Keep in mind when raising teens
If you have ever wondered what goes on inside the head of your teenager, so have scientists who have studied the developing brain for years.
Scientists have long known the teenage brain is a work in progress, especially that part above the eyes and behind the forehead known as the frontal lobe. Because the teen’s brain is a work in progress, it is not fully developed. The pre-frontal cortex, which controls higher thinking and order skills are not fully mature until the early to mid-20s. That is why you may be scratching your head at the decisions your teenager is making.
The prefrontal cortex directs things like planning, impulse control and reasoning – like when to act on anger or whether or when to begin a school project.
As you have noticed, teens may wait to the last minute to do that school assignment that needed to be started a week or more ago. Teens, especially teenage boys, tend to make impulsive decisions and take risky chances instead of thinking through the decision-making process.
Striking changes take place in the brain during the teenage years. Because the brain is not fully developed, wise decisions are not always made.
It is during these years that the rate of death by injury, crime rates and alcohol abuse are higher.
While most make it through the teenage years without serious consequences, it is important to understand the risk for behaviors that have serious consequences.
The developing teenage brain is influenced by childhood experiences, genes and its environment.
It helps to understand the vulnerability of the changing teenage brain and the importance of healthy, mental health.
It is important for parents to be aware of how the teenage brain is not functioning and making decisions the same way a mature adult’s brain would make decisions.
That brings up the discussion of the effects of alcohol, violent films and video games on young minds. The above factors actually can cause a change in brain structure. A teenager who indulges in alcohol may cause the brain to form an addiction to that substance.
So it is not wise to allow your teen to try alcohol in your home or to see you indulge in drinking.
As youth watch violence over and over, their brains change in the way it responds to the violence, becoming desensitized to the violence thus affecting emotional reactions to violence which has the potential to cause, at different degrees, mental health problems.
Scientists increasingly view mental illnesses as developmental disorders that have their root in the processes involved in how the brain matures.
That is the reason scientists continue to study the brain from infancy to mature adulthood to find the causes for the brain’s getting off track.
It is wise for parents to keep in mind all the changes that are taking place in their teen’s brain and try to encourage those things in a teen’s life that will bring about positive outcomes of adolescence development.
Being a positive role-model and giving your teen a strong spiritual base is a very good way to influence your teen. After all, they hear what you do much louder than what you say.
Choose a lifestyle that you want your teenager to imitate and in doing so you will help his or her brain develop in the most positive and healthy ways.
Much research has been done on teens internalizing spiritual values and the results bringing about teens to engage in less risky behaviors, even when circumstances provoke them to do so.
Your parental influence goes a long way – even in brain development.
Dianne Glasgow is a family and child specialist at the LSU AgCenter in Caddo Parish. She can be reached at dglasgow@agcenter.lsu.edu, 226-6805 or 464-2552.
