Adolescence and Parenting

Pre-adolescence and adolescence characterise development from puberty (11-12 years old) to near adulthood. It is a rather long period and for this reason a very important phase in the lives of both young people and their parents. Young people must cope with numerous physical and bodily transformations as well as psychological changes (often also due to biological transformations). The process requires enormous energy from young people, who therefore invest their cognitive abilities, emotional sphere and social skills (Moderato-Rovetto). This is the period when individual identity develops. The beginning (pre-adolescence) is marked above all by biological indicators, while its end is linked to social criteria, responsibility, gaining autonomy from the family and finding one’s own path in the world of education and work.

The changes occurring at the physical-bodily and psychological level lead adolescents to modify their self-image and to constantly compare themselves with the image others have of them and with others themselves. At the same time, parents see their children changing and suddenly the relationship changes considerably. Parents, having been through it themselves, would like to do everything to prevent certain difficulties… but let us remember that all young people must go through this. As early as 1904, Stanley Hall (Adolescence, 1904) provided a biological key to the concept of adolescence, viewing it as a period in which a person experiences a new birth both biologically and in terms of personality. The emotional turmoil that every adolescent feels is typical and the same for all young people. In 1928, Mead also introduced the cultural concept in the experience of adolescence: the type of inner emotional conflicts, intergenerational ones and the intensity with which these conflicts are experienced would therefore be the product of the culture of reference. Piaget (1972) added the cognitive aspect to the attempt to better understand this period and focused his studies on transformations in thought and ways of acquiring knowledge. More recently, Bandura (known for his learning theories) highlighted the mechanisms through which development in adolescence is influenced by stimuli from the environmental context.

Environment, family and culture are therefore all very important factors. As a psychologist, I often work with a team of educators and personal trainers with adolescents for prevention purposes. Prevention consists of having adolescents participate in sports (for example horse riding, gymnastics etc.) and at the same time classroom lessons through Rocco Persampieri’s Character Discipline course, and where problems arise (which often emerge in group life and during the course) among peers, in the family, at school etc., there are psychological sessions. One of the biggest issues at the moment is addiction to video games, mobile phones and social media. We work together with young people to limit their use and through individual programmes we help them keep their usage under control. There is also particular attention to bullying and anti-bullying programmes. For information, contact me!