Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Teen Stress and Adult Life


Teenage years are one of most memorable periods in our lives. It is where you experience all your "firsts"-first love, first broken heart, first fight with parents or peers, and the list goes on. Teen years is a period where teenagers experience all the possible feelings and emotions, whether positive or negative, good or bad.

However, according to UCLA researchers, negative emotions such as depression or stress during teenage years can cause a negative effect during adulthood. A normal, healthy teen that experience a stressful situation will likely to develop a higher level of an inflammatory marker called C-reactive protein or CRP. CRP was found out to later develop as cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Stressors such as conflict with family or friends and social rejections are just some of the most frequent and powerful predictors of psychological distress among individuals. This means that the daily interpersonal stress that we have encountered during our high school years are associated with elevated level of inflammation which will possibly develop into CRP, even among healthy teenagers.

The message to parents is that although we don't want to overprotect teenagers and keep them from going through important learning experiences, we also want to be loving, caring and careful, because what happens to teenagers can have an strong effect later in their lives.

Click here to read the article

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