The evolutionary purpose of adolescence

If as an adult you were asked to make a major career change, think about your sexuality, spend your working days somewhere unfamiliar, create a new group of social relationships, find a life partner, become financially literate – and you were asked to do that in the next three years – how would you feel about it?
Probably overwhelmed, tentative, nervous. And you’d probably make some of those choices questionably at best, possibly badly.
But that’s what we as a society ask of adolescents as they approach the end of their school years and enter tertiary education.
For that reason, a Melbourne clinical psychologist and expert in the development of young people, who with colleagues has just completed a book called The Thriving Adolescent, says helping young people acquire emotional and social wisdom is equally as important as helping them thrive academically.
“The two forces of culture and biology significantly shape the way researchers think about adolescence,” says Dr Louise Hayes, who is also a researcher at Orygen, the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health located at the University of Melbourne.
“We now consider adolescence as lasting from ages 12-24, covering the period that young people grow from childhood to full social and financial independence,” Dr Hayes says.
“The amount of time most people now spend in post-secondary education, coupled with the fact most of them live in the family home through that period, has lengthened the span of adolescence.
“Likewise, developments in brain science have created new understandings,” she says.
“The brain is plastic for all our lives, able to adapt and learn new things, but research conducted by Lawrence Steinberg in the US has identified two remarkable windows of opportunity for fast-paced development.
“One is infancy and early childhood, and the other is adolescence.”
Dr Hayes says given the tasks society is requiring an individual to perform during the period – that is, to grow, mature and leave the nest – it makes sense evolutionarily that such a window of opportunity in brain plasticity should open up.
Interestingly, studies in animals have shown they share with human animals a period of adolescence in which four distinct behavioural traits are apparent: they are very sensitive to rewards, show a tendency to risk-taking, are sensation-seeking, and have a love of novelty.
“From an evolutionary perspective we conclude the purpose of these behaviours is to compel the animal to leave the nest and find a mate.
“The human corollary is a drive to find independence. There’s an evolutionary component of adolescent development that we can’t deny, and in fact need to address in the way activities for adolescents are conceived and structured, particularly school.
“We should be able to capture and harness that desire for reward we see in young people, and in fact use these behavioural drives to nurture their development.”
Dr Hayes says it’s crucial we’re not tempted to see adolescents as deficient in any way, but accept their apparent overwhelm or instability is in fact part of the process of moving through adolescence.
“From a social perspective, we need to think about students not as being unable to make decisions, but help them meet the need they have to test themselves by taking risks and seeking new experiences in a way that’s adaptive,” she says, “such as making some decisions about how they wish their school community to be run, or working for their community. When we don’t offer opportunities to take adaptive risks, we’re much more likely to see maladaptive behaviours like drinking too much or getting stoned. They need to be able to take charge of some things, and practise being adult.”
Dr Hayes says even though their adolescents may appear to be pushing them away, it’s important for parents to remember and be reassured that they still play a crucial role in young people’s lives.
“Be the stable influence for the big decisions in life, and find ways to allow adolescents to practise, to try something, make mistakes, try again.
“Knowing where your kids are, what relationships they’re engaged in, these are important things, and it’s probably worth allowing them to make their own decisions about clothes or hairstyle, however much they may differ from your own.”
She says parents should also try to be aware that adolescence is now a long time, and they need to be patient about seeing their child mature and develop, to be able to manage their emotions in a stable fashion.
“We’re all social creatures,” she says, “and need to be attached to people who love us. In that context, if parents can let go of the need to be in control and learn a new way of interacting with their adolescent children, everyone will flourish.”
Keeping young people company on the journey through finishing school is one way of doing this, by attending course information sessions together for instance, and discussing, planning and evaluating further education options or career pathways.
Focus On Melbourne course information sessions take place 14 May to 11 June.
www.futurestudents.unimelb.edu.au