

Why teenagers are rebellious and why its good. - sathishmanohar
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/dobbs-text

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magice
I strongly believe (even observed) that the whole "teenage rebellion" is more
or less a modern American phenomenon. At least in my experience of teenage
Vietnamese (a few years ago, at least), as well as reading of various
literature regarding this age group, the teenagers are not THAT bad. True,
they are immature, but at least they obey the authority imposed upon them (aka
families, schools, etc.). Rebellions do exist, and even at slightly higher
rate than other age group, but they are still exceptions, not norms as how
American parents and adults describe their children/younger siblings.

I think the whole ordeal is, more or less, the result of various views on how
humans (children especially) should be educated:

* The whole hyper-freedom-worshiping culture (even one's freedom will result in destruction of the society and one's future) removes any restriction on behaviors of teenagers, and prevent any effective discipline/self-control training for a young child

* The uniquely-me-esteem-inflation movement destroys any incentive to obey (or even pay attention to) advices/authority of adults, who are clearly wiser and more mature. After all, if everyone is completely unique, why listen?

* The no-child-left-behind-but-no-pressure (in conjunction with the inflation above) ideology results in an education system that is so easy and low-pressure that teenagers have way too much time and energy left in their hands. Oh, and if you fail, that's fine, you are unique either way, it's just you ain't fit to the current system (and we will lower the expectation so you will pass).

All in all, American teenagers receive insufficient training (in
discipline/self-control), have absolutely no incentive to listen to anyone,
are under no pressure and challenging expectation, but possess obscene amount
of free time.

And you blame THEM for screwing up.

~~~
e40
My wife grew up in Vietnam, and I can attest to the fact that she had a __much
__more restrictive childhood than I did. All the freedoms that I loved as a
teenager, she had none of them. Her parents rode hard on her and her 8
brothers and sisters. The male siblings had much more freedom, though, and I
believe there was more "rebellion" among them.

On the issue of "authority of adults", her culture takes it to ridiculous
heights, though. In any argument, the person that is older wins. That means
your sister who is 2 years older than you wins, no matter what, because of
that 2 yr margin.

When I look at the difference in the bonds between children and parents, in
her culture the bond is primarily held together by guilt.

Rather than talk of the extremes, the US on one side and some Asian cultures
on the other, I think I'd prefer the middle-of-the-road of some European
cultures. The Dutch, for example, seem to have a happy medium.

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wallflower
This article fails to mention that one big reason why teenagers rebel is to
make their parents feel better about them leaving the nest by increasing
emotional rejection.

> These studies show that reproductive maturation and pubertal timing are both
> contextually and socially mediated and accelerated by intrafamilial stress.
> Therefore, the literature demonstrates that pubertal maturation both
> provokes and follows from increased parent-child conflict. In sum, this new
> research has demonstrated that pubertal timing can no longer be viewed as
> only a physiological and hormonal process but must be examined in
> association with social and psychobiological processes.

[http://education.ucsb.edu/jimerson/adolescenceissues/ADmomre...](http://education.ucsb.edu/jimerson/adolescenceissues/ADmomrel.html)

~~~
xutopia
What about the terrible 2s? My kid is not even two and I already can't wait
till she moves out. /jk

~~~
Egregore
It's when you're to soft, you should not give in to his screaming, and should
only agree to do things for him/her only when kid is not screaming, so he will
not learn to use cries as a tool to get things done.

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redcircle
Is it proper to study canine pyschology via dogs kept chained all day long? It
helps you understand the chained dog, if that is your goal --- but it doesn't
teach you the nature of the dog. I'd like to see studies of teenagers raised
neurosis free --- not studies of kids who have been dominated and forced to
submit all their lives (which is the essence of American moral conditioning),
filling them with repressions that finally reveal themselves during
adolescence as antisocial behavior.

~~~
shin_lao
I'm not sure to understand what you mean.

Human beings live in societies with codes, fears and prohibitions.

What kind of environment are you thinking about?

~~~
pavel_lishin
Perhaps he'd like to study feral children, those wonderful paragons of human
strength, dignity and achievement.

I hear some of them eventually learn to speak, and not defecate indoors.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_children#Documented.2Fall...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_children#Documented.2Falleged_cases)

~~~
bobbles
Not sure about you, but I prefer to do almost all of my defecating indoors =]

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untog
I read an article some time ago (sadly, I forget where/when) which put forward
the hypothesis that our teenage years are actually the only ones in which our
minds are "correct"- every emotional experience is more intense, hearing music
for the first time is life-changing, etc...

It's an interesting thought. And perhaps slightly depressing.

~~~
pavel_lishin
And yet teenagers are also incredibly bad at assessing risk and making
decisions that impact their life in the long term. Sounds like it would be a
disadvantage, from an evolutionary point of view.

~~~
gwern
Incredibly bad? Someone didn't read the article...

> Yet these explanations don't hold up. As Laurence Steinberg, a developmental
> psychologist specializing in adolescence at Temple University, points out,
> even 14- to 17-year-olds—the biggest risk takers—use the same basic
> cognitive strategies that adults do, and they usually reason their way
> through problems just as well as adults. Contrary to popular belief, they
> also fully recognize they're mortal. And, like adults, says Steinberg,
> "teens actually overestimate risk." > > So if teens think as well as adults
> do and recognize risk just as well, why do they take more chances? Here, as
> elsewhere, the problem lies less in what teens lack compared with adults
> than in what they have more of. Teens take more risks not because they don't
> understand the dangers but because they weigh risk versus reward
> differently: In situations where risk can get them something they want, they
> value the reward more heavily than adults do.

Opportunity cost is never higher than when you are young.

