The brain reaches its maximum size at the end of childhood. After that, it remains constant but changes its structure. Adolescence is the crucial moment for personality maturation, as the brain organizes itself, with some areas growing and others diminishing.
The establishment and regulation of neural circuits are modulated by education and one’s own behavior. Natural changes are not the cause of the so-called “emotional crises” and “behavioral problems” in some adolescents, but rather are due to social influences and individual experiences and attitudes towards a naturally vulnerable brain.
Although not as pronounced, the brain remains exposed to changes throughout life, depending on the experiences, decisions, convictions, and values we adopt. We always have the possibility to develop habits and also to reshape distorted circuits over time, through our actions.
Through specializations such as ISEP’s Master’s in Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology, you will learn that, in general, in girls, the prefrontal cortex waves that process language, risk control, aggression, and impulsivity mature more quickly. In them, their brain becomes very sensitive to the emotional nuances of approval, acceptance, or rejection; that is, relationships with others, education, and their own decisions influence them. Their priority is focused on social interaction, being liked, and pleasing others. Stress spikes during conflicts in relationships with others or in the face of danger, and relaxes with conversations in which they share their intimacy.
In boys, the elevation of testosterone makes them almost literally want to disappear from the social environment. Their interest in social interaction decreases, except concerning sports and sex. In fact, they seek to develop competitiveness and desire to maintain their independence, as they need to occupy their place in the male hierarchy. Recklessness is more pronounced in them, so characteristic at this age because they grant more expectations to benefits than to risks.
The immaturity of the prefrontal cortex, coupled with the hyperexcitation of the brain’s reward system, leads boys and girls to engage in many risky behaviors. The reasons for this extreme excitement are related to pubertal hormonal changes and increased brain sensitivity to dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for pleasurable sensations, which makes rewards have enormous power of attraction for them. This sensitivity helps explain how quickly young people learn and their great receptivity to reward, but also their extreme emotional reactions to defeat and failure.
However, systematic research does not support the stereotype of adolescents as irrational individuals who believe they are invulnerable, and who are unconscious, inattentive, or unconcerned about the potential harm of risky behavior. In fact, the logical reasoning abilities of 15-year-old adolescents are comparable to the logical reasoning abilities of adults.
Steinberg (2004) starts from the premise that real-world risk-taking is the product of both logical reasoning and psychosocial factors, and while logical reasoning abilities appear to be more or less developed by age 15, socioemotional capacities that enhance decision-making and moderate risk-taking, such as impulse control, emotion regulation, delay of gratification, and resistance to peer influence, continue to mature into young adulthood.
In many respects, risk-taking is the product of the competition between the socioemotional and cognitive control networks (Drevets & Raichle, 1998). When individuals are not excited or are alone, the cognitive control network is “strong” enough to impose regulatory control over impulsive and risky behavior, even in early adolescence. However, in the presence of peers or under conditions of emotional arousal, the socioemotional network becomes sufficiently activated to diminish the regulatory effectiveness of the cognitive control network.
It seems, then, that the brain system that regulates the processing of reinforcers, social information, and emotions becomes more sensitive and activates more easily around the time of puberty. But what about the cognitive control system? The regions that form the cognitive control network, especially the prefrontal regions, continue to show gradual changes in their structure and function during adolescence and early adulthood (Casey, Tottenham, Liston, & Durston, 2005). Additionally, the frontal regions also integrate more with other brain regions during adolescence and early adulthood, and this integration may be an even more important change than changes within the frontal region itself.
In essence, one of the reasons why the adult cognitive control system is more effective than that of adolescents is that adult brains distribute their regulatory responsibilities across a broader network of interconnected components, whereas in adolescents, the network suffers from cross-communication issues between some regions (Steinberg, 2004).
According to Steinberg, a more beneficial strategy than trying to change how adolescents perceive risky activities might be to focus on possibilities that limit immature judgment from having harmful consequences. For example, strategies such as raising the price of tobacco, more vigilant enforcement of laws governing alcohol sales, expanding adolescents’ access to mental health and contraception services, or increasing the legal driving age, would probably be more effective in limiting cigarette consumption, substance abuse, pregnancy, or adolescent automobile fatalities, than strategies aimed at making adolescents more informed, less impulsive, or have a broader view of life.
Finally, we could conclude by noting that “some things take time to develop and, like it or not, mature judgment is probably one of them.” “In this sense, risk-taking during adolescence is very likely to be normative, biologically driven, and, to some extent, inevitable” (Steinberg, 2004).
To specialize in child and adolescent psychology, you can request information about ISEP’s Master’s in Child and Adolescent Psychology, designed to acquire the technical and personal skills every psychologist needs for the evaluation, diagnosis, recovery, and prevention of mental health disorders affecting the child and adolescent population from a cognitive-behavioral orientation, with the highest guarantees of success.