“Immature Parents No Help To Adolescents”

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31123, 28 July 1966, Page 25

“Immature Parents No Help To Adolescents”

The immaturity of so many parents, the tendency of adults to suppress recollection of their own adolescence, a loss of religious conviction ana the demands of presentday competition were some of the influences resulting in adolescent problems today, Dr. G. M. Gray, a physician with the Student Health Service at the University of Canterbury, told a meeting of Life-line counsellors. Adults were inclined to look on the young as problems, but it was well to realise that 44 per cent of the population of Christchurch was 24 years of age or under. The figure for New Zealand as a whole was 47 per cent.

Adolescents go through a turbulent, disorganised stage, during which they were asked to face greater bodily changes than at any other time of their lives.

It was normal for adolescents to be preoccupied with themselves and to wish to be sexually mature. Recognition Needed While they did well in their studies and jobs, many adolescents felt unsure of themselves, Dr. Gray said. They needed recognition as people in their own right. They needed the ability to rely on their own resources. Rebellion against parents was at times an attempt to prove this. While wanting to rely on themselves, few adolescents denied the need for guidance and a philosophy of life, Dr. Gray said. Of the 5500 consultations held by the Student Health Service last year, 13} per cent involved mental health problems, he said. Mental health did not mean that a person was free of all conflicts and stresses and strains, but that he was able to handle them. It was when

conflicts were interferring with his life and causing dia bility of some kind that a person was not completely mentally healthy. All people had some conflicts or emotional problems in their lives. One of the major problems in counselling adolescents was to be interested without being inquisitive, Dr. Gray said. He had found that patient listening was all that was required to dispel tension. Acne was the greatest cause of unhappiness among teenagers. It scarred the skin and could scar the soul. Many sufferers harboured secret guilty thoughts that something they had done might have caused the condition. This was not so, as it was a physical condition caused by hormones released in the skin at pubery, and could be controlled.