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“All anybody expects of an adolescent is that he act like an adult and be satisfied to be treated like a child.” —E. C. McKenzie |
Understanding the Adolescent Brain |
Most of this book is about what we might refer to as the “normal” times of life, when no major brain and body changes are taking place. This section, however, addresses the three periods when such major changes occur: birth and early childhood, adolescence, and aging. Adolescence, the period from puberty to early adulthood, is a complex period characterized by major brain growth, hormonal changes, physical changes, emotional changes, and social changes. The teen years have been likened to a railroad switching yard with far more miles of track than any one train needs in order to maneuver from one siding to another. The teen’s brain, as we shall see, is very much like that—and it is precisely this excess capacity that accounts for the volatility of emotions and relationships during these years.
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TOPIC 5.1 |
Dr. Jay Giedd, chief of brain imaging, child psychiatry section, National Institute of Mental Health, has studied the brains of 1,800 teenagers since 1990 (see feature in Time, May 10, 2004). Challenging the traditional notion that the brain fully matures by puberty, Giedd places the point of maturity closer to age 25. Explaining typical adolescent emotional outbursts and risk-taking behavior, Giedd points to (1) raging hormones and (2) late development of the decision-making part of the brain. Also, in an 8- to 10-year longitudinal study examining the development of the brain in 13 children ages 4–21, lead researcher Dr. Nitin Gogtay (NIMH, Bethesda, Maryland) used brain-mapping technology to make periodic scans, ultimately combining them into a presentation showing 17 years of brain development in only a few seconds. The results show that the prefrontal cortex is the last to mature, typically between ages 18 and 21; this explains in part why teenagers find it difficult to reason, plan, and make decisions.
The brain undergoes two episodes of major growth and subsequent pruning back of excess cells, one during the second trimester of gestation, the other in late adolescence. These two “tidal waves” (i.e., rise and fall, growth and pruning) are qualitatively different. The first involves birth and subsequent pruning of new cells; the second involves growth and subsequent pruning of new synapses. Sometime between the ages of 6 and 12, the growth spurt of synaptic elaboration begins, reaching highest density (“bushiness”) for girls around age 11, for boys around age 12½. (Note, however, that brain growth and puberty are independent—the brain will continue its growth spurt even if puberty is delayed.) This profusion of “gray matter” is far more than can be used and represents raw material for learning. Between the peak density around puberty and around age 25 (somewhat later for boys), the gray matter dies out (i.e., the excess is “pruned”) at a rate of about 0.7 percent annually. While excess capacity is being shed, the “white matter”—the myelin sheath that protects the axon—continually thickens, thus increasing the safety, permanence, and speed of the axon’s transmission. Thus we simultaneously lose capacity and gain efficiency, and although we gain in speed of transmission, we lose in ease of learning and recovery from trauma.
With all this capacity, and with its relentless dying off, the rate of loss is inversely proportional to what we learn with it. The more we learn—languages, musical instruments, athletic skills, history—the less dies off. And the more we practice what we learn—practice the violin, recite the poetry, speak the French—the thicker grows the myelin sheath. That is why London cabbies have such large hippocampi: the myelin sheaths on their neural connections associated with memory for London streets thickens daily with practice. Learning saves gray matter, while practice thickens white matter. It seems that gray matter appears on our stage and remains only if used, if we learn new roles with it, stalking off our stage forever if ignored.
In both growth spurts, the process begins in the rear of the brain (the part that connects us to the world through the five senses), moving through the middle part (the part that coordinates movement and sensation), finally reaching the prefrontal cortex—the executive part of the brain that governs decision making and planning (see appendix A). Hence, it is not just hormones that affect teenage emotionality and unpredictability: the management function is the last to develop. The typical teenager walks around with excess capacity, hormones urging him on to learn with that capacity (“Explore!”), yet lacking the capacity he will later develop for sound decision making. Compounding this tendency are the elevated levels of dopamine circulating in the teen’s body, with the associated increase in “What if I . . . ?” behavior characterized by curiosity, fantasizing, and risk-taking. The capacity for acting responsibly is the last to develop. And, of course, this is an individual difference variable—some begin with more “executive function” than others.
This combination—excess capacity, maturity of the sensory cortex, flooding of sex hormones, elevation of dopamine, and late development of the maturity module—is a recipe for excitement seeking, like a race car without brakes. But a word of warning for teenagers: late maturation of the maturity module doesn’t mean you must wait to practice maturity! Just as you practice your violin daily to thicken your myelin sheath in order to develop effective violin movements, so must you be expected to practice daily your management skills—prioritizing, scheduling, follow-through, evaluating alternatives, considering consequences. Develop the habit early of talking to yourself with phrases such as “Do I really want this on my résumé?” Reinforce mature actions and attitudes with wall posters, notes, parental and teacher reminders. This will prepare your brain for a time when such managerial behavior will come more naturally.
One key to managing adolescents is to remember that short-term motivation is linked to the pleasure-pain centers, whereas long-term motivation is linked to the prefrontal cortex, which is not yet mature. Thus, linking an undesirable behavior (skipping class) to a short-term consequence (you don’t get your favorite breakfast made for you) should be more effective than linking it to a long-term consequence (you won’t get into the college of your choice).
All this explains the influence of the salient peer group. In the absence of self-management maturity modules, young people from 8 to 25 allow the salient peer group to structure their time. (See more below at topic 5.6.)
Applications
The American Bar Association has urged all states to ban the death penalty for adolescents because of their reduced capacity for self-management. Your state should comply. (In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sentencing anyone under the age of 18 to death is cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional.)
Teenagers should never be tried as adults.
Twenty-five is a good target age for considering a young person sufficiently mature for adult responsibilities. (This happens to be the minimum age at which you can rent a car!)
Lavish praise and affection on your adolescent. The research shows no ill effects, so long as you don’t embarrass her around her friends.
Don’t back off just because your child is older. Remain a part of his activities and get to know his friends.
Provide discipline and structure, but be appropriately flexible. Be fair but firm, kind but strict. Relax the rules when maturity is exhibited, then tighten up again when you see backsliding.
Teenage independence is normal and should not be viewed as disrespectful. Provide structure, but don’t get too much into the details.
Have good reasons for your rules. Teens’ capacity for reasoning will outgrow the old “because I said so” rationale.
For more ideas (and rationale) for parenting teens, see Laurence Steinberg’s The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting (2004).
Remember the Big Three of parenting a teen: love, structure, and patience.
Remember the Big Three of being a teen: explore (but accept limits), be independent (but accept love), and practice what you’re good at (so you’ll have something to show for all your exploration).
Be creative and use your computer graphic capabilities (or your own natural artistic skill) to make posters, T-shirt transfers, and other external reminders that take the burden off both the parent and teenager of remembering deadlines, obligations, and so forth.
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TOPIC 5.2 |
Deborah Yurgen-Todd, director of neuropsychology and cognitive neuroimaging at McLean Psychiatric Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, has found that teenagers process emotions and instructions differently from adults (U.S. News & World Report, August 9, 1999, pp. 45–54). Functional MRI images that compared young people ages 9–17 with 20- to 40-year-old adults revealed that the young people processed emotions, instructions, and procedures much more consistently in the amygdala (the seat of emotions), whereas adults processed the same activities more consistently in the frontal lobe (the seat of rationality). In addition to processing these activities in an emotion-ridden manner—as if normal conversation were being passed through an emotional filter—the young people found it more difficult to identify these emotions accurately to other people. Part of the explanation for these phenomena relates to the continuing development of white matter necessary for complete communication. The frontal area of the brain does not appear to be fully mature until the late 20s (some say 25, others 28, still others 30). Boys’ brains typically mature later—by a couple of years—than girls’ brains.
Applications
When young people respond emotionally, understand that the storm is natural and not to be taken personally. Let it pass like a summer shower, and get on with life.
Teach your young people over time to identify the emotions of others in their lives. Accurately identifying emotions is a development-related skill.
When young people follow directions imperfectly, understand that internally the directions had to pass through a tempest-tossed sea. Supplement the original instructions or directions with spoken or written reminders or crutches—and be kind. Expect incomplete reception of your original message. Don’t be blameful; be patient. And be glad when they’ve grown out of it!
Use your teenager’s outbursts as an opportunity to practice and expand your sense of humor: “Isn’t that just like a teenager!?” Receive the tempest with a chuckle, not a groan. However, your smile should probably be internal; overt delight in a teen’s outburst could be perceived as discounting or mocking.
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TOPIC 5.3 |
When they need to make a decision, adults rely on quickly accessible images associated with the situation. For example, when feeling the car begin to fishtail on an icy road, the adult, who has probably had many such previous experiences, doesn’t have to reason about what to do. Instead, she quickly reviews visual memories of her past responses to this situation and selects the most promising one. Teenagers, on the other hand, simply because they’ve not lived long enough, do not have a repertoire of responses, nor the established emotional link to the response that is most satisfying. As a result, the teenager is more likely to attempt to reason through the situation. This takes longer and can lead to disastrous results if a quick response is necessary.
Antonio Damasio has demonstrated that the amygdala is involved in decision making. Given the alternatives, the amygdala provides an emotional push to select the alternative that feels right. If the individual lacks experience in the context of the specific decision, it becomes very difficult, if not downright paralyzing, to make a decision. No alternative emerges as the gut-supported right one.
Applications
Teens should defer to more experienced persons in situations where quick decision making is required. However, teens also need the experience in order to build up their internal encyclopedia of memories for future use. The compromise: the teen drives but has a more experienced partner in the front seat with permission to intervene when necessary.
Find ways to get teens to acquire more experience in risky decision making by means of exposure to situations that have a safety net of some sort. For example, get a wintry driving simulation that the teen can play with on the computer.
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TOPIC 5.4 |
Mary Carskadon, sleep physiologist at Brown University’s Bradley Hospital sleep lab, finds that teenagers need approximately 9¼ hours of sleep nightly, but most get only 7 hours or so (Martin, 1999). Teenagers need the extra sleep in order to produce the hormones necessary for growth. Also, before puberty, melatonin production in kids tends to shut down around 7:17 A.M.; puberty delays the shutdown to around 8:34 A.M. The typical teenager in class at 8:00 A.M. is still producing melatonin and fighting the urge to sleep.
In a study of 3,120 Rhode Island school children, Amy Wolfson, psychology professor at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, found significant correlation between amount of sleep and grades: the less sleep, the lower the grades (Martin, 1999). In Edina, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis), school start time was moved in 1996 from 7:20 to 8:30 A.M. Before this switch, the top 10 percent of the graduating seniors scored 580–720 on the SAT, but by three years after the switch, the range for the top 10 percent had jumped to 600–760. The Minneapolis school system has followed Edina’s lead. Start time for the seven high schools in the district was changed from 7:15 to 8:40 A.M., dismissal time from 1:45 to 3:20 P.M. Kyla Wahlstrom, Associate Director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) at the University of Minnesota, conducted the study. The data for Minneapolis, which came out in December 2000, are even more impressive. Grades improved (although the difference was not statistically significant because of severe difficulties in analyzing the data), attendance improved, the dropout rate fell, teenagers’ sleep increased, classroom performance improved, fewer mood swings were evident, and morale improved. Wahlstrom recommends an ideal start time of 8:30 A.M. (or later) for children who have reached puberty; if a more definite age is desired, she would peg it at 14.
Applications
For teenagers (or anyone) who must wake early each morning, keep the lights low in the evening; encourage a reasonably early bedtime; then, at wakeup time, throw open the curtains and turn on all the lights. Have them do something active, preferably outdoors, like walking the dog.
Most sleep researchers agree that the best school start time for teenagers is 8:30 A.M. or later. Follow the results of school start time changes in high schools around the country that have dared to move their start time to 8:30 A.M.: Minneapolis, Pike County (Kentucky), and Arlington County (Virginia) are three examples.
Politically and logistically, changing school start time is rife with complications, not the least of which is what to do about bus fleets. One estimate was that the fleet must be tripled as a consequence of no longer being able to use the same buses for older students (who have gone to school earlier) as for younger students (who have gone to school later). A possible solution is to switch, with elementary students starting earlier, high schoolers later.
Because sleep deprivation interferes more with divergent thinking tasks than with convergent ones, place extra importance on teenagers’ getting nine hours of sleep before essay-question tests or other tests that involve recall and complex associations. Performance on simpler recall tests, such as standard multiple-choice, seem to suffer less from sleep deprivation.
Check periodically for updated information on CAREI’s website at www.education.umn.edu/CAREI.
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TOPIC 5.5 |
Roughly one-third of high school seniors have engaged in binge drinking (five or more drinks in one episode). Those who begin drinking alcohol before age 15 are four times more likely to become alcoholics than those who begin at age 21 (Prevention, March 2004, p. 165). That’s not all. Early drinking does permanent brain damage. When one experiences 100 drinking events between the ages of 15 and 17, the results include a reduction in the number of ways one approaches a problem (i.e., restricted range of problem-solving strategies), decreased attention, and decreased memory. Moreover, in research with adolescent rats, Duke University researchers found that the brain actually shrinks, especially the hippocampus (the seat of memory) (Prevention, March 2004, p. 199).
Least at risk for alcohol problems are teenagers who experience strong attachment with their parents, and whose parents have clear and firm policies on alcohol use. Most at risk are these three categories of adolescents:
• Parents who are non-nurturing or who abuse drugs themselves.
• Peer groups that use drugs and alcohol.
• Kids in transition, as from middle school to high school, one school to another, or high school to work or college.
Applications
(Note: These applications are based on a March 2004 story in Prevention magazine on the teenage brain and the relative immaturity of the prefrontal cortex.The authors recommended these 12 guidelines to address the problem.)
Be accessible to talk about anything.
Eat dinner together. Studies from Columbia University’s Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reveal that teenagers who eat dinner with their family two times a week or less are twice as likely to abuse drugs or alcohol as teens who eat dinner with their family six or seven times a week.
Do whatever you can to help teens get 9–9½ hours of undisturbed sleep each night. The average is 7, and that is just not enough.
Permit thrill-seeking, but make it safe. Rock climbing yes, speeding cars no. Trying to keep the lid on a teen’s urge to explore her wild side is unnatural. Encourage safe approaches to scuba, biking, skiing, skateboarding, surfing, and other adventuring.
Encourage after-school activities. Those spending one to four hours a week in extracurricular activities are less than half as likely to use drugs or become pregnant as others. Exercise is particularly effective, whether in organized sports or self-directed.
Talk with teens about the risks of drinking. See above.
Encourage after-school jobs.
Avoid giving them too much spending money. The highest risk group for smoking, drugs, and alcohol is girls with more than $50 a week.
Use your soapbox. Have open, honest conversations about sex, drugs, alcohol, speeding. Don’t let objectionable material on television or movies go unanswered.
Use teenagers’ vanity as a lever. Talk about the effect of smoking on skin, teeth, and body odor. Remind them that prom dresses don’t come in “maternity” sizes.
Respect their privacy, but know when to snoop. Trust them—don’t read their mail and journals—but when evidence (depression, declining grades, shady or elusive new friends) hits you in the face, it is time to check things out.
Understand that everything matters to a teenager.
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TOPIC 5.6 |
Judith Rich Harris (see discussion of her views in the context of the nature-nurture debate in chapter 1) has established the principle of the salient peer group. According to this paradigm-changing theory, it is the salient peer group, not the parents, who have the most profound influence on shaping personality development from age 8 to 25. During these 17 years, an individual has many peer groups: neighborhood, home room at school, football team, jazz band, dance club, “best friends,” religious classes and fellowships, gangs, sports “pickup” groups, and so forth. Anyone can have several dozen peer groups (for example, each class and organization at school).
So what is the salient peer group? Let us say that, as a 15-year-old, I had 20-odd peer groups: band, church choir, six classes at school, home room, Senior Hi-Y Club, Latin Club, basketball team, annual staff, Sunday School class, neighborhood friends, and others. What Harris discovered is that, at any given time in my life as an 8- to 25-year-old, one of these many peer groups would be salient—that is, of special importance to me. It would be that salient peer group that formed my primary source of peer pressure, which Harris defines as my urge to minimize differences between myself and others in the group. It is not the other group members’ putting pressure on me to be like them, but my putting pressure on myself to be like the others. They wear baggy pants, I wear baggy pants. They take advanced and challenging courses, I become the budding Rhodes scholar. They smoke cigarettes, I light up. And so forth. “Be like Mike” says it all. But remember that this peer pressure is internally, not externally, imposed. Mike isn’t asking you to be like him—you’re pressuring yourself to be like him, to minimize differences between yourself and Mike.
When I was 15, my salient peer group was clearly the youth fellowship of my church that met on Sunday evenings. It was the focal point of my life. Highest priority. Perfect attendance. Went to all the district and state meetings, to summer camp. In fact, that group probably was my salient peer group for four years. Before that, it was my Boy Scout troop; afterward, it was a small group of friends at undergraduate school who were all nonconformists. In fact, as I recall these various peer groups, I can feel the power they had over me at the time that caused me to want to be like them. The power of the salient peer group is a complex interaction between one’s personal abilities, traits, and needs with the features of the group itself. If you’re a leader, and the group needs a leader, then that could be the basis. If you need recognition (e.g., not getting any at home), and this group provides such recognition, then . . . Here’s the problem: if the group is toxic—leading you down the path to perdition—you are likely to follow it, and your parents’ wringing of hands won’t change the dynamics. The only solution is to eliminate the individual’s access to that peer group. Harris tells of a New England girl who was into drugs, sex, and so forth, all because of a toxic peer group. The only solution the parents felt they could employ was to move—and move they did, to the Southwest. A radical solution, but the girl ended up with a more positive peer group and returned to honor roll and socially responsible patterns.
Applications
Read Judith Rich Harris’s The Nurture Assumption (1998) for more discussion of the rationale behind this issue and for many suggestions on how to approach it.
Discuss with your child the pull of the peer group so that he is at least aware of the dynamics going on. Get him to identify his many peer groups, which group is currently salient, and which might be salient in his best interests. Offer to do whatever it takes to switch to a less toxic, more positive peer group.
If your child is in a toxic peer group, do not hesitate to employ tough love and do whatever it takes to deny access to the peer group. We know of a family who told their daughter that she would get no more allowance so long as she associated with a particular group of girls. The daughter hated her parents for that and refused to communicate for about a month. However, after cooling off, she thanked her parents, saying she knew she was in a downward spiral and felt helpless to rescue herself.
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TOPIC 5.7 |
For effective discipline, I am a big fan of the Dreikurs method of “logical consequences” (Dreikurs and Gray, 1993). Read his Logical Consequences (or his earlier Discipline Without Tears) for the full treatment. In brief, he encourages the parent to have a chat with a child after an event or behavior that needs to be addressed; in other words, the child needs to experience some consequence for having done what she did. Dreikurs’s approach builds on the assumption that, deep down, the child knows as well as the parent that the event or behavior should not go unaddressed. The focus of the conversation should be on what some possible logical consequences might be. Initially the focus is not on choosing a punishment but rather on simply brainstorming or listing a number of possible logical (making sense in terms of the event or behavior itself) consequences. For example, the logical consequences of drinking beer at a party without chaperones and throwing up might be
• Cleaning up the mess
• Cleaning the family bathroom for the next month
• Reading the “Big Blue Book,” Alcoholics Anonymous, by Ernest Kurtz
• Going to a teen drinking support group
• Attending individual or family counseling sessions
• Volunteer work at a homeless shelter or rehab program
• Writing a research paper on effects of teen drinking
• Conducting field research on the extent of drinking at the teen’s school
• Reading biographies or novels about characters with drinking problems (e.g., a biography of the poet Dylan Thomas)
Once the two of you have developed such a list, then you decide together on the one that makes the most sense as a consequence of the event. This approach is based on the research-proven principle that participation in identifying and choosing a strategy makes it more likely that the strategy will have the desired effect. (See more at topics 10.4 and 34.3.)
Applications
Read one or more of Dreikurs’s books.
Resist imposing punishment; rather, take time to discuss the event, mutually suggesting logical consequences (it is important that the parent not make all the suggestions!—be patient and encourage the child to suggest some) and selecting one that makes sense to both child and parent(s).
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TOPIC 5.8 |
Although depression by itself increases the likelihood of suicide, many of the current drugs for teenage depression also seem to increase the chances of suicide. The least risky appears to be Prozac, which, according to a study of 400 youth reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is most effective when taken in combination with cognitive-behavioral therapy (Time, August 30, 2004). However, in all countries that have prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants for teenage depression since the mid-1990s, teenage suicides have dropped about one-third. The greatest danger is doing nothing; the optimum approach is Prozac with cognitive-behavioral therapy. Remember, one of the primary benefits of such drugs is that they facilitate behavior change.
Applications
Teenagers with bipolar disorder on antidepressants alone are especially susceptible to suicidal thoughts. Add talk therapy, especially cognitive behavior therapy, if possible.
Maintain communication with your teenager.
Do not let the warning labels on antidepressants cause you to allow depression to go untreated. Remember that antidepressants should be used in combination with cognitive behavior therapy.
Adolescents in the early stages of recovery from depression are, ironically, more susceptible to suicidal thoughts. Pay particular attention to your teenagers’ changes in behavior upon beginning a new prescription, or upon a change in level of dosage, and discuss such changes immediately with your child’s physician. Here are some specific changes to look for:
• Increased fidgeting and impulsiveness
• Thoughts about dying or suicide
• Suicide attempts
• Increased anxiety
• Increased agitation/restlessness
• Panic attacks
• Increased levels of activity, including increased talking
• Increased anger, aggression, violence
• Increased irritability
• Increased sleep difficulties
• In general, any significant changes in behavior or mood
Studies have shown that training teens in positive thinking or optimistic explanatory style can be effective in addressing their depression. See more about the explanatory style model developed by Seligman at topic 34.7.
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
Brownlee, S. (August 9, 1999). “Behavior Can Be Baffling When Young Minds Are Taking Shape.” U.S. News & World Report, pp. 45–54.
Howard, P. J., & Howard, J. M. (2011). The Owner’s Manual for Personality from 12 to 22. Charlotte, NC: Center for Applied Cognitive Studies.
Steinberg, L. S. (2004). The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Steinberg, L. S., and R. Lerner (2004). Handbook of Adolescent Psychology (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.
Steinberg, L. S., N. D. Reyome, and C. A. Bjornsen (2005). Adolescence (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Sylwester, R. (2007). The Adolescent Brain: Reaching for Autonomy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.