The period of adolescence, usually from age 12 to 18, has been seen as particularly stressful for children, who are now growing into young adults. It was believed that this period is characterised by emotional and psychological stress due to the young person trying to cope with physical and sexual development, coupled with problems of self-identity and independence. At the turn of the century, it was the commonly held view that erratic growth spurts were coincident with erratic emotional and moral development. As long ago as 1904 it was said that it is perfectly normal for adolescents to pass through phases of 'passionate cruelty, laziness, lying and thievery.' This is a view mirrored by some psychoanalysts, who believe it should be of greater concern to parents where their children do not show emotional upset during adolescence than where they do. Consequently this was a view that prevailed for many years and is probably still the easy classical solution to describe adolescent behaviour today.

From the 1960's onwards, psychological research began to show that the previous descriptions regarding adolescent reactions to the stress factors described, which whilst valid in a number of cases, were in fact over- generalisations. They were the pictures painted by the media and by parents who in some way were legitimising their behaviour towards their offspring.

In short, these were adult ways of coping to the stresses that their children were placing on them at this time. Studies concentrated on examining the behaviour of 'ordinary' adolescents and found that '.....adolescents are not in turmoil, not deeply disturbed, not at the mercy of their impulses, not resistant to parental values, not politically active and not rebellious.' .

It is our belief, that a stable family, where there is love, care and concern is of paramount importance in the alleviation of child stress. Further weight is added to this argument based on a research study in 1975 which looked at a group of boys through adolescence and into early adulthood. This placed 80% of the sample into one of three categories : 22% fell into the group which had many crises; 23% showed a smooth transmission and had mutual respect, trust and love with their parents; the remaining 35% fell midway between the other groups, coping quite well, but with recourse to displays of anger and regression before moving towards a more mature method of coping with the demands that body and cultural changes forced upon them.

In summary it would appear that the research tells us that there is no hard and fast rule for adjustment to the stresses of adolescence. As with the adult, the individual must establish his or her own method of coping or succumb to the pressure.