As teens and young adults struggle to come of age, interventions and findings by human development researchers could help youth weather the storms.
Growing Pains BY TED BOSCIA
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Growing up is hard to do, perhaps now more than ever. To start, kids, especially girls, appear to be maturing sooner—a 2008 paper in Pediatrics pointed to evidence that girls are entering puberty earlier now than in the mid-20th century. Among boys and girls, early bloomers are at greater risk for such behavioral problems as eating disorders and depression and other health concerns that may not fully surface until adulthood. “We all go through it, but puberty is a huge period of risk and vulnerability—for some more than others,” said Jane Mendle, assistant professor of human development who studies how and why some kids manage puberty easier than others. And though children arrive in adolescence earlier these days, they take longer to depart. Gone are the days when 18-year-olds graduated from high school and left home for good; now parents worry that so-called “boomerang kids” will be back living under their roof. Increasing numbers of young people are delaying marriage and parenthood and are slow to settle into careers during this prolonged period that some youth development researchers describe as “emerging adulthood.” For many, it takes until their late 20s or early 30s to become fully independent, and the current stalled economy isn’t helping. It’s little wonder that a 2012 Clark University poll of emerging adults found that more than half report frequent anxiety and two-thirds say “this time of my life is full of uncertainty.” No doubt, puberty and young adulthood have for centuries been stormy developmental periods, but the present seems to an especially challenging time in history to come of age. “Young people are faced with an increasingly complex society,” said Anthony Burrow, assistant professor of human development who studies how youth develop their identity and purpose. “There’s been an explosion of possibilities due to industrialization and technology, but along with those opportunities are more hazards to get them off track.” Because of this greater complexity, teens and young adults—whose brains are still developing in fundamental ways, neuroscience research shows—may be faced with > > >
Human development assistant professors Anthony Burrow and Jane Mendle study how to keep teens and young adults on the right track so they can thrive in adulthood.
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Human Ecology • Cornell University