What Young People Wish Adults Understood: World Homeless Day 2026
This World Homeless Day, let's not ask ‘Why is this young person being so difficult?’ Instead, let’s ask, ‘What is this young person actually trying to tell me through their behaviour?’
When picturing youth homelessness we tend to think about it in terms of crises points. Raised voices, slammed doors. A young person with a backpack walking into the night. A sleeping bag in a doorway.
What is less visible is what often comes before the crisis arrives.
Relationship breakdown within families remains the leading reason young people present as homeless in Scotland. If we’re serious about preventing homelessness, then we all need to understand more about what has taken place before a young person feels they’ve no alternative other than to leave home.
Cyrenians Scottish Centre for Conflict Resolution works to support young people, families and those who work alongside them to better understand conflict, emotions and relationships. This World Homeless Day (Saturday 10 October), we want to reflect on a message that sits at the heart of so many conversations with young people:
‘I'm not trying to be difficult. I'm trying to be understood.’
Looking Beyond Behaviour
All families experience conflict.
Disagreements are a normal part of relationships and can even be healthy when managed constructively. Problems arise when conflict becomes frequent, intense or unresolved.
Teenagers are often described as moody. Argumentative. Impulsive. Parents and carers can sometimes find these behaviours frustrating.
However, what if we reframed the behaviour? What if instead of looking at behaviour as something the young person does, we looked at as something the young person is trying to tell us. Behind an angry outburst there may be fear. Behind a slammed door may be hurt, disappointment or feeling overwhelmed.
Understanding what is going on beneath the surface can help us respond with curiosity instead of conflict.
Under Construction: The Teenage Brain
One of the messages teenage behaviour communicates is that the young person’s brain and body are going through incredible change.
Brain development in teenagers during adolescence drives the behaviour that can cause conflict. The parts of the brain involved in emotional reactions often develop earlier than the parts responsible for planning, impulse control and weighing up consequences. In moments of stress, frustration or conflict, this can make it harder for young people to reflect and communicate calmly.
That does not mean young people are incapable of making good decisions. It just means they’re still learning.
When emotions run high, young people may find themselves reacting before they’ve had a chance to think things through. Young people are still developing the skills and brain pathways that help them regulate these responses.
A Different Question
This World Homeless Day, there is one question we can ask.
It’s not ‘Why is this young person being so difficult?’
Instead, let’s ask, ‘What is this young person actually trying to tell me through their behaviour?’
That small shift can create space for understanding. It can reduce conflict. And sometimes, it can prevent a relationship from reaching breaking point.
This World Homelessness Day, let’s focus less on how a young person’s behaviour makes us feel, and more about what that behaviour might in fact be trying to say.
