Teenage brains: what is happening and why it leads to more risky behaviours

     Being a teenager is not easy, and also being a parent of a teenager is hard and it requires a lot of patience. Once adolescence comes teenagers start to struggle more with their emotions, responsibility of decisions, abuse of digital technologies and social networks, fights, drinking and drugs. It is a complicates stage in life that once we are adults we struggle to remember and often don’t understand. For adults that live or work with teenagers there is also a challenge, but understanding how teenagers think or what makes them behave in a certain way is important. Scientific advances in neuroscience help us understand how adolescents carry out the decision making process. One of the most important factors is that their brain is still developing. The prefrontal cortex which is responsible for impulse regulations, self-control and assess the consequences of a behaviour, is in development during our adolescent years. In addition to individual development, the social world of adolescents is also key at this stage. In these years we want to socialise and be part of a group. Adapting and adjusting one’s behaviour to be part of a group becomes a priority. Group norms will, to a large extent, regulate individual behaviour. Teenagers perspective is very different from the adults perspective. Understanding their point of view is fundamental, they need to feel listened and understood. 

Source: https://theconversation.com/teenage-brains-what-is-happening-and-why-it-leads-to-more-risky-behaviours-193035