For the past two years, from the beginning of this tragic chain of school murders by America's adolescents, I have been driven to address emotional factors which might explain these tragedies. The Need for Adolescent Emotional Education Nearly a decade ago, I was struck by the absence of an emotional education component in my daughter's middle school sex education program. But these teen programs scarcely mention emotional changes and hazards . Over the past several years I have been researching and developing content for educational efforts to lessen the preventable emotional distress of adolescents and their parents. Adolescence is a critical period for learning how to deal with hurt feelings arising from an intense need for self-acceptance and a heightened sense of emotional vulnerability.
Adolescents search for their individual identity separate from parents.
The transition period from child to adult drives the adolescent's intense need for emotional security in the form of acceptance by peers. The Littleton, Colorado teen killers are identified as outcasts who were belittled by more popular students. As outcasts, they formed a cult which understandably appealed to those who wanted but were denied acceptance by their peer culture. Humans are born with basic emotional needs for safety and security, fearing danger when they sense being abandoned. Throughout life these needs and fears are interpreted differently.