The power of Adolescence

I bought a newly published book by Dr Lucy Foulkes, an academic psychologist. The book title is Coming of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us. In this blog I want to summarise the central themes and ideas of the book and to highlight any practices, methods or techniques the author explores.

Chapter One – Introduction: The power of Adolescence.

“The memories that people report most often are from their adolescent and early adult years – from the ages of ten to thirty”

This effect is found no matter the age of the individual when they reflect, even if they are 80! I personally tend to focus on the period of my life between 25 and 30 – I left New Zealand, travelled across Europe on a mountain bike, worked in London, fell in love with an English Rose and had my first child – an eventful and impactful phase. We remember events from these years more than any other because they make us who we are. Our adolescent phase is where WE start to take over developing our identify – we choose our social group, when we go out, what we do, etc. The adolescent phase is also when we are biologically driven to seek out and identify defining experiences that become the most memorable. To survive, adolescents are motivated to spend more time (than in any other phase of life) thinking about whether other people approve of them and whether they fit in. Taking the point above – what if the base of a young person’s experiences up to the age of 13 or 14 are chaotic, aggressive, angry, gang related, abusive? Would it be natural for such a young person to seek approval from people who won’t help them develop a positive pathway?...after all we only know what we experience. For some of our young people, I believe the role of our tutors is to help them envision experiences that are more progressive, positive, and beneficial.

“Adolescents are biologically driven to take risks, because this enables them to explore the world and establish their independence”.

Can we design a series of experiences that enable or guide them to explore other experience options? Yes, we can through work placement, employer visits, site visits, or even by undertaking voluntary projects. At NMT we remind our tutors that knowledge is derived from experiences, that we need to actually experience something before we can understand what it means. We can’t understand the personal impact of helping someone if we don’t actually experience it.

The book also has an interesting point about teenagers and sleep – the time that teenagers sleep is shifted later by a couple of hours, hence the time they wake up is also shifted. This is biologically driven. BUT – we have organised our education system around a time pattern that does not work with this – should it be flexed? As Dr Foulkes has found –

“the fact that most adolescents are chronically sleep deprived is a major public health issue”.

So this raises some questions for us at NMT – should we look at our course hours? Are we shaping an environment purely based on the course schedule that increases the chance of negative, challenging, shouty behaviour?

What influences teenage behaviour the most = Role Modelling. Dr Foulkes studies show that 90% of teenage behaviour change came purely from role models – not lessons, courses, knowledge transfer. Teens are very much followers of “what I do” vs “what I say”. Role modelling over time is proven to have the largest impact on teenage development. This is why 2-3 years at an NMT centre where they experience positive role modelling can make all the difference and change pathways. The first chapter of the book was an enjoyable read

Chapter Two – The paradox of popularity - will be the subject of my blog next week. Do let me know if you have started reading this book yourself. And what are your thought about sharing book lists? Many NMT staff have creaking bookshelves with some fantastic books related to our work at NMT.