CHICAGO — Ready for the shocking truth about the American teenager?
Despite the TV movies about dating violence, magazine stories about cyberbullying and news articles on addiction and suicide, the vast majority of young people are doing just fine, thank you very much.
“The real story is that most teenagers are developing in a very healthy way,” says Clea McNeely, co-author of a new research-based book for the public from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, “The Teen Years Explained: A Guide to Healthy Adolescent Development.”
“Most teenagers are normal in every way,” McNeely says. “And most teenagers are going to grow up to be productive and reasonably happy adults.”
We recently spoke with McNeely about teenagers: who they are, what they’re really going through and how parents can best assist and guide them.
Q: Why are we always hearing about teen worst-case scenarios?
A: That’s the data that get collected and reported, so that’s what we hear about. That’s one reason. The second: People tend to disregard evidence that conflicts with their viewpoint. Telling them that actually most kids don’t smoke, don’t get drunk, don’t have unprotected sex the first time, don’t have too-early sex, those facts kind of don’t get assimilated.
Q: What’s the role of parents?
A: One of the challenges for parents is their children are not giving them the feedback that their role is important. (Teens are) giving their parents all kinds of cues that they don’t need them, except when they need a ride, maybe. (But) if you do a focus group with any kids anywhere, they will tell you the most influential people in their lives are their parents.
Q: What can parents do?
A: The core tasks of the parents are connection — establishing warmth and caring — and autonomy, giving kids appropriate independence.
And the third part is regulation: basically, structure. You have consistent rules (that your kid needs to) follow. There need to be curfews, rules, ways that one shows respect in the household. This is an area where parents get a lot of push-back, and sometimes they cave.
Some surprising facts
Sex: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that in 1991, 57 percent of males and 51 percent of females said they have had intercourse. In 2007, the figures were 50 percent of males and 46 percent of females.
Brain development: Between the ages of 13 and 18, teens lose about 1 percent of their gray matter every year, and that’s a good thing, according to “The Teen Years Explained.”
The brain produces a large number of synapses, or connections between brain cells, starting just before puberty.
During the teen years, the weaker synapses are severely “pruned” in a process that makes the remaining connections more stable.
Belief: Teens who say that they are affiliated with a religious denomination or tradition: 85 percent
Teens who say their religious faith is very or extremely important in shaping their daily life: 52 percent
Teens who say the description “spiritual but not religious” is somewhat or very true of them: 55 percent
Source: The National Study of Youth and Religion, conducted in 2002 and 2003
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