Adolescent StressAdolescent stress comes before teenage stress but it's not surprising that most stressed out adolescents become teens who are stressed in just a few short years. If you are a parent and think you may have a stressed adolescent in your household begin to observe a little more closely. Lots of changes happen during adolescence so it's easy to mistake normal growing pains (both emotional and physical) for stress. The signs of stress in kids can include outbursts of anger, depression, radical mood swings, difficulty coping with school and home tasks, isolation and withdrawl from social interactions, excessive tiredness, and irregular eating habits. Trying to rationalize with your child about the situation generally does little to help. Instead, the most successful way for parents to both prevent and help allieviate the problem is to create a harmonious home environment and model positive ways of dealing with their own stress. 
Routines help. Kids go through so much change that they really appreciate a little normalacy in their lives although most would never admit it. Regular meal times, clarity around responsibilities of each member of the household, sitting down to nutritious family meals rather than eating on the run, scheduled sports and leisure activities and showing up on time for them, allocating time for homework separate from TV time or video game time, and good regular personal care habits all help to reduce adolescent stress. Parents need to set the example and reward children who follow the example in their lives. The other thing parents might consider is to help children plan and prioritize when they feel overwhelmed. This is best done with supportive questions rather than just laying down the blueprint. For example: "I see you have a lot going on. Want to tell me about it all?" Then LISTEN.Then maybe ask "OK.. that sure is a lot! Which of all of that do you feel is most important for you to get done today?" And finally "Is there any way any us in the family might be able to support you today in getting it done?" You may notice that for the kind of conversation outlined above to happen it would need a parent who was not too stressed out themselves. So again - manage your own stress and you'll be in a much better postion to help deal with adolescent stress in your household when it appears.
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