Top 7 Challenges Faced by Teenagers Today in Kenya

Did you know the categorization of Teenagers wasn’t a thing until the 1920s? In earlier centuries, there were children and adults and nothing in between.

The emergence of this group brought with it long-term changes that affected how children transitioned to adulthood.

The challenges faced by teenagers today partly stemmed from these changes because:

• The teenager label had to come with an identity that wasn’t positive
• Teenagers were given fewer responsibilities at home as high school was introduced
• They spent more unsupervised time together
• Parents had less time to discipline their teenagers
• Society started producing products to attract them

Today’s teenage issues have a long history, and the world doesn’t offer a solution you can trust as a parent.

That means you must be proactive in learning how to help your teenager navigate the adolescent years. To help you become effective, here are the seven commonest problems teenagers face today.

1. Smartphone Addiction

Studies have shown that smartphone addiction is more common in teenagers than any other age group, and the earlier a teen owns a phone, the higher the chances of a prolonged addictive pattern.

For the teenager, meeting people through social media, mobile apps, and texting platforms can lead to an attachment to the point they believe their virtual friends are more important than real-life relationships.

As your teenager interacts online, they are likely to meet predators, unhealthy information, and explicit sexual content. Phone addiction also leads to psychological problems for teenage students because it reduces mental function and sluggishness.

Your role is to help your teenager understand that the mobile phone produces an unhealthy mindset and behavior that leads to negative effects like the challenge of forming meaningful relationships in the real world.

Sensitizing them of the challenges of teenage life found in smartphone addiction, like low impulse control, anxiety, depression, and altered self-image, will give them a reason to monitor their phone use without telling them to stop overusing.

2. Conflict Between Peer Pressure and Parental Pressure

You often hear of peer pressure and forget that parents also pressure their teenagers to behave a certain way. At this stage, your teenager desires acceptance and to belong to a group outside the home. At the same time, they want to please their parents.

Your teen finds themselves in a dilemma that forces them to choose whom to follow. The conflict they go through easily leads to teenage stress.

You can reduce the burden for your teen by teaching them from an early age to choose their friends wisely to reduce the number of things that conflict with how you want them to behave.

You can also instruct them on how to deal with peer pressure wisely.

Teen pressure is usually conditional such that you have to do something for them to accept you. Letting your teen understand these dynamics and offering unconditional acceptance to counter what their peers offer will greatly help win them over to your side.

At some point, they may give in to negative peer pressure and suffer the consequences. Use this failure as an avenue to correct them lovingly and accept them even when they fall. You will have earned good ‘bonga’ points that will make them seek your counsel.

3. Body Image Issues

Body image concerns are among the top issues affecting the youth today. For a teenager, this is the period their bodies changes drastically, with little time to process their new look.

They find it hard to love their body and feel comfortable with their appearance because the changes take a new form as they progress in adolescence.

Among other factors, social media has caused the number of teenagers having body image issues to rise. As a parent in this age of technology, the burden for you has become greater, and your positive affirmation from an early age is needed.

Watch out for eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating, which can arise as your teen tries to cope.

Understanding what they are going through is a reality in their minds goes a long way in assisting them to process the body image issues they are experiencing.

Validating their feelings and thoughts simultaneously, offering guidance, and educating them will help move them toward accepting their bodies.

4. Underage Sex and The Hook-up Culture

Today’s teens understand hook-up culture as the norm, and some believe it is the only way to have fun when meeting their peers. You would agree that movies, series, social media sites, and teen magazines have played a major role in normalizing underage sex.

The TV shows glorify casual teenage sex and portray teens who practice the hook-up culture as enjoying life while the rest are seen as nerds or losers.

It is a known fact that most parents rarely believe their teenagers are sexually active. Keeping your mind open and realizing your teenager has the potential to engage in sexual activity will prompt you to be proactive in educating them about sex.

Studies have shown the earlier and more consistent a parent is in having sex education conversations with their children, the higher the chances of the teenager delaying any sexual activity.

Since you cannot prevent your child from being online or watching shows, teaching them to sieve the narrative presented and use reasoning while engaging in these entertainment platforms will help them compare reality versus acting.

5. Substance Abuse

In Kenya, current statistics indicate that half of the drug users are aged between 10-19years, and the common drugs of choice are nicotine, cannabis, and alcohol.

Teenagers often underestimate the long-term effects of substance abuse, and the adolescent changes that trigger risk-taking push them to try drugs. As with most drug addicts, teenagers also believe they can control their drug use and not become dependent on them.

Some of the top teenage issues today that cause teens to engage in drugs include stress, curiosity, peer pressure, emotional issues, and getting back at their parents.

Having conversations revolving around these issues and educating them on the negative effects and life-long impact of this habit will greatly help them. In addition, setting limits and consequences while offering supportive help if your teen is already experimenting is a starting point in resolving the issue.

6. Mental Health Issues

Mental health issues generally include any condition that affects your teenager’s perception, mood, behavior, and thinking pattern. It may be hard for you as a teen parent to differentiate at first because you may have already noticed such changes as your teen is in the adolescent stage.

Getting professional help when your instinct tells you there’s something else going on with your teen can save you from going through a drug-related stressful period later in life.

Depression, anxiety disorder, eating disorders, and social phobias are common mental health disorders among teenagers. Knowing the common teenage mental illness symptoms of the above disorders can help you catch them and intervene early.

7. Godlessness

These are the times when anything goes as long as it makes you happy, where truth is relative (even when the facts stare at you), and respecting authorities is shunned. Any religious affiliation is looked at as going against what the majority wants.

International media shows children as young as seven years being allowed to make permanent sex changes irrespective of their parent’s wishes and their Christian values. When society rejects the existence of God, the moral lawgiver, the only other option is for people to do whatever they want.

Your teenager is exposed to these beliefs, and they are pushed to deny the existence of God. You can help your teenager by researching together on the existence of God and looking at the evidence objectively.

History has proven that those who have the fear of God tend to live a life that honors and respects God, people, and authority. The transformation that occurs leads them to live a fruitful life.

Get Ahead of The Challenges

The teenage hood is a period that comes with challenges, but it is also an exciting period for you and your teenager to relate at a higher and more meaningful level.

Your teenager still needs plenty of guidance, which you can effectively offer when you have an idea of the problems teenagers face today.

Intentional educative conversations have been stressed throughout as the most effective intervention in handling these challenges faced by teenagers today.

Even when they don’t seem to be listening, they still get something from your well-meaning effort. Keep the conversation going as you tackle head-on the challenges of teenage life.

You can also get in touch with us for counseling services to help your teen deal with the challenges they are facing.

Jane Kariuki

Jane Kariuki is a devout Christian, Clinician, Psychologist, and founder of ParenTeen Kenya. She authored an exceptional training manual used in her teens’ workshop and an instructional guidebook for her parenting classes. If she is not training, blogging, or counseling, Jane loves to spend time with her sweet husband and three children.