An Assessment Of Adolescents Developmental Challenges And Coping Strategies: The Case Of High Schools In Kellem Wollega Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was aimed to assess Adolescents Developmental Challenges and Coping strategies. To conduct the study descriptive survey research design was employed with stratified and systematic sampling technique. 15 high schools from 5 woredas were included in the study that consisted of 181 male and 109 female, totally 290 adolescent students were participated. The finding of the study regarding Developmental Challenges of Adolescents shows that, majority of the respondents challenged by family marital problems (lack of complete parental care) (50.4%), frustration due to family economic hardship and social unrest (55.5%), lack of parental guidance as they engage in bad acts/bad parental role model (52.4%), and entering in to the world of confusions (56.9%), teaching learning process inefficiency, and challenged by impact of arresting and detaining. Majority of the respondents does not challenged by issues such as difficulty of sleeping, difficulty of making friends, feeling of loneliness, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, harming themselves physically, feel nervousness & sad and attempts suicide while some respondents were challenged by those issues in their development.  As coping strategies, Adolescents take both positive action such as think of some things that will make them feel happier and allow them to relax; let them-self calm down first and think of how to reconcile the negative emotions; eat and have fun to decrease the stress first; and negative action such as blame themself, retreat or shut themself away when they face stress; generalize that they have bad luck when they face stress; give up and blame God for being unfair when they face stress; put themselves anger or fretful emotions on others; and make themselves numb by drinking alcohol or drug abuse as coping strategies to overcome their challenges.