Some parents may not be able to understand why their children get so volatile as they reach adolescence. By now, they should already be dropping down all worries as a new study said that teens pass through a stage of heightened emotionality which eventually disappears as they learn how to manage it from time to time.
Researchers in the Netherlands analyzed the behaviors of 474 middle- to high-income Dutch teens from ages 13 to 18. The teens were asked to rate their daily moods in terms of happiness, anger, sadness, and anxiety during three weeks of the school year for five years. Researchers then noted the fluctuation of daily moods and saw whether emotions get better or worse across the five-year period, Medical Xpress reports.
In their finding, they found 40 percent of the volunteers, at the age of 12, were really aggressive or had delinquent behavior. However, their moods became more stable for happiness, anger, and sadness as they get old. The rate of change was also found similar between two sexes, although there was much higher variability observed in the moods of girls than boys.
It can be explained that the stabilization of emotions by teens as they reach adulthood is a manifestation of how adaptive they become to social events. Early adolescence is usually the stage of first romances and other outrageous experiences, which can be frustrating if teens see that these bring conflict to their parents. However, adolescents get a better handle on their ability to control emotions and learn more adaptive ways to deal with their moods, according to principal author Dominique Maciejewski, NPR writes.
However, anxiety was found to be the only determinant that did not fit in the overall pattern which oscillates towards the end of adolescence. This could be explained by the fact that teens undergo transition towards an increasing sense of responsibility which might be the cause of these anxiety swings to persist.
The study is published in the journal Child Development.