Jace Jackson

English 111
Prof. K. Turner
September 29, 2014
How Do Emotions Affect Actions in Teenage Girls?
Throughout adolescence (the development from a child to an adult), teenage girls
have very high emotions. These increased emotions can derive from stress at school,
work, and/or home, and can have a significant impact on their day-to day actions. In other
words, their emotions affect their actions.
During teenage years, males and females have about the same prevalence when
it comes to mood disorders. This ranges from about 3-5%, but when teenaged girls hit the
middle of adolescence their moods take a shift, they increase to those of an adult. This is
due to teenage girls not being able to process emotional stimuli the way teenaged boys
can. Psychologist have been analyzing the female brain during adolescence; We know
from looking at brain scans that there are differences in the way girls and boys process
emotional stimuli. Girls mature, in terms of their emotional recognition, faster than boys
and that sensitivity could make them more vulnerable to depression and anxiety
(Steingard). Unable to process emotional stimuli as quick as males can, females suffer
from these types of emotions: fear, anger, depression (now considered a disorder), and
confusion. All of these emotions have some type of effect on the decisions that teenaged
girls make, when dealing with stressful situations.
As the emotions of the teenage girls have a direct impact on their actions, parents
are also affected. There are necessary steps that parents can take to prevent their teenage
girl's emotions from effecting their actions. These steps include but are not limited to:
advise your teen to talk to you or a trusted adult, limit the amount of television your teen
watches to 1 to 2 hours a day (including music videos and video games), and problem
solve with your teen. Think together about options and consequences for
behaviors(American Medical Foundation). These steps can be taken to help the
parents of the teenage daughters to maintain their emotions in a healthy way.
Although every situation is different, psychologist have been demonstrating
experiments on teenage girls to demonstrate how their emotions affect their actions. In an
experiment conducted by Stephanie Burnett et al. the measure of emotions in females was
measured. this experiment was designed to investigate the emotions a teenage girl
experiences in puberty and the impact it has on their social life. The results showed that
the females that were put in different scenarios had different reactions to each scenario.

Also the females that were put in the same scenario displayed different reactions
(Stephanie Burnett et. al). As this research shows teenage girls emotions do have a
significant impact on their actions.