How Teen Boys And Girls Differ When They Are Defiant

How Teen Boys And Girls Differ When They Are Defiant

Most teens go through periods of being difficult as they battle all kinds of emotions, feelings, hormones and learning experiences. Being defiant is all part of that difficult time during a teen’s normal development process. Boys and girls often behave differently when they are in a defiant phase. Knowing what to look for can help parents recognize when their teenager needs support and even professional help.

Defiance vs. ODD

When teens try to establish themselves as separate from their parents, they often enter a defiant phase. Teen defiance can be recognized by its negative, disobedient, and manipulative behavior that is worse than the normal rebelliousness of most teens. While defiance is a normal part of adolescence, it can also signal deeper issues, such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, abuse trauma, family conflict, and other emotional, behavioral and mental health issues.

Many parents hope their teens outgrow this rebellious and defiant behavior, sometimes the problems only escalate. It’s then that parents should seek professional help for their troubled teen boys and girls. Sometimes, significant and long-term defiance is part of a condition called Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and can be the root cause of a teen’s defiant behavior.

Boys

Boys and girls often develop different behaviors when it comes to being defiant. With troubled teen boys, defiance is often a straightforward thing and parents don’t have to guess at how the teen boy is feeling. Their behavior becomes very anti-social against family, teachers and other authority figures in their life.

Troubled boys who are defiant will argue with adults, be deliberately annoying, lose their temper, make threats, get physical and even destroy things. Parents generally describe defiant teen boys as aggressive, angry, spiteful, bad tempered and hostile.

Girls

When teen girls become defiant, they can display many of the same behaviors as boys, but there are some additional behaviors that parents might want to watch out for. Girls may not get quite as physically aggressive as the boys but instead may be more sneaky or subtle in their defiance. It’s not unusual for their bad behavior and defiance to manifest in other ways.

Parents might notice more frequent and recurring temper tantrums, refusal to comply with rules, questioning the rules, blames others for mistakes, constantly annoyed with others, intentionally annoys others and constant arguing. Some of the words used to describe teen girls who are defiant might include vengeful, sneaky, emotional, manipulative, pessimistic, and unreasonable.

Treatments

While teen boys and girls may behave a little differently when it comes to defying authority figures, the causes and treatments for defiance are generally the same. If the teen doesn’t get the proper therapy for ODD, it can be extremely difficult for teens to learn new behavior patterns. Treatment for ODD requires individual and group therapy sessions, social skills training, and sometimes even medication for serious cases. Little by little, parents and troubled teens can chip away at the root causes of the bad behavior and defiance and some up with a solution that can restore happiness and health to families.

Request Free Admissions Information

Step 1 of 3 - Your Contact Info

Written by Natalie

17 Dec, 2015

Recent Posts

Why We Are Seeing an Increase in Teen Anxiety

Why We Are Seeing an Increase in Teen Anxiety

Anxiety is a natural response to stress and fear. For years teens have been facing increasing pressure from school, sports commitments, family concerns, and even peer issues. With everything they’re struggling with, it makes sense that they would have increased...

Let’s Get Creative! How to Spark Your Teens Creative Side.

Let’s Get Creative! How to Spark Your Teens Creative Side.

While the summertime can burst with days of full-filled activities, most of the time is probably downtime for your teenager. This isn't bad; after all, time for rest and recovery is imperative. However, too many days of quiet time can lead to boredom for kids of all...

8 Ways to Stay Connected To Your Teen

8 Ways to Stay Connected To Your Teen

We live in an increasingly interconnected world. This is why it can sometimes be baffling that it’s not always easy to connect and stay connected with your teen. Most of the time, we have communication devices in our hands, using them to connect through social media...

Shy Teen? How to Make Friends!

Shy Teen? How to Make Friends!

If you are shy, you probably know how frustrating it can be to try and make friends. This is particularly true if you have to move to a new school or town and you don’t know anyone. Thankfully, some excellent ways to make friends when you are a little shy will work no...

Defiant Teen Behavior Lying and Stealing

Defiant Teen Behavior Lying and Stealing

Rarely do you meet a person who never tells a lie. Even the best of us may stretch the truth when serving our needs. Children and teens will often tell lies to get themselves out of trouble. It can become frustrating when a teen starts to act out, be defiant, and...

Summer Fun Tips for Tweens

Summer Fun Tips for Tweens

There’s nothing quite like the excitement of the end of the school year. For parents, it can mean fewer mornings rushing around and fewer afternoons ferrying kids to an assortment of activities. For students, it means a long summer of fun stretching ahead of them...

You May Also Like…

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *