Angry Teens? The Truth is, They Just Don’t Read Each Other Well, Experts Say

Angry Teens? The Truth is, They Just Don’t Read Each Other Well, Experts Say

Getting along with your teenager isn’t always a piece of cake. Is it just you, though?

Not always. As you kids age, you may find you’re not the only one who disagrees with them often.

Many teens, while forming steadfast besties for life, can also find it hard to get along with each other.

Part of this has to do with developing tastes and the changes that come with growing maturity. While the neighborhood kids may have gotten along fine when playing hide and seek, as they grow older, preferences deepen and paths don’t always cross as much as they used to.

But apart from this, experts say that some of the discord is coming from something else. It can be found in teens’ tone of voice- and their inability to decipher the good from the bad.

Related: 50% of Kids Are Lacking at Least One Key Nutrient, Experts Say

Researchers from McGill University in Canada found that many teens find it challenging to understand when a person is feeling angry, mean, disgusted or happy, based on their tone of voice. This particularly true with mid-adolescents, (those aged 13to 15 years old).

“Our results suggest that teenagers have not yet reached maturity in either their ability to identify vocal emotions, or to express them,” said Michele Morningstar, the first author on the paper. “This means that teenagers face quite a challenge in their social spheres: they must interpret poorly expressed cues with immature recognition skills.”

Should parents get discouraged? Researchers don’t think so. Understanding will come in time. For the moment though, you may want to plug your ears and move to another room to avoid all those heated cell phone debates.

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