Page 23 - Boardwalk Meander Issue 5 2022

TODAY’S CHILD

coupled with the inner conflicts and
emotions that define adolescence,
many teenagers may not realise
their full intellectual potential.

In a bid to decode and understand
the brain’s evolution, scientists have
been charting the neural changes
that occur during adolescence.
Insights from this research are
helping to explain why teens
behave the way they do. Moreover,
researchers suggest that certain
traits or skills learnt during the teen
years – traits which even an adult
would find challenging – can be
turned into strengths.

Understanding the chaos
During adolescence, teens start to
develop more sophisticated ways of
thinking. Abstract reasoning comes
into play. However, it’s also a time
when teenagers are experimenting;
they are often judged for risky
behaviour and for being impulsive
and irritable. This behaviour is
attributed to raging hormones, an
increased sex drive and immaturity.

Teenagers feel misunderstood
and isolated. Their turmoil is
often ridiculed. As neuroscientist
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, author of
Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life
of the Teenage Brain, says: “It is
not socially acceptable to mock and
demonise other sectors of society
... but it is strangely acceptable to
mock and demonise teenagers.”

On the one hand, teens seem to How teens interpret their world (a feelgood hormone), GABA and
be doing all they can to separate is based on their changing cortisol, which affect mood.
themselves from their families in an social environment, the physical
effort to assert their independence. transformation their bodies undergo There is also the matter of sleep.
They often challenge authority and the shifting expectations placed It has been extensively researched
and boundaries. Yet teens crave on them. These can contribute to and reported on that teens have
approval from the adults in their teenagers feeling alienated. a different body clock to adults
lives as well as their peers. This and require far more sleep. This is
period of conflict is normal and Mood swings can be explained by because their melatonin (a hormone
may be less evident in teens with the interplay of psychological and made in the body that regulates sleep
stronger self-esteem who come physiological processes associated cycles) rises and falls later in the day
from stable, supportive homes with maturing. Teenagers experience than in adults. This explains teens
where the communication channels greater fluctuations in hormones and being able to party till the early hours
are open. neurotransmitters such as serotonin of the morning.

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Boardwalk Meander Estate Issue 5 · 2022