Any parent will tell you that their teenager's brain is simply wired differently than their own, but the truth is more that the wires are there but have not been connected properly yet. A child's brain triples in size during the first years of her life, but the fundamental changes going on in an adolescent's gray matter may not be as dramatic but they are incredibly important in terms of maturation and development. Here are some of the reasons why teens act the way they do: it's all in their mind.
Most parents will make complaints such as these: their child doesn't control her impulses, she can't see the consequences of her decisions, she doesn't choose her friends wisely, she doesn't care about her future, she only cares about how she looks, or she thinks she's the center of the universe. Sound familiar? The traits exemplified in these parental complaints are actually characteristic of an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex.
During a child's period of extreme brain growth, when the overabundance of synapses is being trimmed by the body to create a more efficient mechanism, the prefrontal cortex appears to be the last part of the organ to undergo this process. So parents are left with a person who looks like an adult and thinks she is an adult but whose brain cannot physically reason like one yet.
Prefrontal cortex development may only be part of the story, however. Teenager behavior may also be attributed to societal influences and expectations. In some cultures where children are expected to take on adult responsibilities and roles at a much earlier age, some of the behaviors seen in Western societies are virtually non-existent. Does this mean that children's brains develop faster in other cultures to adapt to the jobs they are being asked to do? Or do teens simply learn how to act like adults sooner because they have more intimate daily interactions with older people? This argument has apparently not yet been resolved to everyone's satisfaction.
A teen's seeming inability to control his or her emotions would seem to suggest that there is a large physical component involved. Whatever the cause, parents need to tap their own memories and attempt to retrieve their own feelings and emotions from that time period in their lives. Doing so will help them to better understand what their own teenagers are going through and perhaps cut them a little "developmentally excused" slack. It would certainly make for more peaceful homes and parents will be more likely to help their children grow through this period with kindness and understanding.
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About the Author: Art Gib
Mind Over Brain is to provide a conceptual Understanding the Mind for general audiences and students. Art Gib is a freelance writer.
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