What was he thinking? If you’ve ever wondered how your teen-ager could have made such a terrible decision, blame it on his brain. His doesn’t work quite the same way as an adult brain does.
Different parts of our brains mature at different rates. Neuroscientists say the amygdala, a part of the brain dealing with strong emotions like fear and anger, develops more quickly than the prefrontal cortex, the part involved in planning and making rational decisions. That means the crazy emotional side is going full bore, while the rational CEO part may not fully catch up until your child is in his early 20s.
That doesn’t mean you should lock kids in their room until they’re 24, although it might be tempting. Their prefrontal cortex is working, if not fully developed. And adolescent medicine specialist Marina Catallozzi, MD, says if teenagers are to grow into adults who make good decisions, they need practice. They get that practice by making some decisions, both large and small, for themselves.
Find out more about the adolescent brain in this hourlong PBS video and in this National Institute of Mental Health publication.