Question

Assertion: Parents and teachers of adolescents should be alert of the sudden unusual change in the behaviour of the adolescents
Reason: The sudden change in behaviour might be due to drug/alcohol abuse or smoking

Answer 1

Adolescents are individuals within the average age group of 12-18 years who are transitioning from childhood to adulthood.

During adolescence, the young individuals undergo major changes in their physical appearance and experience hormonal surge due to puberty (attainment of sexual maturity). They are also in a constant state of mental struggle as they undergo cognitive, social, and emotional changes on their way to attaining maturity during late adolescence or early adulthood.

Thus, the minds of adolescents are highly impressionable and vulnerable to being affected by everything that happens around them. Adolescents struggle for identity and a sense of independence and demand to be respected for their opinions.

Unnecessary pressure to excel in studies, sports or other fields, imposing decisions on adolescents and ignoring their wishes and ambitions also results in depression, anxiety and the emergence of rebellious behaviour in young individuals.

Resorting to bad habits such as drug and alcohol abuse, smoking, etc becomes their way of enforcing a feeling of independence by defying elders.

Adolescents are highly influenced by their peers and often struggle to make an impression on them. This can be harmful in the wrong company as the desire to come across as ‘cool’ amongst peers many times pushes adolescents in the wrong path of smoking and drug/alcohol abuse. Sometimes adolescents mimic the behaviour of seniors who drink or smoke to gain their approval. Peer pressure is one of major causes behind smoking or drug/alcohol abuse by adolescents.

Adolescents fail to realise the degree of negative impact such bad habits can have on their lives. Thus, parents and teachers of adolescents should be alert of their changing behaviour to prevent them from indulging into such habits. Hence the assertion is true.

The most common warning signs of these bad habits include drop in academic performance, irregularity in school or college, sudden unusual change in behaviour like isolation and distance from friends and family, depression, increased aggressiveness, etc. Hence the reason is also true and it is the correct explanation of the assertion.