July 2, 2006 at 12:00 am
#35187
Ryan22314
Member
In my experience working with recent Mexican immigrants, there are big cultural differences in how teens treat their parents. In Anglo culture, kids are expected to ‘individuate’, to separate from the family. Sometimes the easiest way to do this is to argue your way out (it’s easiest to separate from someone if you convince yourself they irritate you). For the Mexican families I see, kids are expected to show a lot more respect, which is useful in that case, because they are dedicated to the family after adolescence. Kids born here are torn between these two cultural expectations, so it may be a cultural thing. I remember reading something Socrates wrote 2,000 years ago, complaining about teens . . .
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