Story: Teenagers and youth
Page 4 – Teenagers and risk
The teenage brain
During the 1990s and 2000s research indicated that teenage brains are different to adult brains. By age 12 the brain is as large as it is at age 20. Research has shown that teenagers use different parts of their brains than adults when thinking about actions. Adults used parts of their brain that considered the consequences of actions on others, while teenagers did not.
Teenagers can be susceptible to depression. They are less able to interpret social situations and other people’s emotions, and are also more likely to indulge in risky behaviours. In 2009, politicians were considering raising the driving age. Some lawmakers said that, if they had known what was now known about the teenage brain, the driving age would never have been set as low as 15.
Risk-taking behaviour
A 2000 report on youth found that 80% felt healthy, did not take part in risky behaviours and had positive relationships with their families, schools and friends. However, many teenagers did take risks and have accidents. While road-safety campaigns, including those against drink-driving, have reduced death and injury rates among young men since the 1970s, the rates remain high relative to older adults. In 2006 one-third of road users killed or injured were aged 15–24, and two-thirds of these were male.
Flirting with delinquency
A landmark study of more than 1,000 people born in Dunedin in 1972–73 found that there were two main groups involved in anti-social behaviour such as minor crimes. One was a small group who remained offenders all their lives, while the second, larger group flirted with delinquency (vandalism or shoplifting) in their teens. They then ceased offending and settled down with jobs, families and friends.
Alcohol and drugs
Teenagers are great experimenters – for instance, many try smoking although most do not develop a habit. Most begin drinking alcohol in social situations in their early teens, even though they are legally not allowed to buy alcohol. The average age to start drinking in the 2000s was 13.6 years. The Sale of Liquor Act 1989 eased restrictions on alcohol sales, and in 1999 the drinking age dropped from 20 to 18. Many teenagers believed alcohol helped them relax, talk to people and get to know others.
In the 1990s and 2000s the consumption of ‘alcopops’ became popular with female teenagers. These ready-mixed drinks were cheap and easily available, and their sweet taste mimicked the soft drinks that many children were accustomed to. Boys typically began drinking beer in their mid-teens.
New Zealand has a binge drinking culture which is not limited to the teenage years. In the 2000s teenagers were drinking more in a single session, and more at a younger age, than in the 1990s. As inexperienced drinkers with lower body weights and less tolerance to alcohol than adults, teenagers can get drunk much more easily. The major costs of this are drink driving, car accidents, property damage, violence and sexual assaults.
Experimentation with illegal drugs is common, but only a minority develop an addiction or a long-term habit.
Depression
Depression is an ongoing mood of severe unhappiness that continues for more than a couple of weeks. As depression can lead to suicide, and few young people seek help themselves, health professionals advise parents, relatives and friends to encourage depressed young people to go and see their doctor. One of the many risk factors for developing depression is being aged 16–24.
Teenagers and brain growth
Taking around 18 years to mature is unheard of in other species. This is over 20% of a modern human’s lifespan and probably over half a hunter-gatherer’s life. Some scientists think that it was some time between 300,000 and 800,000 years ago that humans began reaching the age of 13 without being physically mature. The evolution of teenagers – humans aged over 12 who are not yet adults – may have preceded the massive growth of human brains that occurred around 250,000 years ago. This leads to the intriguing possibility that prolonged adolescence may have been one of the factors that contributed to increased brain size.
Suicide
As the World Health Organization defines ‘youths’ as those aged 15–24, reports of New Zealand’s high youth suicide rate do not represent teen suicide rates. The teenage (15–19 years) male suicide rate is about half the rate of that for adult males aged 20–24. Male youth suicide rates began to rise in the 1970s, peaked in the mid-1990s and declined a little over the late 1990s. While the female youth suicide rate is lower, it has steadily increased since the 1980s. Suicide rates for teenage females (15–19 years) are similar to female young adults (20–24 years). A higher male suicide rate does not mean that suicide is primarily a male problem. Females make more suicide attempts than males, but tend to choose methods that are less lethal.
