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Model Behavior: Today's Teens and the Role Models They Choose
By Tamar Weiss
She works at remaining loyal to her beliefs while allowing her kids to model themselves or dissuading them from imitating certain behaviors and looks. "My kids seem to go with what's trendy," Lachterman says. "I know I can't win every battle. I just try to figure out what I can and can't compromise on and I try to stick to those decisions."
It is possible for the media to have less effect on teens than parents may fear. "If a young person has emotional/psychological security as well as open lines of communication with parents, the actual influence is minimal," Taublieb says. "We can take the foundation we gave them early on and reinforce it by watching with them and discussing what they watch."
"Kids today have an impossible standard of 'look great, be cool, act cool now and at any expense,'" says Bettie B. Youngs, Ph.D., author of the "Taste Berries for Teens" series. "Today's teens need to hear from each other that it's OK to look great, be cool and act cool, but the standards for it, and the time table in which it must be done, is not at the expense of mental or physical well-being."
When faced with these difficult situations, parents don't always have all the answers. "We need to support and respect parents whose children have become prey to contemporary dragons, and honor that in today's times, parents need and want help," Youngs says. Parents need to confront the fact that they are overwhelmed with the dangers that teens face so that they don't remain in the dark as to what is going on. Using books where teenagers are the positive role models is a good way to reach teens and provide them with positive models they can identify with, Youngs says.
