Good news: Today’s teens are not in a hurry to grow up!
Parents may still marvel at how fast their kids grow up, but research finds that teens are maturing more slowly than past generations.
As societal norms shift and new discoveries are made, teenagers continually evolve with the times. Today’s teens are not what they were years ago, and – in many aspects – that’s good news.
Sex, drugs and alcohol
Teen pregnancy is at an all-time low. Teens are drinking less alcohol, having fewer sexual encounters, experimenting less with drugs, and working part-time jobs. Teens are also now less likely to drive, date, or socialise without their parents than they were ten or twenty years ago.
According to sociologist David Finkelhor, today’s adolescents are more moral and responsible. To understand what’s actually going on, it’s necessary to take a deeper look at today’s teens – a generation of children often referred to as “iGen” – and the environment in which they live.
A different culture, a more leisurely pace
Working, driving, drinking alcohol, having sex, and dating are all activities that adults engage in. Thus, this generation of adolescents is postponing the obligations and pleasures associated with maturity. Adolescence – previously considered the start of adulthood – now appears to be a continuation of childhood.
It is not that adolescents are more moral or lazier. They may simply be maturing more slowly. Consider these tendencies through the lens of “life history theory”. According to this paradigm, whether growth is “slow” (teens taking longer to reach adulthood) or “rapid” (teens reaching adulthood sooner) is contextual.
A “slow life plan” is more prevalent in times and countries where families have fewer children and spend more time nurturing and developing each child.
On the other side, a “fast-life strategy” was the more prevalent parenting style in the mid-20th century, when labour-saving technologies were few, and the average woman had four children. As a result, children were forced to learn to fend for themselves earlier.
Is slowly maturing a good thing or a negative thing?
According to life-history theory, both slow and quick life strategies are adaptations to a given environment, and so neither is fundamentally “good” or “bad.”
Similarly, seeing teen behaviour patterns as “good” or “bad” (or as teens becoming more “mature” or “immature,” or as teens becoming more “responsible” or “lazy”) obscures the larger picture: a delayed path to adulthood. And it’s not just teenagers; younger children are less likely to walk to and from school and are more tightly supervised, while young adults are taking longer to establish careers, marry, and have children.
However, like with any adaptation, the “slow life plan” is not without drawbacks. It is unquestionably a positive development that fewer adolescents engage in sexual activity and use alcohol. However, what happens when kids join college and find themselves in a setting where sex and drinking are prevalent?
For instance, while fewer 18-year-olds binge drink now, 21- to 22-year-olds continue to binge drink at nearly the same rate as in the 1980s. According to one study, youths who rapidly escalated their binge drinking were more likely to develop alcohol dependence and adjustment problems than those who gradually increased their drinking. Delaying alcohol exposure, on the other hand, may leave young individuals unprepared to deal with drinking in college. The same may be true for teenagers who do not work, drive, or socialise significantly during their senior year of high school. While they are less likely to be involved in an accident, they may also arrive at college or the workplace less prepared to make independent judgments.
Teens will eventually “grow up”
Even with the disadvantages, many parents will agree that their teens should spend more time maturing socially and emotionally before dating, having sex, drinking alcohol, or working for income. The critical point is to ensure that teens eventually develop the qualities they will need as adults: independence and social and decision-making abilities.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
