Violence | Parenting Teens Blog

September 24, 2010

Risk Factors of Teen Violence

Filed under: violence — Tags: parenting teens, Risk Factors of Teen Violence, teen violence, teen violence risk factors, teen violence warning signs, teen violent behavior, warning signs of teen violence — admin @ 6:46 pm

Teen violence is a great issue that we deal with every day. It is hard to predict teen violence because causes vary and types of teen violence are many. But like with everything else there are risk factors and warning signs of teen violence that we can watch out for in order to prevent the teen violence from happening.

The basic risk factor of teen violence is the group your teen is hanging with. Based on the group that risks may be much higher or even totally absent.

-    African American teens have the homicide as the leading cause of death
-    Among Hispanic teens homicide is the second leading cause of death
-    Among teen homicide cases over 80% is the male rate, which leads to the fact that male teen violence is more probable of happening than female violence
-    That also goes for fighting, males are more likely to end up in a physical fight than females

But on the other hand with males being prevalent in everything they also increased the number of female teens of being forced to sexual intercourse to over 10%.
But, besides group factors there are individual risk factors and warning signs of teen violent behavior as well, along with the family factors:

-    Antisocial behavior and beliefs
-    Substance abuse, drugs, alcohol, tobacco
-    Frequent outburst of aggressive behavior
-    Learning disorder and attention deficit
-    Behavior issues
-    Social issues
-    Financial issues
-    Lack of in house discipline
-    Harsh and inappropriate home discipline
-    Low education level family
-    Violent behavior at home
-    Lack of parent involvement in teen activities
-    History of being abused

Like groups and home issues there are also risk factors of teen violence in schools to look out for. The school environment can sometimes be very stressful and can lead to various teen issues that may eventually lead to teen violence. Some of the risk factors around school include gang involvement, poor academic performance, low attendance, lack of supervision, rejection by classmates, bullying etc… The same goes for the community risk factors you should watch out for like low income neighborhood, social disorganization, lack of authorities etc…

These are the common risk factors that may incite teen violent behavior. They can also be considered as warning signs, so if your family or your teen shows and falls under these risk factors it would be wise to act immediately in order to avoid the increasing possibility of your teen acting out violently.

Share and Enjoy:

Comments (0)

September 23, 2010

Stats and Facts about Teen Violence

Filed under: violence — Tags: parenting teens, Stats and Facts about Teen Violence, teen violence, teen violence facts, teen violence statistics, teen violent behavior — admin @ 4:23 pm

We have great access to teen violence statistics as this is always a hot topic and various organizations keep track of these stats in order to raise the awareness about teen violence. So let’s look at some teen violence stats in order to raise the awareness about this horrible issue.

Violent crimes committed by teens:

-    Over 2000 kids under the age of 18 are arrested each year for murder
-    On average in the US 15 teens are killed each day
-    Little less than 10% of all murders in the US are committed by kids under the age of 18
-    One out of 10 teen arrests is related to violent behavior that may have caused a serious injury or death

Teen violence is something we have been dealing with for quite some time, and we still can’t show any results as the teen violent behavior seems to increase and fall each year showing no steady progress.

Suicide is also a form of teen violence that is often overlooked, but it is a fact that this is violence towards oneself and as such it needs to be treated with caution. So when we consider suicide as teen violence there are two things we need to know, number one is that the number 3 cause of death in the US among teens is suicide, number two is the alarming fact that one out of 11 teenagers have reported that they attempted to kill themselves.

So these are just stats when something happens, if we were to take into account the number of teens prone to hurting themselves and the rising number of self-injury and self-violence, not to mention suicidal feelings this would turn into a nightmare, those would be the stats from a horror movie, but he most frightening part would be that they are true.

But it doesn’t stop there, more prevalent forms of teen violence are lesser forms of violence, but that doesn’t make them less important. One out of three teens is either a bully or being bullied on a regular basis and in the past 12 months one out of three teens was involved in a fight

Other things that we need to think about are the costs and consequences of teen violent behavior:

-    The overall cost of teen violence each year is estimated to be over 160 billion dollars.
-    Every 15th student will skip school because he fears that he is going be bullied or is afraid of going to school because of some violent related issues
-    Communities that have a higher occurrence of teen violence often suffer increase rate of healthcare
-    Areas with high teen violence incidents will suffer a decrease in property values

These are some frightening stats about teen violence, but the fact is that they are reality that we need to deal with.

Share and Enjoy:

Comments (0)

September 22, 2010

Causes of Teen Violence

Filed under: violence — Tags: Causes of Teen Violence, parenting teens, teen violence, teen violence causes, teen violent behavior — admin @ 3:28 pm

Teen violence is always an active topic in the US. The fact that teens can show violent behavior is a shocking idea that mostly leaves us speechless. A recent hearing about the violent video games in the US has once again brought our attention towards the causes of violence in teens. Well, it is not easy to identify the causes of teen violence, so just saying video games are the cause will not suffice nor will it solve anything. Teen violence has many forms, most of them don’t use guns or don’t have anything to do with violent games, but they come in the form of bullying and verbal abuse.

The reasons behind the teen violence are still not 100% considered as fact, but one of the most common reasons for teen violence is modeling behavior, which is the fact that our kids are more likely to engage in violent behavior if they are exposed to it on regular basis, in their home, on the TV, in games or in their neighborhood. Other reasons may include a constant victim of teen violence that snaps and start lashing out.

There are plenty of other causes of teen violence. Any form of emotional issue can become a cause of violence. In most cases teens with learning disabilities can gather frustrations and simply burst at others in the form of violence. Most teens that don’t know how to handle their emotions and their frustrations are likely to burst in anger and some of them can go to the next step and act violently.

We can’t simply say it is this or that; it is impossible and very prejudicial to say that video game violence and movie violence are the main causes of teen violence. We are not simple beings, there are multiple factors involved when it comes to our behavior, and so in most cases it is a great combination of things that will lead to violence and violent behavior, but that combination also varies from one to the other.

One of the biggest causes of teen violence is accessibility to means that allow us to carry out violent behavior. In other words, if a teen has access to guns and other violent tolls, the chances of that teen acting violently increase. So what does that tell us? Well, even though we can’t pinpoint the exact causes of teen violence there are things that we can do to decrease the chances of our teen acting violently.

Share and Enjoy:

Comments (0)

April 6, 2010

Teen Violence, Learned Behavior

Filed under: teen behaviors,violence — Tags: Learned Behavior, parenting teens, parenting teens blog, teen issues, teen violence, teen violence learned, teen violence warning signs, violence, violent, violent behavior — admin @ 2:30 pm

Kids are not born violent, there is no such thing as a violent baby, so how do people become violent, how do our children, our teenage children become violent? Well the answer is easy, but solving that issue is not, they learn that type of behavior from us. Teenagers learn violent behavior in their home, from their parents, in the school and also some of it from television and games. Children that are exposed to that kind of behavior have a great chance to act violently sooner or later.

teen violence

The most commonly known factors that directly influence teenagers and children to act violently are being a victim of some kind of violence, physical or even sexual abuse. Almost every child that experience something like that has a great chance to turn to violence, statistics show that one out of three abused children turns out violent. Those are the stats for children being directly exposed to violence as victims, but a high chance of being violent has every child that sees violence every day. Teens that are exposed to violence at home or in their school, also children that watch extensive quantity of violent shows on TV or play violent games too much. For a little older teenager, use of drugs and alcohol increases the possibility of teen violence happening, also presence of firearms in the house may contribute. And of course there is always the social factor, wealth, single parenting, unemployment and other social factors.
So, it’s easy to figure out what parents and teachers should do in order to avoid teen violence, but sometimes single effort is not enough. Simply isolating, or trying to isolate, a child from all of those examples is impossible, so what is the best course of action, how to protect your child and prevent teen violence? Unfortunately there is no simple answer, but following a few things and avoiding certain situations should significantly diminish the number of cases with teen violence. It’s very important to remember that we as parents are the ones responsible for teen violence, not just parents but every grown up dealing with children. If they learned violent behavior they learned it because we somehow allowed that to happen.
In the end there is no other way to prevent than to care and to be educated, there are some teen violence warning signs that anyone can see and act on them. If you can’t prevent that from happening or if you can’t help your child deal with the situation at hand, there are of course professionals that can.

Share and Enjoy:

Comments (3)

November 3, 2009

World’s Strictest Parents

Filed under: addiction,ADHD,adolescents,drinking,Parent Support Groups,parenting teens,smoking,Teen Depression,Teen Drug Abuse,Teen Health,Teen Help,Teen Pregnancy,teen safety,teen sex,violence — Tags: ADD, ADHD, avoiding teen pregnancy, drugs, family, Parent Support Groups, parents, Teen Depression, teen drug use, Teen Pregnancy, teenagers, World's Strictest Parents — admin @ 11:09 am

Mom and Dad struggling with their sons behavior

The World’s Strictest Parents is a television series conceptualized and brought into fruition by Twenty Twenty Television and was originally broadcasted by BBC. The United States’ Country Music Television (CMT) and Australia’s Channel Seven both came up with their local versions of the hit TV series.

The primary concept behind the show is that two “unruly” teenagers are sent packing by their parents to live overseas with a strict host family for an entire week in an attempt to modify their heedless behavior. During the week they would receive an impact letter from their birth parents with a list of issues that they should try to correct.

In the United States, it takes on the format of a reality TV show with a running time of one hour. It was originally slated to be aired by MTV and the pilot episode was broadcasted on April 18, 2009. CMT eventually took over the show which is currently on its second season. Unlike the original series, the teenagers remained in their country and their parents came for them to evaluate their stay with the host family. In Britain, two teens leave their own family each week and lives for ten days under the roofs and rules of some of the World’s Strictest Parents. The series ventured on different locations – from Accra to Alabama, from Jaipur to Jamaica, unruly teenage Brits have experienced the discipline, educational values and uncompromising strictness of parents who have embraced the notion that enforcing firm discipline is the only way to raise a well-rounded teenager.

In the U.S., CMT features the remarkable journey of two unruly teens from different families as they are compelled to conform to the rules and regulations of their strict host parents. As they experience to live under different standards away from their own families, the ill-behaved teens will be subjected to punishment for skipping chores and breaking rules while the strict host parents try to fix their behavior.

The series tries to impart that rearing teenagers and enforcing traditional rules is no easy task. However, over time learning to live with certain limitations and enforced consequences will develop unique emotional journeys and personal turnarounds in teen behavior. Spending some time away from home enables the teenagers to reflect on how badly they treat their parents. The teenagers go through a roller-coaster of emotions and realizations – from culture shock to personal enrichment, from flare-ups and outbursts to heartrending re-unions, the teenagers experience what it’s like to live with strict rules and firm discipline – and learn to feel and appreciate the benefits.

For the second season, an all-new episode of the World’s Strictest Parents premiered on October 10 at 8:00 p.m. The regular timeslot is Saturdays at 8:00 to 9:00 p.m., ET/PT.

Share and Enjoy:

Comments (0)

Older Posts »