During their last years as minors under adult supervision, teenagers have shown a thorough inclination to rebel against their authority figures both at home and at school; but what is the mental drive that makes these youths behave the way they do?
This urge to strike out usually starts around the age 10 where a typical child wants to break away from the surveillance of his/her parents and learn more from peers and redefine their persona. However, the major resistance does not emerge until the teenage years between ages 15-18, when teens are far more fervent in their search for a new identity and for new outlets to separate themselves from their parents.
Some of the more radical adolescents choose to spend time with wilder friends that drink, do drugs, and make a nuisance of themselves in their neighborhood with the false hope that these actions will make them resemble an adult, but in actuality it really reinforces the stereotype that youths of our age are senseless and immature.
According to an article by Jeanie Lerche Davis, the prefrontal cortex, which is the judgement center of the brain, develops throughout the teenage years so at this point kids are now learning and testing their skills when they start to notice flaws in their parents. Teens then synthesize their new interpreting skills into ideas that are often displayed with exotic clothing, music, makeup, tattoos, and other loud forms of expression.
Jessie Novorr, a Junior here at SJHHS, expressed her natural inclination to defy her parents. “I walk to the beat of my own drum,” she said, “I don’t like to really follow anyone.” Novorr also related a few incidents in which she and her mom got in a few fights over simple things like her grades or clothes she wanted.
According to Teen Health, arguments over subtle things like this are very common as teens are often angered by parents who do not give them space or let them do the things they want to do while parents are intent on keeping their kids safe and unsure about new changes they want for themselves. However, these outbursts tend to lessen over time as parents learn to accept the independence of their kids.
