Dealing with anger in children and teenagers
Everyone gets angry from time to time, it’s a natural and healthy emotion, but it can be worrying if your child gets angry easily, often or seemingly for no reason.
There’s lots of reasons why your child may get angry or seem to be angrier than other children and it may not be immediately obvious to either you or your child. It's important to try and help them work out what might be causing their anger and discuss tips for how to handle it.
A few reasons why your child may be feeling angry, include:
- Seeing family members arguing or being angry with each other
- Friendship problems
- Being bullied
- Struggling with school / college work or exam stress
- Feeling very stressed, anxious or fearful about something
- Coping with hormone changes during puberty
Local support
Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHs) offer tips and resources to support how your child is feeling. CAMHs is a collection of NHS services that supports children and young people between the ages of 5-18 years with their emotional wellbeing and mental health.
Strong Young Minds help young people aged 10 to 24 years old in Herefordshire to improve their mental health and wellbeing. If you often feel angry, it can sometimes make you feel disenfranchised, distressed, socially isolated or have poor achievement at school or college, all of which can affect your mental health and wellbeing.
The Children's Society run the CLIMB Project in Herefordshire, which provides one to one support for 10 to 17 year olds, to help divert them away from criminal exploitation and learn how to recognise people and situations, that might put them at risk.
National support
Childline offer a range of fantastic information and advice for dealing with child anger, such as practical tips, how to keep an anger diary and writing on the Wall of Expression to help your worries crumble away.
Family Lives has some useful advice for dealing with anger in teenagers, including dealing with meltdowns and setting limits on behaviour.
The NHS has a lot of useful information for dealing with anger in children and teenagers, including how to spot the signs, tips for coping with angry feelings, how to cope with heated arguments with your teenager and what to do if they become violent. There is also a section on talking to your teenager.
Young Minds has some really useful information for young people, such as explaining the different types of aggression you may be feeling and how you can better manage your anger.