The bully is often known as the campus monster. He or she ruins everyone in school, even the teachers. Bullying is an abusive behavior by a single or a group of students against a student/s a.k.a. their victim/s. The process usually involves threatening, stalking, stealing, teasing, hitting and taunting. There are also other subtle kinds of bullying, which include spreading rumors, deliberate exclusion and malicious gossiping. Bullies always manage to isolate or reject the victims.

Bullying often reaches its peak during junior high school, then gradually declines later in high school years. Thus, only physical bullying decreases. However, verbal and other types of bullying still continue. Whether it is direct or indirect, the primary indication of bullying is characterized with psychological and physical intimidation. Hence, it usually occurs repeatedly, which can be similar to consistent harassment or abuse.

Teenagers that drop out from high school usually confront bigger problems later in life. There are several reasons why teenage kids have left school. For instance, they need to help out their family cope up with financial issues. In some cases, their decisions are supported by their significant others.

Other reasons for youth drop out include:

* didn’t like the school environment.
* didn’t like the people in the campus or the teachers.
* had been suspended, expelled or subjected to disciplinary actions.
* poor grades or could not keep up with school work.
* didn’t feel safe being in school
* had alcohol or drug problem
* got married or got pregnant

Take note that dropouts mostly make up the households on welfare. They also make up almost half the prison population. It is best that parents should encourage their teenagers to graduate from high school.

Distinguishing normal teen rebellion from a teenage behavior problem is very hard for some parents. In short, they often could not tell which is which. They will only realize that their teenage kids are having a real behavior problem when things get extremely worst.

Teen behavior problem is also known as Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). It is a pattern of defiant, disobedient and negative behavior. It is actually a conduct disorder, in which teenagers persistently and consistently rebel or violate rules and even the rights of others. They usually don’t care about the consequences of their improper actions.

ODD, by definition, include:

* always arguing or fighting with adults
* uncontrollable temper
* refusing and violating rules
* defying requests
* deliberately disturbing other people
* blaming others for one’s own misdemeanor
* easily angered, annoyed, resentful or vindictive

A teenager is said to have ODD when he or she has a persistent pattern of hostility and disobedience towards authorities like parents and other adults.

Parents usually become helpless when they see their kids coping with stress. Most parents are clueless on how to handle the situation. In most cases, parental intervention can become very frustrating. Teenagers conceive it as invasion of privacy. They often reason out with “you don’t understand,” and most of the time become unreasonable. However, you just can’t leave your teenagers coping on their own. They might resort to alcohol or drug abuse.

Here are some tips on how to help your teenage cope with stress:

* Listen attentively and watch out for any signs of stress overload.
* Learn and practice stress management skills.
* Always monitor if stress has already affected your kids’ feelings, thoughts, health and behavior.
* Try to involve your teenagers in social activities such as sports.

Most of the times parents fail to recognize that their teenagers are having stress. Just because they are kids, it doesn’t mean they don’t have personal issues. Teenage kids are just like adults. They are even more vulnerable when they become stressed out. They have lesser tolerance than grown ups. As parents, you should be able to identify the condition, or it might become a full-fledge depression or aggression.

There are various factors that lead to teenage stress:

* body changes, or wanting to have the ideal body
* peer problem or pressure
* demands and frustrations in school
* family issues like separation or divorce
* negative concept about themselves
* death in the family
* moving to a new neighborhood or school
* high expectations
* chronic illness
* financial problems of the family

When teenagers become overwhelmed with stress, they usually become carried away. In most cases, they will learn to develop their own coping mechanism. Some of these kids turn to alcohol or even drugs.

Traditionally, parents set the rules and consequences. Teenagers, on the other hand, apparently have to follow them. However, your kids most likely disobey you and end up being punished. The situation usually leads to sulking and even worst – rebellion.

You don’t really want your kids to develop bad behavior or attitude. Before any matter becomes worst, you have to design some “rule plan.” You can start by involving your youngsters in the process of setting the rules and punishment. In this way, they will be more conscious of following such rules. They will no longer say how unfair the rules are, or yet punishment are over the top.

Generally, parents assert their control over their children, especially in the matters of rules. You can make some changes by allowing your teenagers to gain control over their actions. However, you still have to be on the lookout. Make them identify the pros and cons of their actions. Let them be the one to submit to the consequences in case they will fail you. In turn, there will be no hard feelings.

When your kids start to cross that puberty line, you also need to change or upgrade your parenting skills. Number one rule: try to treat them as adults, because they always will use “stop treating me as a kid” line against you. Teenagers begin to believe that they are becoming adults, and they should be perceived as grown ups. Primarily, parent-teen relationship has three main considerations: psychological autonomy, connection and monitoring.

Psychological autonomy means you should learn to respect and honor your teenagers’ ideas or thoughts, even if you don’t agree with them. You should be able to encourage your kids to have independent thinking as well as expression. Validating their feelings, thoughts and beliefs is a way to hone psychological autonomy. In turn. They will have more confidence in themselves. If you think their ideas are not good, try to talk about it in a good way, and not in a rejecting manner.

It is really essential that you should learn to establish a certain connection towards your teenage kids. The connection should be positive and consistent. You must be able to show love, respect, confidence, stability and warmth. In this way, you can nurture your teenagers to grow with values. They will become positive individuals towards others. They will display more empathy and compassion to others. They will also have strong and stable self-confidence, particularly in their relationship with other people. The point is, your teenagers will develop good social skills through your connection.

Monitoring is also equally important. You should be able to know your kids’ activities. If you know what they are doing, they will more likely stay out of trouble. Also, know their peers and everyone they are going out with. Parental monitoring often avoid chances for bad influences and other negative peer pressure.