The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction

The research has turned up some surprises, among them
the discovery of striking changes taking place during the
teen years. These findings have altered long-held assumptions
about the timing of brain maturation. In key ways, the
brain doesn’t look like that of an adult until the early 20s.
An understanding of how the brain of an adolescent is
changing may help explain a puzzling contradiction of
adolescence: young people at this age are close to a lifelong
peak of physical health, strength, and mental capacity, and
yet, for some, this can be a hazardous age. Mortality rates
jump between early and late adolescence. Rates of death by
injury between ages 15 to 19 are about six times that of the
rate between ages 10 and 14. Crime rates are highest among
young males and rates of alcohol abuse are high relative to
other ages. Even though most adolescents come through
this transitional age well, it’s important to understand the
risk factors for behavior that can have serious consequences.
Genes, childhood experience, and the environment in which
a young person reaches adolescence all shape behavior.
Adding to this complex picture, research is revealing how all
these factors act in the context of a brain that is changing,
with its own impact on behavior.