Every generation seems to think that their teenagers are different and behave worse than their parents did when these parents were teenagers. This is merely a perception.
Teenagers have always been emotional, impulsive, risk-taking, defiant of authority, arguing with parents, idealist, searching for identity and seeming to show preference for peers over family. Nature wants them to be like that for the survival of the human species in a changing world. Yes! Our survival in the universe is in their hands and brains…and in their behavior.
Teenagers have not changed in the past 3000 years. What is different is that, through neuroscience, we now understand why they do what they do, and why they act the way they act. The answer lies with their brain, which is still under construction.
The stage of brain development causes teenagers to think, feel and behave the way they do.