Excerpt:
Although early conclusions regarding adolescent brain development tended to over-generalize, it is nevertheless the case that the onset of many mental health disorders occurs during adolescence, including depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia (Romer and Walker, 2007). Â Substance use and other antisocial behaviors, including engagement in criminally violent behavior, also emerge during this life stage. This is not surprising because adolescence is a transitional period during which multiple maturational changes are accompanied by increasing societal expectations that encourage greater independence. Although most adolescents experiment with potentially risky behavior, only a minority exhibit antisocial tendencies (Romer, 2010). Thus researchers necessarily focused on personal characteristics that predispose some youth to develop disorders or to follow an antisocial trajectory.
Authors
- Atika Khurana
- Daniel Romer