The delay of adolescent maturity and its consequences
The maturity It is something that reaches everyone. That step of childhood and adolescence to become an adult has to be assimilated by all. But in recent years it seems that young people postpone this moment to ages unthinkable for past generations. Does it have consequences to delay the maturity? As highlighted in the study published by the magazine Child Development itself.
An investigation, headed by the professor of Psychology at the University of San Diego Jean Twenge, where it is exposed that in the last decades the age at which the maturity. A decision that supposes that young people face adult life without the necessary preparation to face basic needs to face the challenges of this stage.
Better academic abilities, lack of practice
The study headed by Twenge bases its results on different surveys carried out between 1976 and 2016, 40 years in which it has been checked how each time the young people have postponed the age at which they begin in adult life. That is, adolescents gradually tended to lower his initiation into activities denoted as "adults".
That is to say, basic responsibilities such as taking charge of their space at home and their properties were avoided. Other activities such as learning to Cook, which grant a certain degree of independence, have also been increasingly postponed by the new generations. On the contrary, adolescents have gained in academic and intellectual capacities.
The researchers point out that there has been a change in the trend in which young people have chosen to dedicate themselves to permanent training in their academic curriculum. The intellectual extracurricular they have expanded their presence in the day to day of the youngest. What consequences does this have for the new generations? The first, and fundamental, is that they will not be able to face the responsibilities assumed at these ages.
"The advantage of a slower development is that adolescents who are not maturing are more prepared, but the disadvantage is that they arrive at the university or the workplace without so much experience with independence", explains Dr. Twenge who explains that it is not good neither too fast development nor one too slow, the key is to find the medium term.
The parents helicopter
Another key that reveals this study is that each time parents are more focused on caring for their children and do not let them "try things". In recent years, parents have to protect children and adolescents excessively, a big change compared to the days of the past when adults simply watched and let little ones face their responsibilities.
A situation called "helicopter parents"Those who are always hovering over their children so that nothing can go wrong for them." A disastrous decision according to the authors of this study, who point out that young people should be left to manage and solve their own problems instead of being solved by a adult as happens in recent times.
The authors point out that although the parents carry out these actions with good intentions, the young people of today will see themselves harmed. In the future they will have less knowledge to manage their relationships, solve their own problems, and know how to stay calm in bad times.
Damián Montero
