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"The trend of teenagers nowadays is becoming fat"

Vitri Widyaningsih, dr., MS, Ph.D., Head of the Family Medicine Master Program, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Sebelas Maret (FK UNS) as a speaker in a virtual Mental Health Webinar with the theme: Maintaining Mental Health in Adolescents held at the end of October 2020 which was attended by Puskesmas peers, teachers, parents, and other participants, conveyed that one of the main tasks of the Universitas Sebelas Maret educational institution was community service. This event was a series of community service activities. Sharing knowledge was the obligation of an educator to society. This activity focused on the style of today's youth (trend) which tends to get fatter over time. Changes in lifestyle, lifestyle, etc. brought a lot of changes to our teenagers and it affected not only physically but also mentally. It was hoped that we (parents, teachers, adults) would step together so that all teenagers were not only physically healthy but also mentally healthy.

From the description given by Vitri Widyaningsih, dr., M.S., Ph.D. and other colleagues would then be described briefly and in detail by Ifa Hanifah Misbach, S.Psi., MA, a psychologist, as a speaker at this Mental Health webinar, which explained that parents must accompany adolescents in maintaining their mental health, and recognized the stages development. Adolescent character education was the responsibility of adults (parents or teachers). The teenager was entering a transitional period, namely developing self-identity and social identity in relationships. In addition, the teenagers' body was in the peak biological phase so that physical growth and psychological development did not support each other. Therefore, adolescents needed intense movement so that they could be controlled in a directed and balanced manner by themselves to accept their physical condition (self-confidence, smart, diligent, creative, caring, loyal friends, etc.).

Some common problems faced by adolescents were:
1.    Self-esteem, sensitive to rejection, sensitive to body image, difficult to control emotional turmoil, sexual harassment, stress, bullying, peer pressure, disobedience, competition, etc.
2.    How seriously adolescents are heard by adults (parents or teachers)
3.    'Loneliness' (this could not be underestimated).

Children who behave badly were actually children who did not get ‘support’ from adults (parents or teachers). Children who had never been heard since they were young might had the opportunity to become rebellious teenagers.

After knowing what the duties of parents and teachers, adolescents needed to be accompanied so that they could find their uniqueness which created their strengths so that might create their identity which would eventually become mentally healthy.

In the teenagers’ stage, the most serious work done by adults (parents or teachers) was when adolescents find their identity. For our teenagers to be mentally healthy, do we as parents dare to ‘free ourselves’ from ‘fear’ to give confidence to adolescents to ‘make choices’?

 

Public Relation of FK UNS: Ari Kusbiyanto
Translator: Wartini