
Teenagers’ laziness can really annoy parents, but this is likely to change in time.
STATES CHRONICLE – Parents should not worry, moody teenagers will grow to be less sensitive, new study has revealed after following the evolution of young adolescents from Netherlands. The conclusion of the new researche gives hope to parents, who were worried their children will never grow up to be the responsible adults they should be.
Parents usually have to confront themselves with most of their children’s moods. Whether they are too lazy or too angry, teenagers often give parents headaches, but researchers reassure them that this will only last for a brief period of time. Once they become mature, adolescents turn into more emotionally stable individuals.
Scientists at the University of Utrecht and the University of Amsterdam gathered 500 Dutch teenagers to see how emotional moods evolved in time. Participants had ages between 12 and 18 years old and belonged to families of middle and high social strata.
They were asked to keep personal diaries on the Internet over a three-week period during the school year and express their anxiety, anger, happiness and sadness. The same process was repeated every year over the course of the following five years. Scientists have compared the diaries that participants have written to determine whether teenagers have changed during this period of time or not.
At the end of the experiment researchers have found out that moody teenagers will grow to be less sensitive in time. This fact can be easily observed by simply reading their notes. Hans M. Koot, the co-author of the study thinks this is a strong indicative that teenagers’ behavior subsides by itself.
As a matter of fact, respondents’ sensitivity decreased during the five years’ period by 40 percent. Koot recommends parents to ignore their children’s emotional bursts and wait for teenagers to mature in their own time. Worries should appear when teenagers continue to be emotionally aroused after the puberty period. Such conduct could signal psychological problems and may require special attention on parents and medical experts’ behalf.
The study was published in the journal Child Development.
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