Adolescence

                                                Adolescence

What is an adolescent? Certainly some kind of sub-group, if not an entirely different species of homo sapiens! But we have actually created this stage, phase and psycho-social no mans land that is supposedly a bridge passing from childhood into being a responsible adult. The industrial revolution set in motion a series of events that eventuated in teens rapidly becoming isolated/alienated from adults and increasingly unhappy about their peculiar place in society.

The extension of dependency both psychological and economic for adolescents is increasing as is a younger puberty age for girls. In our modern world adolescence is in some ways a psychological diagnostic criteria, it certainly warrants much care and attention to understand and intervene.

I have worked with adolescents all my professional life, and I actually was one (God bless my parents!). I love their raw, unformed yet quickly forming personality, beliefs, dreams, and angst about trying to grow into an adult. Biologically, adolescents are wired to take risks, experiment, rebel, challenge, and be over or underconfident in their appraisal of who they are and what they are capable of. This has been nature's way of having a front line group of youth who forge ahead of the status quo and push the limits that the older conservatism seeks. The adolescent forebrain is still forming and thinking about consequenses is not as accessable as it will be around age 23, so this lends itself to risk taking and impulsivity.

The adolescent is working very hard to fit in and belong to a peer group, they are exploring and feeling into some kind of sexual identity with fantasies of potential mates, they have very strong aggression and competition drives, as well as a ton of insecurities they are over or under compensating for.

In primal, tribal societies before there was the modern equivalent of adolescence, youth were mentored by elders and initiated through rites of passage into adulthood. There were clear boundaries and demarcation of when a boy or girl was ready for initiation and once they were initiated, they were clearly recognized as an adult. So there was no adolescence per se.

Today we have very few rites of passage and initiations by elders, there are pseudo passages like joining a gang, getting a drivers license, joining the Army, having your first sexual experience, but these do not turn one into an adult. As a result we have a lot of grown ups that are still uninitiated adolescent (maybe you know one), they lack the integrity and sense of self that long term mentoring and initiation bring.

As a society, we are only paying lip service to helping adolescents. They are truly hurting, confused, angry, disillusioned, and many are desperate. We need to take the notion seriously that our children are the future and it is the utmost investment to bring all our resources to bear to help guide these young people into their adult lives.

Native American traditions have a four quadrated model of helping adolescents which includes; 1) Mastery-Helping a young person recognize what they're good at and to cultivate higher and higher levels of Mastery in their skills, 2) Belonging-Paying attention to making sure that youth feel like they are part of a group, team, community, etc. Making sure they really feel like they fit in and have an important place, 3) Freedom-Helping youth to have a sense of autonomy, and the ability to make choices, use resources, and take chances in order to grow, 4) Giving-Helping youth give their gifts and contribute to the well being of others.