NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • Deloitte Fast 50
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Herald on Sunday editorial: Teenagers mature later than they think

Herald on Sunday
21 Mar, 2015 04:30 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
Alcohol, drugs, sex and pleasures of all sorts are more potent for young people before their brain is fully wired to its warning centre. Photo / Thinkstock

Alcohol, drugs, sex and pleasures of all sorts are more potent for young people before their brain is fully wired to its warning centre. Photo / Thinkstock

Opinion

Teenagers have always complained that they are not understood. Parents can only shake their heads and agree. Adolescent behaviour so often defies safety and common sense. And yet these kids are often smart, much more adept with technology than their elders and quick to grasp the knowledge now at their fingertips. Why, then, are they so susceptible to silly suggestions and thoughtless risks?

Our Sunday Insight in the paper today features a book that offers answers from neuroscience. The physical and chemical patterns in the human brain are a fairly new frontier of science. If its findings are right, the mind is not fully developed until somewhat later than the ages at which young people are granted the rights to drive, drink, vote and make mature decisions in matters of sex, marriage and much else.

Neuroscience has identified the region of the brain that seeks and responds to pleasure, and the different region that assesses risk and consequences. That region, the prefrontal lobes in the frontal cortex, is not fully connected to the rest of the brain until people are some way into their 20s. Meanwhile, the pleasure centre in the anterior cortex is fully functioning and highly active. The mind is well attuned to rewards and hardly aware of costs. Sound familiar?

The author of The Teenage Brain, Frances E Jensen, says the adolescent mind is so highly attuned to rewards that it is much more prone to addictions. Alcohol, drugs, sex and pleasures of all sorts are more potent for young people before their brain is fully wired to its warning centre.

The implications of neuroscience for public policy are fairly obvious, but before we start bumping up the drinking and driving ages, it is worth waiting to see whether the knowledge itself is a corrective. When teenagers complain they are not understood, they are struggling to understand their own impulses and obsessions. They may find some answers in this science.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Adults, too, have been given evidence that their teenage children are not as mature as parents and teenagers like to think. The liberal parent who prefers to treat teenagers as mature adults in every way, has to consider whether that attitude is fair to them. It may be depriving them of the cautions they have yet to receive from their own mind.

Young people, usually quicker on the uptake, might absorb the result of neurological research before adults do. Conscious of their propensity for excessive risk and their vulnerability to addiction, they might be more receptive to adult warnings and influence. They are not totally brainless.

Discover more

Opinion

Herald on Sunday editorial: Car phone fools are a danger to everyone

14 Feb 04:00 PM
Opinion

Herald on Sunday editorial: Let Bain review be done quickly

21 Feb 04:00 PM
Opinion

Herald on Sunday editorial: 'X Factor' singer's confession a botch-up

28 Feb 04:00 PM
Opinion

Herald on Sunday editorial: Medals should remain in NZ

07 Mar 04:00 PM
Save
    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

Premium
OpinionShane Te Pou

Shane Te Pou: Tāmaki Makaurau byelection a chance to test out campaign machine

New Zealand

Napier teen wins gold at Australasia's largest boxing tournament

New Zealand

Morning quiz: In which year did the Boston Tea Party occur?


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Recommended for you

Copycat Powerball: Lotto powerless to stop Malta company copying flagship game
New Zealand

Copycat Powerball: Lotto powerless to stop Malta company copying flagship game

Facing challenges: Kauri Museum seeks sponsors to secure future
Northern Advocate

Facing challenges: Kauri Museum seeks sponsors to secure future

Juvenile filly shines like diamond in season’s last black-type race
Racing

Juvenile filly shines like diamond in season’s last black-type race

Glenn Dwight: No Wi-Fi, no worries - remembering holidays of old
Glenn Dwight
OpinionGlenn Dwight

Glenn Dwight: No Wi-Fi, no worries - remembering holidays of old

Morning quiz: In which year did the Boston Tea Party occur?
New Zealand

Morning quiz: In which year did the Boston Tea Party occur?

Lawson surges into top 10, to start ninth at Belgian Grand Prix
Formula 1

Lawson surges into top 10, to start ninth at Belgian Grand Prix



Latest from New Zealand

Premium
Premium
Shane Te Pou: Tāmaki Makaurau byelection a chance to test out campaign machine
Shane Te Pou
OpinionShane Te Pou

Shane Te Pou: Tāmaki Makaurau byelection a chance to test out campaign machine

OPINION: The construction sector lost 15,000 jobs in the past two years.

26 Jul 06:00 PM
Napier teen wins gold at Australasia's largest boxing tournament
New Zealand

Napier teen wins gold at Australasia's largest boxing tournament

26 Jul 06:00 PM
Morning quiz: In which year did the Boston Tea Party occur?
New Zealand

Morning quiz: In which year did the Boston Tea Party occur?

26 Jul 05:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search