Exposing Adolescent Maladaptive Behavior for Sensation and Attention

JAKARTA - Three teenagers in Padang, West Sumatra, suddenly went viral. But unfortunately, the three women's fame was accompanied by criticism from netizens. This is because the three teenagers uploaded a video of them giving liquor (alcohol) which is thought to be soju to a cat.

Their actions received criticism from many parties, including the chairman of Animal Defenders Indonesia, Doni Herdaru. Doni regrets that there was an incident where someone sought pleasure by torturing animals.

“Animals should not consume alcohol because it can have a bad impact on their heart and health. "There are many other things you can do to find laughter, rather than causing harm to animals," he said.

Not only infuriated, the behavior of three teenagers force-feeding cats with liquor also made them concerned. Especially for parents who also have teenage children. According to Sani Budiantini, a child and family psychologist, what the three of them did was aggressive behavior.

"From this psychological assessment, it is aggressive behavior that attacks, hurts, an object, it can be a person or an animal," said Sani Budiantini to VOI.

Caused by Several Factors

Generally, adolescence is defined as a period of transition from childhood to adulthood. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the age limit for adolescents is 12 to 24 years. Adolescence is a transition from childhood to adulthood which involves changes in various aspects such as biological, psychological and socio-cultural.

Entering adolescence, cognitively they are actually able to think about the consequences or risks of their actions. But, there are certain situations that make them not do that thought and eventually end up doing risky things beyond reason. The first situation is when teenagers are in a peer group, they tend to do risky things beyond reason compared to when they are alone.

"Apart from that, when teenagers think that behavior beyond reason gives them an advantage, for example making them popular or getting attention from other people," Melok Roro Kinanthi, a psychology lecturer at Yarsi University, told VOI.

Doing actions that according to most people are beyond reason, according to Melok Roro Kinanthi, can actually fulfill their need to obtain certain sensations, such as experiencing new experiences and stimulating adrenaline. Therefore, parents' upbringing or training since childhood generally influences children's behavior when they become teenagers.

"Adolescents' maladaptive behavior can be caused by a variety of interrelated factors, such as personal factors (eg personality) and environmental factors such as family, peers, community conditions, government policies, the education system, and so on," he added.

Followed by Melok Roro Kinanthi, some examples of unhealthy parenting styles that can lead to maladaptive adolescent behavior are ignoring children so that they make children feel unloved and there is no supervision or control over children.

In addition, parenting styles that are permissive, that spoil children without giving boundaries or control and are authoritarian, that provide too strict limits and discipline [there are children without warm relationships also have the potential to cause maladaptation, including aggressiveness in children.

Emotional Spilling into Substitute Objects

According to the occupants of the boarding house, this cat was always an outlet for his anger whenever he quarreled with his girlfriend. Talking about anger, anger is usually one of the responses that arises when we feel disappointed or dissatisfied with something. When they are angry, there are people who choose to express it through action, while there are also those who choose to bottle it up.

Melok Roro Kinanthi said, in psychoanalysis this is known as displacement, which is when someone directs impulses, emotions or conflicts towards a substitute object that is considered less threatening compared to the actual object being addressed.

“In the case of the cat abuse, it is possible that the perpetrator felt angry and did not accept his girlfriend's treatment but he did not have the courage to express this anger to his girlfriend. Thus, he directs his anger at a substitute object that is considered harmless, namely a cat," said the woman who graduated from the University of Indonesia's psychology.

Dealing with teenagers is easy and difficult. In their teens, they usually have more complex problems, such as friendships, with siblings, and even with their parents.

Not a few parents admit that they are overwhelmed by having to deal with teenagers. Establishing a warm relationship between parents and children, especially those who are teenagers, explained Melok Roro Kinanthi can help reduce the risk of teenagers doing inappropriate things.

“Parents need to understand the characteristics of teenagers, then adapt their parenting to these characteristics. Parents can set boundaries for teenagers,  along with providing space for negotiation, discussion and warm relationships.”

"In addition, parents can get used to teenagers thinking about the positive or negative impacts of the behavior they will display, so that teenagers are trained to think about the risks of their actions," he concluded.