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Your support will help us continue to produce and distribute Facts for Families, as well as other vital mental health information, free of charge. If you find Facts for Families© helpful and would like to make good mental health a reality, consider donating to the Campaign for America’s Kids. However, an awareness of these differences can help parents, teachers, advocates, and policy makers understand, anticipate, and manage the behavior of adolescents. It also doesn't mean that they shouldn't be held responsible for their actions. These brain differences don't mean that young people can't make good decisions or tell the difference between right and wrong. change their dangerous or inappropriate behaviors.pause to consider the consequences of their actions.misread or misinterpret social cues and emotions.Research has also shown that exposure to drugs and alcohol during the teen years can change or delay these developments.īased on the stage of their brain development, adolescents are more likely to: Their actions are guided more by the emotional and reactive amygdala and less by the thoughtful, logical frontal cortex. Pictures of the brain in action show that adolescents' brains work differently than adults when they make decisions or solve problems. All these changes are essential for the development of coordinated thought, action, and behavior.Ĭhanging Brains Mean that Adolescents Act Differently From Adults Nerve cells develop myelin, an insulating layer that helps cells communicate. Other changes in the brain during adolescence include a rapid increase in the connections between the brain cells and making the brain pathways more effective. This part of the brain is still changing and maturing well into adulthood. However, the frontal cortex, the area of the brain that controls reasoning and helps us think before we act, develops later. Scientists have identified a specific region of the brain called the amygdala that is responsible for immediate reactions including fear and aggressive behavior. Studies have shown that brains continue to mature and develop throughout childhood and adolescence and well into early adulthood. There is a biological explanation for this difference. Adolescents differ from adults in the way they behave, solve problems, and make decisions. At times, it seems like teens don't think things through or fully consider the consequences of their actions. Many parents do not understand why their teenagers occasionally behave in an impulsive, irrational, or dangerous way.
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Teen Brain: Behavior, Problem Solving, and Decision Making