A final year student and academic staff from the Department of Psychology, IIUM have moved one step closer to understanding the adolescents’ behavioral problem - in particular, what factor(s) associated with adolescents’ behavioral problem and how they correlate.
A long time ago, G. Stanley Hall (1904) described adolescence as a period of “storm and stress” that is full of conflict and mood swing. On the other hand, other researchers acknowledged the influence of sociocultural influences besides the biological nature (Mead, 1928). In the society where adolescents are allowed to observe and practice the duties of adults, they are more likely to have smooth and stress-free adolescence transition processes. In this 21st century, perspectives towards adolescents are more positive; in fact, there's lack of findings across cultures regarding negative stereotypes associated with adolescents (Offer et al., 1988).
In relation to the new positive perspective of adolescence, Dr. Nazariah Shar’ie Janon, Developmental Psychologist and her supervisee, Nuramirah Wafa Musmaon, an undergraduate psychology student, attempted to explore the level of the psychological distress and behavioral problems of adolescents. The study also aimed to investigate whether psychological distress correlated with behavioral problems.
Data were collected by a set of questionnaires from 240 participants (age ranged 15-16 years old; from 3 secondary schools around Kajang district). Results revealed that adolescents in the study reported low level of psychological distress (M = 3.01; SD = 2.80; 12.54) and behavioral problems (M = 12.54; SD = 4.20). However, the study has discovered that although the secondary school students reported low levels of psychological distress and behavioral problems, the correlational analysis showed that the psychological distress positively correlated with behavioral problems (r = .47; p < .01).
Given that positive relationship between psychological distress and behavioral problems, it is possible to assume that the higher the level of distress experienced by adolescents, the greater the tendency of adolescents to be aggressive, destructive, and less attentive to what there are doing.
In the light of the results, the stress management skills need to be provided to secondary school’s students in the future, which may prevent them from experiencing high psychological distress and showing behavioral problems.