Different Personalities of Teenagers

The teen years form a sometimes tumultuous time of growth and change when it comes to a child's personality development. Between inborn temperament and your family's influence are more than enough factors that feed into shaping how your adolescent acts. Outside influences also can have an impact on your teen's ever-changing personality.

Temperament Traits

Whether your child is a toddler or a teen. chances are that his temperament plays a major factor in his personality development. According to the website Healthy Children, each person's temperament consists of nine major characteristics: activity level, approach and withdrawal, adaptability, intensity, mood, attention span, distractibility and sensory threshold 4. While your teen may go through physical and developmental changes, his temperament may remain fairly constant. While the way in which he handles situations may change as he grows older, his baseline temperament is typically here to stay.

Confidence

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A confident teen may express herself through a variety of personality traits that you or others may label as independent, self-assured, self-controlled, poised or even precocious. The Healthy Children website's child development experts note that during the teen years kids need to develop the confidence to become more independent 4. Although this is a major facet of the adolescent stage, not every teen will display confidence. If you feel that your child's personality shows little indication of confidence, help her to build her independence by giving her more responsibilities around the home, or even help her to get a part-time job such as babysitting or working at the local mall 3.

Shy and Socially Scared Teens

It is normal to feel some degree of awkwardness in new social situations, especially during the teen years. According to the developmental professionals at the Kids Health website, shyness can impact the way a teen behaves when he is around other people. An extreme expression of shyness is known as social phobia, and it can make kids afraid to go into even the most basic of peer situations 1. Teens who experience these types of feelings, whether mild or severe, will have a drastically different personality than a more outgoing adolescent. Shy and socially scared teenagers may seem withdrawn, moody, quiet or fearful.

Influences

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If your teen seems to have a different personality each day, you are not alone. With a seemingly endless parade of outside influences, your adolescent may go from sassy to subdued in a short period of time. One of the primary outside influences in your teen's life is her peer group. According to the Kids Health website, peers can be positive examples -- setting the stage for acceptable or expected personality development, but they can also create a negative pressure situation. Other outside influences that may impact your teen's personality are popular media figures, such as musicians, actors and athletes. In a quest to find herself, your teen may try to emulate some of these famous personalities.