The Teen Years
“Their bodies kick into overdrive. They find themselves disoriented, scared and
alone. They become moody, secretive and sarcastic. You don’t recognize your own child.
What happened to the child you used to know? The answer: adolescence.” ( Bellows
Your teens search for identity). My Chemical Romance describes the teen years best in
their song “Teenagers scare the living crap out of me”; these words are what parent feel
during their child teen years. The prefrontal cortex is being form during the teen years.
The prefrontal cortex controls; reasoning, problem solving, thought processing,
judgment, personal responsibility, future thinking, personal reasonability, and self
control. The teen years are a very hard, and interesting years. What happens during the
teen years? What changes? And what do people come out like?
The teen years can be described as “search for identity” (Developing Person
Through the Life Span 415). Les Parrott, Ph.D., a professor of psychology, gives five
ways of how a teenager forms identity one is through status symbol, the clothes they
wear. Two is forbidden behaviors like sex and drug. Three is rebelling form parents. Four
is through idols, becoming like celebrities. Five is cliquish exclusion not being associated
with people who have unwanted characteristics. Developing Person Through the Life
Span gives four area of identity; religious identity, sexual/genders identity, political/
ethnic identity, and vocational identity.
In high school I changed a lot; I changed my clothes, hair, and my
personality. This was the time I questioned my religious beliefs that I had through my
whole life. I took a religion class in high school and I was all ways asking why some
thing was happening, all ways questioning the teacher. During this time I took a class
called Environmental Science. In this class were we learned what we are doing to the
environment and what we can do o help. This class really changed me; my family now
calls me a tree hunger because I now love to take care of the environment. I force my
family to recycle, take less then six minute showers and walk if they can to places. This
was also the time I was asked to do drugs but I all ways said no..
Adolescents thinking during the ages thirteen to eighteen are changing. There
thoughts are more egocentrics they are focused on themselves, they figure out how a
situation will benefit them. Egocentrics leads to the imaginary audience were the teen is
acting like they are acting for an audience that follows them around where ever they go.
They also have invincibility fable which means all the bad stuff happens to other people
not to them (The Developing Person Through the Life Span 392). These thing cause
teenagers to do thing that might not be the best for them. They don’t think the situation
all the way through like trying drugs they think I won’t get hooked the first time that only
happens to other people. They also try thing to make the show for their “imaginary
audience” more interesting. So they might try reckless driving or cliff diving to make
their life more exciting.
It was about two in the morning no cars are on the road but the two of us. We rev
are engine so do they. The light turns green we take off speeding down the road for about
five seconds before hitting the brake to stop at the next red light. We do this for the next
five lights we are screaming and laughing just living life. We are not thinking about how
dangerous this could really be, it starts to rain and our brakes are not working as well but
we keep going. We are racing down the road; the light ahead turns red both cars hit there
breaks the other car swerves out of control sliding into the intersection. If anther car had
been on the road it would have hit them, but since there was no cars we all found it funny
and just laughed it off. Thinking about it now I realize how dangerous it was but then we
were invincible.
Problems at home during the teen years is very common, parents are still trying to
assert control and teens don’t want there control. DonnaRae Jacobson a professor at
University of Wisconsin says “As children grow older, they realize they can never grow
into adults without having control of their lives. Consequently, teens begin to fight for
control. For teens, this struggle for adulthood is terribly risky because they risk losing the
most important thing in their lives -- the love of parents.” The Developing Person says
that most conflict start with bickering but most parents after a while will back off and
give their child a little more freedom. The book also says; parents though need to realize
that they are still an influence in their child’s life and still need to be parents. Teen who
are neglected will often turn to drugs, and sex.
Jessica is a very strong willed person and she wanted control over her life.
Unfortunately her mom would not give her the freedom she needed, so their relationship
turned into one big fight. One day her mom gave up and started ignoring Jessica when
this happened Jessica stared skipping school and never returning home at night. She
moved out of her house the day after her eighteenth birthday in to a house with a bunch
of guys. Soon after that she moved in with her boyfriend and though she told every one
she was still a virgin ended up pregnant. Shortly after she told me she was pregnant she
told me that only if her and her mom could have gotten along she never would have
moved out and none of this would have happened.
Thirty percent of teen girls under the age of fifteen have had sex and twenty
percent of boys. By the age of eighteen eighty percent of teens have had sex (lecture
notes). Teen’s hormones are flaring and sex is always on the teens mind.
Groundbreaking research suggests that pregnancy rates are much “higher among teens
who watch a lot of TV with sexual dialogue and behavior than among those who have
tamer viewing tastes.” (LINDSEY TANNER Associated Press). Teen pregnancy in
America is four times more then France and ten times higher then Japan (Lecture notes).
Three million teens a year attract STI’s, fifty percent of those are gonorrhea.
My friend Kelly was twelve when she had her daughter Ashly. Kelly was on bed
rest with Ashly for five months. When Ashly born she was born three months early she
was born practically blind and was in the hospital for one month. Kelly was unable to
support Ashly and ended up resenting her. Kelly gave Ashly to her mom who is now
raising her. Kelly is now nineteen and has not changed her life style she still sleeps
around and has now gotten HIV. Ashly is now seven years old and is extermly smart and
happy child. The only down side is her eye sight is getting worse with age, but her life
other then that is good her grandmother is able to support her and gives her the love and
care she needs. Kelly has not even seen her daughter in two months.
National Survey on Drug Use and Health recently came out with this table
Which means 111,774,000 people just under half the nation is on some sort of drug. If a
person starts taking drugs in their teen years while the prefrontal cortex is being formed
the effects are life long. The movie we watch in class says when using drugs like cocaine,
vesicles in the brain that absorb delphinine are being clogged by the cocaine; this making
the over production of delphinine which gives the person doing the drug the high. Doing
drugs while the prefrontal cortex is being formed cause the receptors in the brain to
disappear, so when the person becomes sober again they can’t get the emotional
stimulation like the rest of us do.
My friend Mike started doing drugs when he was thirteen years old. He was
introduced to drugs by his dad who also douses them. He started with marijuana and then
he went into a more heaver drugs like cocaine, and crystal meth. All of his judgment went
away; he was arrested for stealing a safe in during the day that he knew contained drugs.
He went to rehab but when he came back out he immediately started using again. It was
not until a few months ago when he moved in with my family after going to rehab again
that he has now been sober for more then two weeks, he has now been sober for five
months. The effects of the drug use is evident, his can not remember to do the simple
thing like how to park a car, or turn off lights, or turn off TVs, he also cant remember to
lock doors. He has also admitted that he has a hard time being “turned on” by girls, he
douse not feel excitement very much either. The drug use has now also ruined his
relationship with his mom, his drug use has taken such a toll on them that they now can
no longer talk with out fighting.
Adolescents are a very scary time making one wrong choice during this time can
have life long effects. This is the time when kids need to make a good choice but the
prefrontal cortex is forming so the thought process is stunted. The brain is going through
such harsh changes that its some times seem like a miracle that any one can make it
through. All the changes are so specified to an individual that it is hard to say what type
of person will come out of it, one is for sure the child going into adolescents is not the
same person coming out.
The Teen Years
By
Laura Kate Hoggard
Human Growth and Development
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