Do you believe that teen rebellion is inevitable?

It is inevitable. Some rebel more than others, but we all had a rebellious streak at some point in our teenage years. Whether it’s something small like lying about something unimportant or running away to an unknown land, it happens.

Studies and more studies. My opinion is that some teens rebel and some don’t. A lot has to do with peer pressure and a lot has to do with a teens relationship with parents and family.

@KatetheGreat Is lying rebellion? As adults, we do it all the time but it isn’t considered rebellion.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Lying in some ways is considered rebellion. When I was 14, I’d lie to my mother and tell her I was at someone else’s house, rather than telling her I was going to hang out with my boyfriend at the time (I wasn’t allowed to hang out with boys). Stuff along that line is considered rebellion in my eyes.

I can say with all surety, the majority of teens I’ve known in my 50 years of life did not act out or show any of the typical signs of rebellion or “psychopathology, and antisocial behavior” cited in the article. Of my seven brothers and sisers, only one truely became rebellious. Of my seven nieces and nephews, two rebelled. Of my friends and other family members, I can’t think of one of their children who acted out in this manner. I really don’t like it when people automatically assume teens are going to “rebel.” It just isn’t so.

All children rebel. They just don’t always do it in their teens, and their rebellion is not always explicit or apparent.

I don’t believe it. I had the same core group of friends through Jr. High, High school and into my 30’s, only one was a rebel of any note.

I agree the we infantilize our youth way too much. They are capable of so much.

I home school teenagers and with exception of some bad moods here and there they haven’t rebelled in any way.

I’m one of six kids. Only my oldest sister rebelled the rest of us took on responsibilities as soon as we were legally able and transitioned to adult life.

Parents will read this behavior as rebellion….through the eyes of the teen it is merely attempting to conform with their peers they have chosen to identify with. Whether or not rebellion is a myth per se, the parents still then need to attempt to achieve a balance of age appropriate behavior and IMO let the kid make a few choices and even mistakes as long as no one is getting hurt.

Because of their lack of experience, and dealing with hormonal changes, they are going to make mistakes and poor choices. However, rebellion only comes about if the parents or care takers are too rigid to cope.

When my grandson was 17, I cut off his computer access because he did not get his work done. He sneaked out his bedroom room window because he was mad and wanted to get away. When he returned, I told him, any time he thinks he can do better somewhere else, all he has to do is walk out the door. We had to pay someone to repair the screen, and I made him work it off.

Funny thing, his cat went out through the bedroom screen this weekend, and now he has to pay a repair man to come in and fix it. He has a job and pretty much pays his own way.

Like @tranquilsea, I’m a homeschooling mom. I know plenty of teens that have never rebelled, nor even “acted up”.

Personally, what I saw with friends that were rebellious were parents that didn’t give enough love, attention or compassion.

One of the worst situations of rebellion that I saw: a school friend of mine became pregnant at 13. She came from a wealthy, well-educated family. Her dad was much older than her mom, and paid almost zero attention to his only daughter. All the daughter did was look for love/attention from all the boys at school.

I have to say, everything in the article is essentially what I’ve always thought (and I know that my parents would agree with what the article states in many ways as well). It’s very true that we have this “artifical extension of childhood” in Western society and I have no doubt that it contributes largely to angst and rebellion. I was given a lot of freedom as a teenager by my parents and for that I am very grateful.

But I suppose what I did that would be considered “rebellious” was drink alcohol underage (and I still do it). I can’t think of anything else that I did that really counted as “rebellion”. I got into arguments with my parents sometimes (what kid doesn’t) but our relationship was largely excellent and I did well in school (even when I didn’t like it) and was not a troublemaker by any means. But I drank alcohol and partied a lot while I was in high school largely without my parents’ knowledge, so that could count as “rebellious” only because I knew it was illegal and I had to hide it from my parents.

Less dangerous forms of rebellion like lying while on a date is almost inevitable since there will always be parents frowning at that. The most destructive forms of rebellion like getting drugs are NOT inevitable as well. My parents have one child out of four who “rebelled” and got hooked on drugs.

I don’t think rebellion is inevitable, but certain things that some parents might consider rebellious may be. Like asserting your individuality, arguing with authority figures, or striving for independence. I don’t think of that type of thing as rebellion, but as a part of growing up. Mood swings, however, do seem inevitable in my experience.

Young people are all different. They are individuals. Some will rebel, some won’t. I was not terribly rebellious but I had my moments. My daughters were quite different, one (the one I would have least expected to) had a bit of a rebellious streak and the other didn’t give me a moments trouble. My son…is a rebellion. As frustrating as he can be though, and sometimes I need a slap and reminding of this, is a wonderful, young man who is just testing his boundaries and finding his own place in the world. His ideas, my ideas, his teachers ideas etc. don’t always meet in the middle, but we will get through this. I actually respect him for being his own person.

So, I don’t think there is a set rule here but I do think it is normal for young people to push boundaries to some degree, because that is how they learn and explore their world.

As far as I was concerned as a teenager, I was rebellious at times….. Even at the age of sixteen, not long before I left home, my mother would insist I was home by ten o-clock (pm)…. This wasn’t always possible, so Yeah I incurred her wrath the odd time I would wake the house up in the early hours of the morning to be let in…. That was another issue too… we were never given a key to the house :-/
Had I had my own key, there would have been far less aggravation from both sides….. The being treat like a kid all the time really used to grind on me, that’s why I left home at such a young age…
My sisters kids have always been treat like adults, they had their own responsibilities even from being two or three years old…. Helping out with stuff around the house, nothing too drastic but they were given a lot of trust at quite young ages…… she’s never had a problem with them…. My brothers kids the same, they’re all up now & never had any issues that I can recall…. So I guess it’s how you bring your kids up, treat them like kids & they’ll remain kids…….. :-/

I don’t know that it’s inevitable, but I can definitely see how most teens would want to rebel, at least a little. There comes a time in a lot of teens’ lives where they feel like they’re grown up enough to make their own decisions. If their parents are enforcing rules that they feel are too restrictive on their lives, then yeah, they’ll at least be tempted to rebel.

If parents are able to intuit their kids’ behaviour to a degree, they’ll be able to make changes to rules in order to accommodate what’s reasonable and what’s not.

I think a big factor in whether teens rebel has to do with what they have to rebel against.

yes; but the degree of rebellion varies tremendously.
One of our daughters practiced the pinnacle of rebellious behavior. I’m surprised she didn’t get arrested . The other one , born five years later, was a model child. The only thing I saw that she did , which was very sad and very rebellious, was her rejection of and hostility towards my new husband. She went so far as to get inside our closet and put her feet up against the door so he couldn’t get inside and he is very strong. Now she loves him. (: She is a wonderful daughter and human being. The older one is dysfunctional. or crazy as some say.

Yeah, teens (not just teens, but people) have to find themselves, and every teen deals with going againt some form of authority (parents, school etc) while growing up. From my observations, the ones that didn’t rebel were the ones that didn’t question their parents or authority in general, but it has to come out eventually.

I didn’t rebel to any real extent as a teenager so I can’t really say that major rebellion is inevitable at that time of life. I think rebellion, every so often is human nature though and for many people, even really insignificant things are a form of rebellion. Maybe teenagers are more likely to rebel but I don’t think that they rebel simply because they are teenagers.

I believe that it is inevitable that teenagers will begin to seek independence. Whether or not that emerges in the form of rebellion is based on the relationship with the parent. With proper communication and trust, I sincerely believe that this energy can be channeled in much more positive ways, rather than bitter opposition.

This is easy enough to answer: Do all teens rebel? No, ergo teen rebellion is not inevitable. I think a culture based on age divisions of social groups and lacking integrative holistic mentoring, not to mention oppressive hierarchies in almost every aspect of life, is far more prone to instigate teenage rebellion, and perhaps even use it and the mythos associated with it to quell legitimate rebelliousness in adults later on through social pressure.

A friend of mine wrote some stuff recently about the myth of the teenage rebellion and it’s societal impacts, so I’ll try to find that when I’m not on a work computer.