Adolescence can be a period full of questions for your troubled teenager. It is a time of physical, mental, and emotional changes, and your teen’s sexual development as well. The physical changes of adolescence bring along an awakening sexuality, and with this awakening sexuality within your teen comes many issues. Aside from the pre-marital sex, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, there is the issue of sexual orientation. A questioning of one’s personal sexual orientation may rise to the surface at this period. It may be particularly difficult for a teenager who must deal with these kinds of questions within him/herself because of his/her peers.
Image and Peer Pressure
Again, during this period a teenager’s image among others is very important to him/her. He/she may feel the pressure of his/her peers to be just like them and this may be hard for a teen who may be just beginning to come to terms with his/her homosexuality. The significant influence of one’s peers over his/her self-concept and thoughts can make him/her feel constricted or forced to fit into a mold. When she may hear girls gossiping in the bathroom about their latest crushes or dates, she may be led to feel ashamed of her own sexuality. The same goes for boys, when guys around them are bragging in the locker room about their latest hook-ups with girls. This type of peer pressure can delay acceptance of one’s own sexuality.
Encourage acceptance within your teen
It’s important to keep in mind that no matter what your troubled teen’s sexual orientation may be, your child shouldn’t be ashamed of his/her sexuality. As a parent, you must encourage your teen to embrace their sexual development responsibly and maturely.
It’s valuable not to make your teenager feel even more ostracized than he/she may already feel. Even as these kinds of feelings may come off as a total shock to you, if you want to be most helpful to your child than as much as possible don’t place more negative pressure on his/her shoulders. He/she may be worrying enough about the judgment of others around him/her.
If you know from the start that you are closed to whatever homosexual feelings your child may have, than you will not catch any of the hints he/she may be putting across, and you won’t understand the meanings of his/her self-expression of sexuality. Only after opening yourself up to the possibility of your teenager’s struggles with sexual orientation may you be capable of putting your awareness to good use.
