As the parent of a teenager, you have a lot to worry about. Teens today are faced with a lot of dangerous decisions and situations from drugs to bullying. The rate of teen suicides, eating disorders, drug use, depression, and other emotional and mental difficulties is extreme and can often be overwhelming for a parent to face and try to deal with.

The first step to helping your teen is to understand teenage behaviors and to understand the reality of the current situation. Here are some facts that are essential for parents to be aware of.

According to a recent study, 20% of teens will experience depression before reaching adulthood. Every 24 hours, over 1400 teens will try to commit suicide. Depression in teens has been linked to a 12 times increase in the risk of attempting suicide. Studies show that one in every three students will be bullied, and teens that are overweight, gay, or disabled are 63% more likely to be bullied.


Every day over 15,000 teens will try drugs for the first time and over 3500 teens will run away. Focus on weight and appearance skyrockets during these years and can directly impact teenage behaviors. Studies show that 95% of people that have an eating disorder are between the ages of 12 and 25.

In addition to all these social pressures, teens also feel pressure to excel in school. In recent studies, over 70% of teen respondents reported feeling a high level of pressure regarding their grades. The pressure for good grades and the fear of not getting into college has led to a dramatic increase in cheating. A CNN study involving 4500 high schoolers, showed that almost 75% of them admitted to serious cheating, primarily plagiarism. A majority of the students in the study also stated they didn’t feel copying answers was really cheating.

With all of these teenage behaviors to worry about, what is a parent supposed to do? As a parent, you want to know how to understand teenagers and how to parent a teenager. There are a wide range of programs that can help you learn how to deal with anxiety and depression in teens, abnormal teenage behavior, as well as teen anxiety and normal teenage behavior.

Understanding the issues for teenagers is the first step. Taking that information and applying it to how you interact with your teen will help. Learning teenage behavior management will allow you to parent your child while teaching him or her to become a well-adjusted adult.

Dealing with a serious issue like drug use or eating disorders can be extremely difficult andemtionally draining. However, it is never to late to make a change and connect with your teen. It is never to late to help your teen change andmanage their behavior.