American teens are less likely to drink alcohol - ForumDaily
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American teens are less likely to drink alcohol

Фото: Depositphotos

More and more American adolescents do not fit into the traditional criteria for growing up: they do not drink alcohol and refuse to get a driver's license.

This phenomenon is understood edition The Washington Post.

When 17-year-old Quatro Masser spends time with friends, their company does not go to the bars and does not ride around the city with the girls. Rather, they will choose entertainment without age restrictions - rock climbing or talking about books.

According to a recent study, such young people in the United States are becoming more and more, adolescents do not seek entertainment, which has long been considered a ritual in the way of growing up. Since 1976, the number of teenagers who received a driver's license, tasted alcohol, who are in a relationship or who work for money has drastically decreased in the United States. These changes are independent of race, geography, and socio-economic status. Does not affect the data and place of residence: city, suburb or village.

More than half of adolescents still strive for this entertainment, but now they do not constitute an absolute majority. The study shows that in the period from 1976 to 1979, 86% of teenagers were in a relationship, and from 2010 to 2015, only 63%. During the same periods, the proportion of high school students working for money decreased from 76% to 55%. The percentage of adolescents who consumed alcohol decreased from 93% to 67%. There is also a steady decline in adolescent sexual activity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over the past 25 years, the number of students engaged in sex has decreased by 13%.

“People say that this is because teenagers have become more responsible, and maybe lazy or boring. But one important tendency remains unnoticed, ”says Gene Twenge, the lead author of the study, which combined seven polls of Americans over a long period of time. She notes that adolescents may have become less interested in relationships, driving, or finding employment because modern society no longer requires them to do so.

According to the theory of evolutionary psychology, a person’s “life plan” slows down or accelerates depending on his environment. A “harsh and unpredictable” environment leads to accelerated development, and a safe and resource-rich environment, on the contrary, leads to a slower one. “In the first case, a person has many children in his youth, switches to a survival mode, expecting the same from his offspring, and expects that there will be more diseases and less resources,” says Twendzh.

According to the study, according to this model, the young man could take marriage more seriously, and driving and paid work played an important role in “increasing his attractiveness as a future husband based on his ability to provide resources.”

Twendzh believes that the US is gradually coming to the "slow" model.

The publication notes that the postponement of the “adult lifestyle” cannot be attributed to more homework or extracurricular activities. Compared to 1990 years, today, adolescents spend less time on homework, as well as on extracurricular activities (with the exception of public work, indicators have increased slightly here). The only reason also can not be the Internet and smartphones, since the decline began before their widespread distribution.

Masser lives in Portland, Oregon. He worked in the summer, but never drank alcohol, and he has no particular desire to try. He does not understand why earlier teens spent free evenings on the extraction and drinking of alcohol.

In a city where you can ride a bike, bus or ride, he does not see the point in self-driving.

As for the relationship, his opinion is: “It’s ridiculous to build relationships with someone in high school. Well, that is, what is the plan here? Continue to meet in college and eventually get married? Sounds implausible. ”

And although the study does not say anything about adolescents younger than 13, Twendge is convinced that the reasons for not striving for adult behavior are laid in early childhood. This is manifested in the fact that, for example, fewer and fewer children go to school alone or play without supervision. In recent years, parents increasingly restrict the autonomy of their children, and in some states this is enshrined in law: children smoking visit public places alone or stay home without adults.

Laws have limited yet another aspect of growing up. In 1970, in some states, it was possible to buy alcohol already from 18 years, but now the use of alcohol is forbidden until 21, almost everywhere.

According to the adolescent psychiatrist Daniel Siegel, it is quite logical that the brains of young men and women adapted in their own way and adapted to a society that has changed a lot since the 19th century.

“Since all of our culture says:“ Well, first finish school, then college, get a higher education, go through practice, and only then, when you are far behind 20, you take responsibility for your life, ”then why the brain does not respond appropriately? ", - says a psychiatrist.

According to Siegel, the impact of these changes on the country depends on the reason for such a long maturation. If a person postpones growing up, because he needs more time to develop creatively or establish stronger emotional and social connections, this is good. But if this happens “because of internal fears,” it should be alarming.

According to Stephanie Kunz, head of the Center for Research at the Council for Modern Families, adolescents began to take the possible negative consequences of their actions more seriously.

“Suddenly they began to realize that, surprisingly, they actually had to worry about their own resume. They no longer have the reckless disregard for the future that characterized a generation of more self-confident children. But before, a teenager could decide: “To hell with everything, I’ll quit school and join the peace movement, who cares?”,” she noted.

Kuntz says that today the absence of a college degree significantly limits career prospects, and young people can no longer afford this kind of carelessness.

Fifteen-year-old Chiara Power, who lives on the island of San Juan, Washington, does not want to start a relationship, get a driver's license, look for a living, or try alcohol. However, she does not sleep to increase prices for college.

“I start to panic, when I think about it, I can’t avoid spending this money. I dream of it in nightmares. I'm afraid that at some point I will become homeless, ”says the girl.

Parents are trying to reassure her, but it does not work.

"They just say something like:" Listen, before that, 3, relax. " But I can't relax, I can't calm down, ”admitted Chiara.

Chiara's mother, Penelope Haskyu, has mixed feelings about the fact that her daughter prefers to spend all her free time at home with her family: on the one hand, she is glad that she sees exactly that everything is fine with her daughter, but on the other hand she fears that the modern world became more dangerous, and her daughter did not receive the necessary life lessons.

Translation prepared edition Telegra.ph.

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