Puberty: What’s Behind the Mood Swings?

During puberty your child’s emotions may become stronger and more intense. Their mood might change more frequently, quickly and randomly. Your child may have strong emotions that they’ve never experienced before. It’s common for them to feel confused, scared or angry and not know why. They also might be more sensitive and become more easily upset than usual.

What’s impacting your child’s mood?

Puberty brings a lot of changes for your child not only physically, but socially, mentally and emotionally too. Things that can impact on your child’s mood and the way they feel, include:

• Hormones
• Lack of sleep
• Peer pressure
• School demands
• Conflict with family
• Feeling scared or alone
• Stress
• Anxiety
• Busy schedule
• Physical changes
• Feeling self-conscious
• Increased decision making

Hormones not only change your child’s body on the outside… they’re creating changes on the inside too! While your child’s body is adjusting to all the new hormones, so is their brain. During puberty the brain starts strengthening parts that allow them to feel intense and complex emotions. However, the part of the brain that is responsible for regulating emotions, deep thinking, reasoning and decision making is often the last to develop.

This can leave your child feeling like their emotions are out of control as they may not have the mental capacity to cope with them just yet, causing even more irritability and frustration.

Supporting your child through the up and downs

Here are some things you can do to help them process and cope with these new emotions:

• Keep calm, listen and acknowledge their feelings
• Help them understand their moods and what they might be going through
• Maintain clear rules, boundaries and expectations
• Allow them space to process their feelings and be available when needed
• Support your child to problem solve – don’t just jump in and try to fix it!
• Make the most of the ‘up’ times and frequently praise good behaviours
• Work together to find ways to lighten their mood and express their feelings
• Encourage healthy sleeping routines and eating habits

Mood swings vs depression

If your child is continually feeling down it may be a sign of something else. It’s important to keep in mind that severe and prolonged mood swings may be a sign of depression or a mental health issue.

Three key areas to help distinguish between normal mood swings and something more serious include:

Duration – moods lasting more than two weeks
Severity – significant changes in behavior, feelings and thoughts
Impact – affecting many areas of their life (home, school, friendships)

If you’re noticing these signs, it’s important to talk with your child and seek support.

Excerpted from “Mood Swings and Puberty” from Kids Helpline, a service of Yourtown in Australia. Read the full post online.

Source: Kids Helpline | Mood Swings and Puberty, https://kidshelpline.com.au/parents/issues/mood-swings-and-puberty | © Kids Helpline 2024.

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