This post is to provoke comment - how old's a teenager...

I'll ask you this question fellow bloggers. How old really is a teenager?

New research that has emerged questions the way society puts the various age groups into little pigeon holes: babies, toddlers, infants, children, teenagers, young adults, middle aged, seniors, geriatric etc.

There is now much thought being put into the classification of "teenager". So how old really is a teenager? Thirteen to nineteen?

The research I mentioned above is in relation to the maturation of the prefrontal cortex lobe: the part of the brain that determines our reaction to complex situations, cognitive behaviour etc. Scientists now believe young adult brains may not be fully matured up to 22 years of age, or in some cases 25 years of age.

This is a real concern considering what pressures society puts on young adults and expects them to succeed. We let them drive motor vehicles and drink alcohol in their mid-teens, get married and send them off to war as soon as they are 18 years of age. Even the voting age has been reduced in many western countries. When they stuff up we are ready to jump on them , condemn them, threaten them with violence and prison, but fail to realise they may not actually be mentally mature enough to succeed at the tasks we give them as a society in the first place; mentally they are still young teenagers, even if physically they are fully mature adults!

Think back to an earlier generation who didn't let their older children(teenagers were unknown then) drive motor vehicles, drink alcohol or go off to war until a later age? The pre-world war two generation didn't need research scientists to tell them that young adults didn't fully mature mentally until their early twenties, did they?

What do you think of that fellow bloggers?

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Hutt, when my granddaughter was 16, we went on a trip together.

I have to laugh when I remember her asking me during that long drive, "Grandma, don't you think I act a lot more mature for my age than most 16-year-olds?" The truth was, if I hadn't been there the day she was born, most of her behavior would have led me to guess her age at 11 or 12.

Now that she is about to turn 18, I see a few more signs of maturity, but I think true maturity is still a long way off.

Jellen's picture

Responsibility without power

It's a limbo-land out there, when kids are out of highschool, age 17 and old enough for consent, but not yet legally 18. In the US, parents are essentially legally responsible for these teens, but without power to affect their choices. Emancipation is a possibility for underage teens, if teens can prove ability to support self without government help. Like that's going to happen?

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Elly's picture

I'd like to think I still had some youth but teenage?

I think we have mucked up badly. I think too much information, to much pressure, too much expectation on young people and I have no doubt that their brains are not fully developed until much older.

Working with Chinese students is interesting as most/nearly all of the 20 year olds are more like our 13/14 year olds. They obey their parents, and their school rules, don't drive cars, don't drink alcohol, and the girls hold hands with each other and the boys are "close" to their boy friends. Few are gay.

They can't get married until they are 26, and they live at home when they are not in college dormitories, and most of them have been at some rigid boarding college for years.

But there's no petty crime, no violence like we experience in the west. Refreshing.

Elly

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huttriver12's picture

Some things take time...

Familyfunandfaith's picture

I was hoping, Hutt

that there was a chance that my brain would fully develop some day soon and I am well past 20!

Actually I think the pressure on our kids to grow up too soon is incredible, and that is magnified these days sexual pressures that kids are not equipped to handle at an early age!

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