Taking that further, schools today create stress for children in a variety of ways with competition for grades and honors. This can actually be counterproductive. When confronted with tasks they are not yet ready for, young children tend to blame themselves for failure. Some of the more negative consequences of hurrying become evident in adolescence, when pressures to grow up fast encourage them to experiment with behaviors generally reserved for adults such as smoking, drinking, driving and so on. Chicago psychiatrist Harold Visotsky says that pressure for early-age achievements can contribute to teen suicide.
Adolescents are very audience-conscious.
Failure is a public event, and the adolescent senses an audience's disapproval. DeBord, a North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service specialist at N.C. State University, works closely with extension family and consumer educators in each of North Carolina's counties. For local information on human development issues, contact your county extension center. N.C. State's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences provide this column every two weeks. Follow this link to our archived news releases.