EXTERNALIZING AND INTERNALIZING FORMS OF PROCESSING PROBLEMS AMONG ADOLESCENTS - AGGRESSION AND PSYCHOSOMATIC COMPLAINTS

This paper treats the externalizing and internalizing reactions of adolescents as two poles in the regulation of stress in precarious life situations. In recent years, the public discussion has focused increasingly on aggression as an externalizing form of reaction among adolescents. In contrast, internalizing forms of problem processing, which manifest in impairments of mental and physical well-being, have received less attention. A representative survey of adolescents compared these two forms of processing problems. The survey also ascertained the conditions on which the kind of problem processing depended. Particular attention was paid to the discrepancies between adolescents' increased expectations of being able to engage in autonomous and creative activities and the greater difficulties in fulfilling these expectations in the process of the status transition from school to work in everyday life.