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| Are our teens children or young adults? |
By: KRIS MATSON, Guest columnist
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Posted: Friday, January 15, 2010 10:20 pm
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People are always talking about “kids these days” and often mean people from about 12 to 25. Are they children or young adults, or a hybrid “adolescent?” Parents worry about “kids” driving, drinking, smoking and getting good grades. Pediatricians are concerned with patients’ driving, drinking, smoking and safety. Those of us on Northfield’s Mayor’s Drug Task Force study young peoples’ driving, drinking, smoking and other drug use. It is tempting to ignore these thorny problems, but as “adults” it is our job to attend to them.
We provide treatment options for adolescents and adults who smoke, drink and use other drugs. But wouldn’t it be better to prevent these troubles in the first place? How can we do this? A traditional approach offsets risk factors. A newer approach identifies protective and resiliency factors of healthy teens — even those in high risk environments — and provides strategies for “healthy youth development.”
Two books about healthy youth development provide food for thought. “Authoritative Communities,” edited by Kathleen Kover Kline, is a collection of articles that maintains there is scientific evidence that children are “hardwired to connect”; our brains are wired to form attachments to family and community and to search for meaning in life — even tying religious and spiritual development to brain function. It holds that “adolescent risk taking and novelty seeking are connected to changes in brain structure and function.” It stresses the importance of “positive relationships with caring adults who are passionately committed to (the child’s) very existence — first and foremost in their family … and also in their surrounding community.” Young people should be viewed as resources to be developed, not problems to be solved. This book promotes community youth organizations like YMCA, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and (my favorite) 4-H, to help develop skills needed for adult life.
I recommend “The Case Against Adolescence,” by Robert Epstein, to all parents, teachers and pediatricians. It will ruffle the feathers of many child advocates and offers fresh perspectives and startling recommendations: “Teen problems in the United States are caused by a host of factors related to the artificial extension of childhood: poor role models (peers and media icons), peer pressure, isolation from adults and conflict with parents, mandatory schooling, a lack of control over their lives, and so on.” He insists that young people are more capable than we think they are. He points out that other cultures do not have the “stress and storm” of American teens; many do not even have a word for adolescence. He persuasively argues that brain development is not the cause of teen turmoil. He recommends giving teens more responsibility, meaningful work, less time with peers and more time with adults. The book is peppered with quotes including Goethe on parenting: “Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying too zealously to make it easy for them.”
— Dr. Kristine Matson is a pediatrician at FamilyHealth Clinic in Northfield, a Pediatric Fellow at the University of Minnesota, and a member of the Mayor’s Drug Task Force. |
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