Monday May 25 2009

Do you have a troubled teenage girl in the family? Then RTE wants to hear from you for its upcoming reality TV series, Teens in the Wild, part two.

Last year's series in which six lads were given a chance to change their bad boy behaviour in a rural outpost of Connemara was so popular with TV audiences -- half a million of us tuned into each episode -- a second is in the offing and this time it's all about the girls. To date, 100 candidates have applied to appear on the show.

But is dealing with their inner turmoil on camera in the best interests of emotionally troubled adolescents?

As fellow contributor Shane Dunphy so aptly expressed in this newspaper, "Is it fair to put distressed, angry young people on national television to air their pain for our amusement?"

It's an issue that David Coleman, the programme's clinical psychologist, has considered carefully.

"I don't see it as exploitation," he says. "Of course there is an entertainment value -- I would be foolish to think there isn't -- but there is more to it than that. It offers resources that otherwise may not be available to families and the focus is on educating both those taking part and the viewing public. It also allows the voice of young people to be heard."

Firebrand, the production company behind the programme, is inviting girls aged 14 --16 to take part in the series, due to air in September.

The selection process begins with a series of telephone interviews, after which possible contenders are filmed in a face-to-face interview. David then views a shortlist of these tapes before deciding on the final six.

"I do a cost-benefit analysis for each family, weighing up the potential benefit the experience can offer them, and if I feel it's not in their best interests I would tell them that television is not the route," says David.

"In each case I ask, do they want to change and what can I offer them? That was the criteria I used to select the six boys. If I get an underlying sense that a young person is not interested in change and just wants to be on TV, I don't take them."

He plans to repeat the process for the new series, although, being girls, he says their issues are likely to be different.

'By and large, girls and boys deal differently with their problems," says David. "Boys externalise with physical aggression and girls internalise through eating disorders and self-harm."

And the problems are not restricted to a particular demographic.

"It's across the country and across the board," says producer Christine Thornton. The main issues coming up in the calls received to date, she says, are anger management, kids dealing with their parents' separation, low self-esteem and truancy.

They're not so different from the problems of last year's bad boys. Mikey from Westmeath was verbally abusive and got caught up in street brawls. Jamie from Cork had rows with his mum, William from Mayo was under threat of expulsion from school, Kyle from Kerry had no motivation, Noel from Dublin was quick to fly off the handle and Shane from Kildare, normally a high achiever, had suddenly quit school without explanation.

For three weeks, the boys traded their cigarettes and mobile phones for an exhausting programme of physical activity at the Delphi Mountain Resort in remotest Mayo.

More riveting than the rope-climbing, kayaking and other physical challenges they had to face, however, was the unfolding of people and problems until we saw not just cardboard cutout tearaways but vulnerable young men with real personalities and concerns. "Families got to see another side to their son or daughter," says David.

And the good news for the participants is that the support did not end when the cameras stopped rolling.

"RTE pays towards ongoing support for the families taking part," says David. "I have seen all the families two to three times since last year's programme finished and some of them more than that. I see one of the boys twice a month. They're all doing well.

"Three weeks is not long enough for sustainable change, but it does put things in motion."

Producer Christine, a former Montessori teacher, is also in regular contact with the boys.

"I visit the families once a month and I'm on the phone every week," she says. "You can't just pick up six families like that and dump them once the show is over. I feel a responsibility to them and I'm happy to report that none of the boys suffered any bullying or slagging off as a result of being on the show. In fact, when people in their communities saw them on the street or in the supermarket, they often clapped them on the back which I think was hugely supportive."

So how can parents support their own children through those troublesome teen years and survive themselves?

David Coleman has yet to face this period as a parent -- his three children are 11, eight and five -- but he more than anyone knows the challenges involved, particularly with today's mass media adding to the pressure.

"In previous generations, the values parents passed down were reinforced by the community and even the church, so the message was consistent," he says.

"Now the valuable messages from parents are often drowned out by things like US television shows where 10-year-olds look like 14 and the message they send out is, 'Do what you want, when you want and how you want it.'

"The years between 13 and 15 are the real 'drift years.' It's when many teens have no clear focus and they don't have the skills to plan ahead, so they live in the here and now, sometimes drifting aimlessly. Giving them goals to aspire to is the first step along the way. Young people communicate in a different way too, with texting and online social networking sites where a girl can have 1,000 'friends' who leave a quick comment that makes her feel needed and popular, but there is no face-to-face contact. Knowing how to read body language and deciphering tones of voice are not required in texting and online communication."

According to David, the time to prevent brat behaviour is when children are small.

"Parents face a challenge with the next evolution of communications and they need to get off the ball early, minimising and monitoring TV watching when children are young. It is worth investing time in that."

But if the time is now, and your teenager is swinging from nice to nasty, how do you know the difference between normal mood swings and something more serious?

"If it's a radical shift into a more predominantly negative mood, it would give cause for concern," says David.

"If a child who had been generally happy-go-lucky becomes particularly withdrawn and secretive, you know there's something wrong. It's good for young people to have some private time, but if you feel blocked out it's important to try to keep communicating and show you're interested, even if it's not reciprocated. At the end of the day, it's really about you knowing your child."

Any family interested in participating in Teens In The Wild should call 01 4735927 or email info@firebrand.ie

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