Teens slow to grow up

TEENS are growing up more slowly these days – with new research arguing today’s 18year-olds are behaving more like a typical 15-year-old.

They are less likely to date, have a job, leave the house without their parents, drive or have sex, a landmark US study comparing more than eight million teens between 1976 and 2016 found.

Researchers speculated “over-protective” parents and growing internet usage were factors in the “considerable” behavioural changes.

The research, published in Child Development, found the trend was so pronounced that by the early 2010s, students aged 17 to 18 went out on dates about as often as 15 to 16-yearolds did in the early 1990s.

“Having sex went from being the majority experience for high school students to the minority experience,” research author Professor Jean Twenge said. “The developmental trajectory of adolescence has slowed, with teens growing up more slowly than they used to.

“In terms of adult activities, 18-year-olds now look like 15year-olds once did.”

In 1976 more than 85 per cent of 17 and 18-year-olds had dated; by 2014 that dropped to less than 60 per cent.

Australian experts agree with the “snowflake” hypothesis, arguing over-protective parents are delaying their kids’ maturity.

Child expert Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, who has just published a book on the “boofhead syndrome” of Australian teen boys, said the phenomena was happening in Australia with the “wussification of a generation”.

“Parents need to stop worshipping at the altar of occupational health and safety,” he said.