Adolescence is a transitional period that marks the process of transformation of the child into an adult. It is a time marked by physical, cognitive-behavioral, social and emotional changes.
While it is clear that adolescents are different from adults in the way they behave, resolve conflicts or make decisions, many parents cannot explain how it is possible that their children occasionally behave in such an impulsive, irrational or dangerous manner. And they get the feeling that sometimes they don’t think things through or consider the consequences of their actions. It is well known that, at this age, adolescents tend to be impulsive, fearless and “temperamental”; they find it difficult to pause to consider the consequences of their actions and modify their behavior, and as a result they can get involved in risky or potentially dangerous situations.
Why do adolescents behave dangerously?
There is a neurobiological explanation for all these observations. In adolescence, there is an ongoing process of brain maturation (which continues well past the age of 20) that must be consolidated before it can give way to the capacity for self-regulation and responsible decision-making that is characteristic of adults.
These differences in brain functioning do not necessarily mean that young people cannot make good decisions, or are unable to differentiate between right and wrong. Nor does it mean that they should not take responsibility for their actions, nor that parents should establish a series of clearly defined limits and the consequences of skipping them. However, knowledge of all these differences can help parents and teachers to understand, anticipate and manage the behavior of their children/pupils in this complex period of life.
Now, from an anatomical-functional point of view, there are two large regions or areas of the brain especially involved in adolescent behavioral and emotional regulation. These are the prefrontal cortex (which plays a fundamental role in complex decision making and impulse control), and the limbic region (which is the area of the brain mainly responsible for affective life, emotion control, motivation and the regulation of various aspects of behavior).
The development of the cerebral cortex begins in the posterior part of the brain and ends during late adolescence with the development of the frontal lobe. It is for this reason that during adolescence actions are guided more by the limbic system (which is close to maturity), and less by the frontal cortex (which is still developing). Behavior is therefore the product of a “competition” between both networks (the socioemotional and the executive-rational control), which leads to a mismatch between what the adolescent “wants to do” because it produces immediate satisfaction and what he “should do” because it is the right thing to do (even if the gratification is not immediate).
Other essential changes for the coordinated development of thought, action and behavior that occur in adolescence are the increase in myelination (coating around neuronal connections that allows greater synchronization and speed of communication between neurons, favoring the flow of information), the thickening of the corpus callosum (which favors greater connectivity between the cerebral hemispheres and strengthens communication between the different areas of the brain), and the process of “synaptic pruning” (in which the most used and useful synapses are strengthened and improved, while the less used ones are eliminated). In addition to this equation, hormonal and environmental changes also contribute to the brain, physical, behavioral and emotional development experienced by the adolescent.
All these changes make this stage of life particularly vulnerable to environmental influences (both positive and negative). For example, exposure to cannabis or other drugs and alcohol can interfere with normal brain development during adolescence. It is well known that alcohol abuse during this period decreases the volume of white matter at the prefrontal and hippocampal levels, and affects its quality in the corpus callosum. Or that marijuana consumption can affect the synaptic pruning processes, fundamental, as we have seen, for a correct cognitive-behavioral functioning later on.
Adolescence, in short, is a period of cerebral updating in which the brain is immersed in a process of changes that transform the neuronal network and its functional efficiency, providing it with everything it needs to face the challenge of adult life. Therefore, more than a problematic period, adolescence should be understood as a period of great value and richness that offers infinite learning possibilities and a unique opportunity for the correct cognitive-behavioral and emotional development of the human being.