Anger Management Strategies for Parents

Eight Anger Management Strategies that Parents Can Teach Their Teens


As teenagers grow up, they face increased pressure and more responsibilities. Coping with these new challenges can be extremely difficult, and many teens express their frustration or stress as anger. Through open communication and modeling appropriate reactions, parents can help their teenagers to manage this anger and respond to it in a healthy, productive way.

Evaluate the logic of the reaction. Talk though a situation to help the teen decide if the situation is really something worth getting angry about. This is also a great opportunity to brainstorm other ways to handle the situation effectively and appropriately. The key here is to turn the anger into something constructive.
Help teens to identify anger triggers. Once they know what makes them angry, they can find ways to avoid them or to build a better tolerance of them. Keeping an anger journal can be a useful technique for identifying triggers; a teen who keeps an anger journal can look back over past entries, to look at behavior trends.
Reiterate that it is acceptable for teens to remove themselves from extremely frustrating situations. It takes considerable self control for a teen to walk away from something that makes him or her angry, and this self control is a skill that parents can model. Strategies like counting to ten or going to a "safe place" can be useful. It is also important for a parent to inform teachers if a child is using these strategies.
Encourage time management skills. A common stressor for teens is being overwhelmed with work or responsibilities. One method is to create a calendar for the entire family. Each family member uses his or her own color to write down due dates, appointments, and social activities. This kind of calendar helps teens to visualize how much time they actually have to complete different tasks, and it aids parents in keeping abreast of often-hectic schedules.
Incorporate regular exercise in the teen's day. This could be through an organized sport, or through a daily family bike ride. Aside from being part of a healthy lifestyle, daily exercise also provides teens a physical outlet for anger or aggression.
Expand your family's "emotional vocabulary." Often teens will say they feel only mad or angry. Introduce other words like "disappointed," "upset," or "embarrassed," and explain their different meanings. Teens can learn to react differently when they feel disappointed or embarrassed, than they do when they are angry.
Emphasize empathy. Considering an issue from another person's perspective can be a momentous task for an angry teenager. However, once the teen has talked through the situation, it is useful to ask how the other people involved might have felt, or why they may have acted as they did. Encouraging the examination of an issue from all angles will help a teen to remain more objective in frustrating situations.
Seek innovative forms of self expression. Many hospitals and treatment centers offer art therapy programs. Other teenagers may benefit from writing poetry, or from learning to play a musical instrument. These artistic endeavors give teens yet another outlet, and give them the opportunity to share their work with others.








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Anger Management Strategies for Parents