Adolescents tend to lack communication with their parents because they are growing up and trying to be more independent. This leads to misunderstandings between parents and teens. Parents sometimes don’t listen to everything their teen has to say which makes teens annoyed. They could just give up on trying to talk and then parents only hear half of what is going on. When teens feel ignored or feel as if they’re not being taken seriously they will shut down. Teens could feel emotionally neglected. As a result, there is a growing communication and misunderstanding gap between teens and parents. 

Both teens and parents should take the time to fully explain themselves during a situation. Both sides should also listen respectfully. Young people will stop talking if you, as a parent, or just as an adult that they trust, do not listen respectfully to what they have to say (Mental Health America).  If parents are preoccupied with doing something else while teens are trying to talk, then they will take that into account and could not want to talk. Make sure that if parents can’t talk at that exact moment, teens know and understand. Parents shouldn’t make assumptions either; by making assumptions parents are acting as if you already know everything, which doesn’t help the situation because parents may not know everything, so it isn’t fair to act like parents do. It can possibly just make the situation worse for both parties.

Teens feeling like there is nobody to talk to could be a reason for depression (Medicine Net). Teens can experience emotional neglect which means that they feel as if their emotions aren’t worth anything. Some teens choose to push their emotions down so they aren’t visible to other and possibly even themselves (Psychology Today). It can sometimes be difficult for teens to talk to their friends about certain subjects and if teens feel they may be judged for something then they’ll hide their problems and pretend they don’t have them. It is normal for teens to want to be independent and not want to talk to their parents sometimes, or they keep things from their parents. Although, teens still need to know that they can talk to their parents when a time may come that they need to.

Teens being more connected to the internet and their devices leads to less family time. Screen time has become more common and there is less face to face time.Teens spend more time on the internet and their devices instead of talking, so families don’t interact as much as they used to in the past. They don’t talk to one another about what is going on in their lives or spend time together, so they aren’t as connected. As a result less time is spent interacting with family.

If you are a parent, you need to know that your teen may need somebody to talk to even if they don’t act like it. You need to know that if you don’t take them seriously enough, or listen respectfully, they will stop talking to you and possibly not want to talk to you about another subject again. Keep in mind to always pay attention to what they have to say so that later in the future they know they can talk to you. Take action and begin listening to what they have to say.