“Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful. And believe that anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.” – Misty Copeland, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina.

This powerful line by Misty Copeland emphasizes the importance of right support systems in shaping an adolescent’s life.

Her journey as a successful ballerina reflects the power of encouragement and guidance – How her mentor’s presence at a crucial stage helped her overcome pressure and achieve her passion. This is something most teenagers can relate to.

Adolescence is a crucial stage marked by developmental changes – physically, emotionally and socially. Teens today navigate peer pressure, academic pressure, social media, bullying and stress – often alone, often quietly.

As parents, teachers and peers, are we really listening? to understand and support the teenagers in our lives.

This blog aims at understanding teens’ worlds better and to encourage the people around them to provide safe space with a listening ear.

According to WHO (World Health Organization) “Adolescence is the phase of life between childhood and adulthood, from ages 10 to 19. It is a unique stage of human development and an important time for laying the foundations of good health. Adolescents experience rapid physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth, which affects how they feel, think, make decisions, and interact with the world around them”.

Physical growth: Encompasses Puberty which occurs during early adolescence describes the rapid physical maturation involving bodily and hormonal changes. Growth Spurt (Height, Weight, and Brain maturation) and Hormonal changes – secretion of sex hormones (Androgen and Estrogen) are the major physical changes during adolescence. These changes are determined by factors like heredity and environmental factors as well.

Cognitive development: A famous psychologist Piaget’s theory of cognitive development describes the ability to process information, make decisions, engage in hypothetical reasoning, and improvement in metacognition from the Formal Operational Stage (11 years and beyond).

Psychosocial changes: Identity vs Role confusion from another famous psychologist Erik Erikson’s stages of Psychosocial developments highlights the need of adolescence in understanding self-concept and self-esteem. Their relationship with parents and peers are also hallmark psychosocial tasks of adolescence. These changes lead to higher expectations about self – Adolescent Egocentrism.

You may ask how these rapid changes would be contributing factors of mental health. Let us decode it together.

We already have seen that puberty is about physical changes, Early, on time or delayed attainment of puberty shapes the mental health outcomes. Early maturation in boys and girls, can lead to body image issues, anxiety, and the experience of more negative emotions which may lead to depression. Similarly, late maturation can lead to low self-esteem, poor body image, eating disorder, and depression in adolescents. Refer to one of our previous blogs on eating disorders to know more.

The urge to feel belonging to their peer group, the need to identify who they are and what they can do, academic pressure, loneliness, fear about career and future, media influence, bullying perpetration or victimization, pandemic stressors (War and COVID-19), romantic relationships and relationships with peers and parents are also significant contributors of mental health from a psychosocial perspective. Check out our blog on Know Bullying to further.

According to the World Health Organization, globally 1 in 7 (14.3%) of 10-19 years old experience a mental health condition, which remains unrecognized or untreated. Among adolescents anxiety, depression and behavioral disorders are considered as a leading cause of illness. And among individual who are aged between 15-29 suicide is considered as the third leading cause of death. (WHO, 2025).

Specifically, Indian statistics say 20-25% of youth experience mental health issues. Anxiety being reported as 22%, depressive symptoms are experienced around 20%, and harmful use of alcohol and drugs by 15% of adolescents (Pandey, 2025).

A systemic review from the 2020 found that bullying perpetration across Indian studies ranges from 7% to 31%, and Victimization ranges from 9% to 80%. (Thakkar et al., 2020).

Signs of mental health difficulties in adolescents

• Changes in sleep cycles, eating habits and other day-to-day patterns
• Lack of interest in activities which are enjoyed once
• Refraining from friends and family
• Signs of self-harm
• Drug and/or alcohol use-abuse to cope up with stress
• Preoccupation with unrealistic – unhelpful goals or tasks (eg: completing a specific level in online game)
• Recurring thoughts or worries

Adolescents’ relationship with parents

From birth, children are attached to their parents. They play major roles in making decisions and choices of their children and guiding them with finding information and contacts. When they reach adolescence, teens prefer making their own choices and taking control over their own lives. This shift from Child-Parent relationship to Adult-Adult relationships often catches parents off guard and leads to conflicts over everyday matters – curfews, clothing and household chores.

What may surprise many parents is that these conflicts and changes in parent-adolescent relationships are considered normal by developmental psychologists (Santrock, 2016; Kimmel & Weiner, 1995; Collins & Laursen, 2004).

Parents who handle it in a healthy way gradually release the control and continue to guide their teens on matters of achievement, career and even religious belief. Enhanced trust, warmth and open communication makes it easier for the adolescent to share their feelings. Mothers tend to have more frequent and emotionally rich interactions with adolescents than fathers (Laurence Steinberg & Silk, 2002).

Family structure, parenting style, the nature of parents’ work, culture, and socio-economic conditions also shape the quality of this relationship – this reminds us that no two families navigate this transition in the same way.

Relationship with peers

Friendships in adolescence are different from friendships in childhood.The need to be liked and accepted by peers will be predominant at this age. The shift from sharing things and activities to sharing thoughts and feelings deepens the relationship with peers. Peer groups allow them to share and know information about the world, helping them feel a sense of belonging and often provides support and comfort. This increases the need for spending more time with their peers than parents.

The need for intimacy is considered as a significant feature in distinguishing childhood friendship from adolescent friendship. This need increases self-disclosure more with peers and less with parents. Thus, acceptance or rejection from such a relationship affects the sense of self-worth in teens.

Psychologists like John W. Santrock 92016), Kimmel & Weiner (1995) suggest Sociometric status, quality and character of friendships are significant factors in shaping adolescents. Friendships which are formed with children from the ‘Popular’ category of sociometric status are related to positive outcomes. These children are often chosen by their peers as best friends and rarely disliked, they are emotionally stable and academically motivated.

Contrarily, friendships formed with children who are from the ‘Rejected’ category – disliked by many and can be aggressive may lead to negative outcomes such as low academic performance, delinquency and depression.

In a adolescents’ life peers and parent worlds are connected. Teens who maintain secure attachment with their parents are more likely to maintain positive peer relations.This helps the teen with navigating both worlds simultaneously – leaning on parents for some needs and peers for other needs.

Create a safe space for your child to discuss issues with you. Most of the time, children avoid sharing everything with their parents because of fear of punishment and lack of open communication. Ensure your child that they are being valued and prioritized. Explain that they can trust you and share anything without fear of being judged or punished. This allows them to have open communication with you.

Listen to understand, not to respond. When your child says something, listen to them carefully without interrupting. As a grown adult we often share solutions from our life experiences with children and fail to validate their feelings and thoughts. Listening to them actively and carefully without jumping to conclusions during conversations encourages them to be more transparent.

Accept their silence and allow them space to process. If your child goes quiet or when you notice some of the signs of mental health difficulties with them, rather than asking your teen to share everything immediately, explain that you are always available for them to speak. Teens may hesitate to share their difficulties even with trusted people due to fear or shame. They prefer making their own choices and may not know what to say or how to say. Allowing them to have the space of their own in those situations grows trust. You can check on them after some days by restarting the conversations.

Communicate thoughtfully to help your teen feel less defensive. One of the best ways to check on your teen’s mental health is using fact-based statements over vague or judgemental statements. Instead of saying ‘I see you have lost interest in studies lately, are you planning to bring shame on us’ say ‘Your grades have been dropping in Mathematics recently, which is your favourite subject. Is anything bothering you? We could talk about it tonight over your favourite biryani’.

Despite being in a progressive world. Some of us still think that people with mental health conditions are unpredictable and not trustworthy.

In reality, many prefer not to seek mental health support because of the comments and judgements from people around them. It’s high time that we realize that mental health stigma is real and acknowledge it first; to support it.

Poor attendance and low academic performance are significant impacts of anxiety and depression. According to an early 2021 survey conducted by UNICEF and Gallup, children in India are hesitant to seek support on mental stress.

On the other hand, positively, 41% of young people between the ages of 15 to 24 said that it is good to seek support for mental health concerns.

This blog is purely intended to create awareness. Clinical diagnosis should be done based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) and International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) criteria by a licensed clinical psychologist or psychiatrist. Seeking professional help for any of the signs of mental health difficulties experienced for at least 6 months is recommended.

Please reach out to Element H Psychological Support Services (044-28214112) if anyone needs help or is willing to seek help from professionals.

• Balamurugan, G., Sevak, S., Gurung, K., & Vijayarani, M. (2024). Mental Health Issues Among School Children and Adolescents in India: A Systematic Review. Cureus, 16(5), e61035. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.61035
• Chung, R. J. (2025, May 20). Teen mental health: How to know when your child needs help. HealthyChildren.org. – https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/teen/Pages/Mental-Health-and-Teens-Watch-for-Danger-Signs.aspx
• Kimmel, D. C., & Weiner, I. B. (1995). Adolescence: A developmental transition (2nd ed.). Wiley.
• Lerner, R. M., & Steinberg, L. (Eds.). (2004). Handbook of adolescent psychology (2nd ed.). Wiley
• Pandey, K.N. (2025). Mental Health and Indian Youth. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 13(2), 1242-1248. DIP:18.01.113.20251302, DOI:10.25215/ 1302.113
• Santrock, J. W. (2016). Adolescence (16th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education
• Santrock, J. W. (2019). Life-span development (17th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education
• World Health Organization. (2025, September 1). Mental health of adolescents. – https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-mental-health