For teenagers, there really are few things worse than being asked to tidy their room.
A study has identified the main problems in life which are guaranteed to irritate teenagers and send them into a sulk.
These include the wifi disconnecting when they are trying to do something online, and being expected to have an answer to the question of what they want to do with their life.
But the top five irritations named by teenagers include being told to sort their room out – when they claim they were ‘just about to’.
Being asked to tidy their room by a parent when they already planned to is even more annoying than doing badly in a school test because of stress, according to young people aged 16 to 18.
Unstable wifi connections were found to be among some of the most annoying problems that teenagers face, according to the University of Edinburgh
Being asked to clean up their rooms was also found to be annoying, even more so than failing a test at school
What really winds teenagers up was established by researchers consulting almost 150 young people.
First, 25 teenagers came up with a list of 51 annoying scenarios, which were grouped into topics and rated for irritation level by 122 further teenagers.
The 18 biggest irritations produced at the end of this process also included a parent asking a teenager to do the washing up ‘for a third time’, even though they had already promised to do it.
The list of irritations was used to provoke annoyance in 29 people aged 16 to 18 being scanned in an MRI machine.
This was done to better understand the brain activity of teenagers facing irritation, as those most affected may be at greater risk of depression (SUBS – pls keep high).
Dr Niamh MacSweeney, who led the study from the University of Edinburgh, said (SUBS – pls keep this quote): ‘This study provides an interesting insight into major irritations for teenagers.
‘We saw classic themes like teenagers being asked to tidy their room when they said they had just been about to do it, and the dislike teenagers had for feeling disrespected, patronised and talked over by adults.’
Senior author Dr Liana Romaniuk, also from the University of Edinburgh, added: ‘Previous studies suggest teenagers are more prone to being irritable, and it takes a while to learn to manage their emotions when they feel irritated, and our brain scans highlight how they might process irritation differently to older people.
‘So parents might want to try to be patient and see things from their teenagers’ perspective.’
The study, published in Wellcome Open Research, identified the biggest irritation for teens as having a conversation where they were trying to offer helpful advice, but the other person did not listen and talked over them.
They also disliked not being taken seriously by their parents.
In a warning for older relatives who often ask young people what they want to be when they grow up, the list of top 18 irritations also includes: ‘Everyone expects you to know what you want to do in life, even though you are still a teenager.’
The irritations, in text form, flashed up on a screen while 29 young people aged 16 to 18 were in an MRI machine (SUBS – pls keep, as this was the main point of the study).
Researchers wanted to understand how teenagers brains respond to irritation, and thought real-life grievances would work better than the difficult maths problems sometimes given to provoke annoyance in similar studies.
The study found irritation had a particular effect in teens on the cingulate cortex.
This part of the front of the brain, in the prefrontal cortex, is important for emotional regulation.
Teenagers who were especially prone to feeling irritable did not see much signalling between the cingulate cortex and neighbouring brain areas, which may help to cope with irritation.
That could mean they get more wound up by everyday irritants, making them less able to keep their cool, although more research is needed to determine if that is the case.
The teenagers recruited for the study all reported having anxiety or struggling with a low mood – which can make irritation worse.
Although some irritability is normal during adolescence, the researchers stress that regular and strong irritation in teenagers may also be a red flag that they are at risk of suffering depression (SUBS – pls keep).
The study authors are appealing for more teenagers to get involved in similar research, through projects like Generation Scotland, which is partnered with the University of Edinburgh in studying young people’s mental health (SUBS – must keep this sentence).
