Lecture
Psychology and pedagogy have no single, unified understanding of the «difficult» adolescent, nor a unified approach to diagnosing and correcting his behaviour and personal development.
The term "difficult adolescent" is usually used to describe adolescents who display behavioural, emotional or social characteristics that may cause difficulties in their interaction with the world around them. These characteristics can range from aggression and oppositionality to conduct disorders, including truancy, breaking the law, drug and alcohol use, and other negative actions.
It is important to understand that the term "difficult adolescent" does not always mean that the child is unmanageable or beyond help. It is rather a description of the difficulties that parents, teachers, psychologists and other adults may encounter when interacting with such an adolescent. The behaviour of "difficult adolescents" may result from a variety of factors, including biological, family, social ones and the surrounding environment.
However, it is also important to remember that using the term "difficult adolescent" can carry a negative connotation and even be biased. Often, deeper problems lie behind this term, such as trauma, stress, depression and anxiety, and their interrelation with family or educational factors. Instead of making a diagnosis based on behaviour alone, it is important to get to the roots of the problem and seek help from specialists such as psychologists, teachers and social workers in order to adequately understand and support the adolescent.
The features that make up the concept of «difficult adolescents»:
- the presence in children or adolescents of behaviour deviating from the norm; special terms are also used to characterise deviant behaviour - delinquency and deviance. Delinquent behaviour is understood as a chain of misdemeanours, minor offences and petty violations of the law, distinct from criminal, i.e. criminally punishable, serious offences and crimes. Deviance refers to a deviation from the norms accepted in society. This concept includes both delinquent behaviour and other behavioural disorders.
- behavioural disorders are fairly difficult to correct. In this connection, the terms «difficult» and «pedagogically neglected children» should be distinguished. All difficult children are, of course, pedagogically neglected. But not all pedagogically neglected children are difficult: some are relatively easy to re-educate.
- these are «socially neglected children» who need an individual approach from teachers and educators and the attention of the peer group.
The concept of «deviant behaviour» must be distinguished from the terms «developmental deviation», «developmental delay» and «developmental lag».
The latter three terms are often used interchangeably in the scientific literature. They usually denote children with developmental defects. Of course, such children often do become difficult, but correcting their behaviour requires the involvement of special-education specialists (defectologists).
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