence of, or seriousness of, a psychological problem of an adolescent based solely on the occurrence of any one particular antisocial act. Such typical adolescent problems such as stealing, truancy, sexual involvements, and drug use can be either a normal part of adolescent growth, the manifestation of a situational stress reaction, or the indication of a serious personality disturbance or identity crisis. Only by putting this behavior into the framework of an adolescent's age, social situation, general stress factors and developmental history can one attempt to reach a true evaluation of the seriousness of his behavior. To put it simply, one must try to understand the individual, rather than judging the behavior itself. The type of evaluation outlined here is often difficult and time consuming, but in terms of the long range help that it can be both to the teenager who is using his behavior as a means of asking for help and for the normal teenager who just needs to be told that he is not carzy, this is time and effort well spent.