There are more conflicts that characterize teen-parent relationships today than in the past. Parents claim today’s teens are stubborn, dependent, and less innovative and lack structures needed to solve their problems and improve their behaviors.

On his part, Stephen Covey says parents have tampered with the ‘Relationship Bank Account’ by making more withdrawals than deposits. Belittling, shaming, and shouting at the teen are all examples of withdrawals from the relationship bank account. When the account becomes overdrawn, parent-teen conflicts increase in frequency and severity.

We have heard it many a times that today’s youth are the most controversial and unknowable figures in history. That is if you compare them with ‘yester youth’. With rapid technological advancement such as the advent and widespread use of the internet, cellular phones, iPods and others, the youth are becoming more and more distanced from their parents and also society. What attracts the attention of the youth is no longer the long, articulate speeches and lectures delivered through face-to-face forums, but rather, something ‘soft’ and perhaps entertaining! With the shift in preferences so has inspiring today’s youth changed tremendously. But what has it changed to?