Difficulties Of Modern Girls' Transitional Age - Case Study Example

Difficulties Of Modern Girls' Transitional Age Adolescence is the period following the onset of puberty, which marks the transition from childhood to adulthood, and it is usually important to every person since it greatly influences the entire life. Many girls today enter adolescence between the age of ten to thirteen years where they start experiencing physical and psychological changes. Most of these changes are usually unexpected and young girls since time immemorial find it to be a challenge to cope with them. Today the challenges have increased and young girls have greater pressure and difficulties than young women in previous generations. According to the girls interviewed, adolescent girls today face a lot of confusion on dating and relationships, which was not experienced by young women in early generations. The older women interviewed when they were growing were not allowed to involve themselves in any sexual activity and it was a taboo in most of the communities for a girl to associate with boys. This was advantageous to the girls since they were eased of the confusion about dating and pre-marital sex, which is now the biggest source of frustration to the young teens. The teen girls disclosed that after their bodies have changed and have started to mature desire to be loved by men. As a result most of them engage in premature relationships where they end up being hurt since they usually lead to break-ups. Others end up being pregnant and they find a lot of frustration on this state of their bodies, which they never expected. Since at this age they do not have adequate education on sexuality and are not prepared psychologically, physically and financially to have a baby they end up being further depressed (Resh & West, 2009). The consequences of this is abortions and babies being born and thrown away or even sold to people with bad motives. All these problems of relationships and sexuality make it difficult for the girl child to maneuver smoothly through this stage of adolescence. In the past according to the women contacted, young women tended to move from childhood to adulthood directly and marriage, which used to be done at an early age acted as the turning point. After marriage, the woman adopted all adult responsibilities and would start her household immediately. The situation today has greatly changed as reflected by the feedback of the girls interviewed and the system of education has been prolonged hence girls have to spend the better part of their youth studying. They are expected to perform the same way as the boys and continue with academic excellence the way they were before the onset of puberty. This pressure for academic performance is usually high and they find it difficult to maintain the same academic standards since a considerable amount of time is spent worrying about the body. Most of them do not find the changing body comfortable and they try all means possible to maintain the body in the shape that appear to be acceptable by the society. They normally result to poor eating habits, which may affect their health, and consequently affecting the academic performance. The teen girls revealed that they encounter friendship dynamics where they feel betrayed by their friends resulting to conflicts. This is usually out of negative competition where they want to outdo each other in the wrong way and in insignificant issues. For example if a girl perceives her friend to be more beautiful than her she becomes frustrated and may do all sorts of crazy things to feel to be superior to her friend. This leads to friendships breaking apart where both parties end up being hurt and discouraged further increasing the challenges of the 21st century girl. In the early times as per the older women responses, there were no much emphasis on such kind of friendships and hence the women in the past never faced the challenge on friendship dynamics. The girls admitted that the technology has highly advanced and there is a lot of pressure especially from media to the youth to conform to the standards portrayed by the media. The teen today have access to televisions, mobile phones and the internet, which through the social media it presents has influenced greatly the youth. The media portrays unrealistic way of life especially through movies, which are now very popular among the youth, but the challenge is that the teens want to emulate that kind of life. Many girls said they want to live like the celebrities they see in the media and they try all means possible to emulate them but they find it to be difficult. Teenagers when they cannot adapt to the standards of those they look up to end up being frustrated (Cahn, 2007). There is also a lot of negative peer pressure where the girls can do all manner of bad things in order to feel loved and be accommodated in a particular group of interest. The combined pressure from their peers and from the media has adversely affected the modern girl child on the negative side and has led to her experiencing difficulties, which were not there in the old days. The older ladies said that in the past the technology was not advanced and most of the media gadgets did not exist hence the problem of pressure from the media was unheard of. The modern youngsters confessed of having poor relationships and communication with the adults especially their parents and teachers. They find their parents to be backward and they think they cannot understand their needs, which according to them seem to be unique. Similarly, the older women said that parents find the demands by the teens to be unrealistic and unattainable hence leading to communication break up between the two groups. This increases the difficulties of the modern girls since they lack someone who can understand them and increases further the confusion. In the past according to the women interviewed the young people were obligated to respect the older ones and hence the challenge of poor relationship between the two did not exist. The young girls said that they face the challenge of social isolation since most of them as they undergo the transition to adulthood lack people who they can relate to. They attributed this to identity crisis where they are confused about what is right and wrong hence, not being able to understand the direction to take clearly. The social isolation often leads to low self-esteem which if not handled properly results to depression hence affecting the growth of the girl. They also suffer from bullying from the older girls when they fail to comply with their demands most of which are usually unrealistic. The older women did not face these kinds of challenges when they were growing because there was no problem of identity crisis as their roles and responsibilities were well known. There is inadequate education on life skills in the current generation and as a result many girls admitted that they lacked vital life skills. They grow without being able to perform even the basic responsibilities such as cooking for the family and doing home cleaning hence it becomes difficult for them to fit in the society. The main reason for the girls lacking life skills is that the parents nowadays are ever busy and do not get time to impart to their young ones these important skills. In the days of the now old women, it was impossible to find a woman who lacked knowledge on basic skills since such kind of a woman would be seen as a failure. It is evident that the current young girls face a lot of pressure and difficulties as they transit from childhood to adulthood than the women who grew in the past. The problems as elaborated above revolve around identity, sexuality, relationships and friendship and have been caused mainly by technology. The government, private organizations and every person needs to fight for the needs of these dear ones to ensure that they transit smoothly and comfortably to adulthood. References Cahn, S. K. (2007). Sexual reckonings: Southern girls in a troubling age. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Resh, E. K., & West, B. (2009). The secret lives of teen girls: What your mother wouldn't talk about, but your daughter needs to know. Carlsbad, Calif: Hay House. Read More