Long-Lasting Help For Troubled Teens

You can send your troubled teen to a boot camp. If it works the way it's supposed to work, you're child should emerge a short time later, happy to see you and willing to "play by the rules." Of course, these paramilitary variations of the old "scared straight" approach don't always work. And even when they do, they often fail to provide any meaningful long term benefit.


These are short-term solutions. It may be an attractive way to provide help for troubled teens, but it's unlikely to make a real difference in the trajectory of the child's life.

That's because the behaviorist approach embraced by these boot camps with screaming drill sergeants never bother to get to the root of why the child is in trouble. They focus on the superficial, trying to modify behavior by threatening negative repercussions. That may be enough to convince a troubled teenager to play by the rules for awhile, but it doesn't have any staying power.

Additionally, the children who enter these programs are not stupid. In fact, many are quite bright. They are good at games and master the boot camp game very quickly. They soon realize that all they must do is "play along" long enough to "graduate" in order to return to their regular lives. They may look like success stories who have benefit from powerful help for troubled teens, but they're merely acting. They have no intention of maintaining their boot camp behaviors after the course concludes.

Undoubtedly, parents turn to these programs because they want to provide authentic help for troubled teens. Many of the people operating these camps are well-intentioned, too. They really believe they're providing a service that creates a lasting impact. The number of kids who emerge from these programs significantly changed is quite minimal, however. Once the menacing drill sergeant and his various punishments fades to the background, old behaviors return to the foreground.

If you're really interested in helping a troubled teenager in your life, think beyond "shock programs" and start thinking about ways to really address the heart of the matter. That kind of deeper, more meaningful activity is the best way to provide genuine help for troubled teens.

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