Adolescent aggression can be caused by physical changes, unstable hormones, family situations, exposure to violence, taunting, and low self-esteem. The environment can also play a role, and some adolescents are inherently prone to aggression.
The teenage stage is often fraught with uncertainty and confusion for many teenagers due to the physical changes in their bodies, the chemical imbalances that result from unstable hormones, and the reevaluation of their role in the family and wider society. Such conflicting factors can contribute to the common outbursts of aggression that are a familiar phenomenon among some adolescents who don’t know how to properly channel their confusion. Other factors that may contribute to adolescent aggression include unhappy or abusive family situations, exposure to persistent violence, and other influences such as taunting by others and low self-esteem.
The possible causes of aggression in adolescence are numerous and can be caused by a single factor or a combination of factors that may not be easily predictable. For example, the environment can play a huge role in the development and display of aggression in adolescence. This is evident in the way an adolescent displays aggressive tendencies in one environment, while curbing the same behavior in another environment. That factor is not always the same as some adolescents are inherently prone to aggression due to their individual constitution rather than any external factor.
One cause of aggression in adolescence is exposure to an abusive or unhappy family situation, which will cause such a person to lash out at others as a means of venting pent-up emotions or frustrations from these factors. For example, a teenager with an abusive, alcoholic parent might turn aggressive himself to release some of the angry feelings in such a situation. Another factor that can cause adolescent aggression is a constant exposure to violence from various sources, including movies, news, and games, leading to negative conditioning or desensitization of the individual to societal norms.
Some adolescents with very low self-esteem may also display aggression in an attempt to cover up their perceived inadequacies from others, especially their peers. This anger is often at the root of bullying, where the bully derives a kind of perverse pleasure from trying to make others feel as miserable as they secretly feel. Another factor that could be the cause of aggression in adolescence is the general state or immaturity of this particular group of people who are still in the process of understanding how to relate to others in a more mature and controlled way.
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