For the brain, later can be greater
Growing up more slowly may help teens to maintain their brain’s plasticity, says Philadelphia developmental psychologist Laurence Steinberg, one of the world’s most highly regarded experts on the adolescent brain. “Rather than lamenting how long it takes young people to become adults and encouraging them to speed things up, we should focus our attention on how to help all young people in their twenties … benefit from the delayed transition to adulthood,” he writes in his book Age of Opportunity, published in 2014. He says delaying marriage and childbearing, studying for longer and waiting before settling into a career all help to maintain the brain’s plasticity, and parents shouldn’t worry if their child is still at home and financially dependent in their early or mid-twenties. One key to good teen outcomes is authoritative – rather than permissive or autocratic – parenting. Authoritative parents have found a happy middle ground between the other two styles, and are “firm without being harsh, strict without being stifling”. They are warm, loving, fair and consistent, and set rules that make sense, not just make their own lives easier. but now they’re all very similar. You can be much more egalitarian and conversational with kids and want to know where they are and who they’re with in a way that’s not necessarily punitive, just ‘I care about you and want to know where you are’.”
WATCHING THE WORLD
Clark says she’s “mildly optimistic” the Youth2000 research, of which the Ministry of Social Development has been the key funder, will win another round of money so the survey can be extended and updated. She also works as a Child and Youth Friendly Cities co-ordinator for Whangarei City and says providing adequate incomes for families, and reducing inequity in society, is vital to give every child the same opportunity to thrive. “When you work in these communities and see the huge deprivation and lack of options and choices for these kids, it’s really heartbreaking, and it’s really hard to be optimistic with a child whose life is pretty awful.”
She says the internet and social media allow children not only to yearn for what others have, but also, more positively, to reflect on the increasingly visible outcomes of poor decisions played out online.
“I think young people are immensely wise. Part of standing back and watching the world and not participating in a lot of risk means you actually do get to observe, and say, ‘Yeah, that’s not a really clever thing to do.’ Young people say that when they watch the world, they worry about where it’s going. They want our world to be a better place, and they want to have a better life.”
“Those taking the quicker, earlier route are often from families who don’t have the same resources, and get into the workforce and into marriage too quickly. “