Should Teenagers be Treated as Adults? — A Sociological Perspective
An adult’s relationship with a teenager is an extremely complicated dynamic, especially when they are a young achiever. The term young achiever is a way of highlighting children who accomplish great feats and successes, at a young age. Should adults treat teenagers as equals — concerning their successes as well as the effects it has on their mental health? Throughout history, it is evident that adults treat high performing kids with less respect or praise than they would if they were an adult; however, this raises the question that should they then be treated as adults and equals? And why is it that successful children are treated differently to successful adults? This decision comes with many considerations and can influence the sociology of both the child and the adult in the relationship. In this article, I will be attempting to answer this complex question of whether teenagers should be treated as adults, and will discuss the results of doing so or not doing so while relating it with mental health and young success.
Over the years teenagers have become the highest age group that struggles with mental health and wellness. Treating teenagers like adults will only add more stress to their lives, and make it harder for them to keep up and cope with their mental health. Teenagers, adults, babies, elderly and infants all have their place in society and the structure of life; therefore there is no need to treat teenagers as adults as they are both in different stages of life and therefore cannot be related to one another. A couple of examples of how teenagers are treated as adults relates to the fact that teenagers are supposed to manage all of their classes, have a social life, get good grades, learn how to drive, and complete extracurricular activities (sports, music, service etc) all by themselves, but if they complain then they are “making excuses for themselves” when in reality they might just need to highlight the fact that their workload is overwhelming (therefore explaining the high suicide rates amongst teenagers). In most countries, teenagers are also expected to find a job starting as young as 13 years old, which is another added stressor to their lives (yet teenagers are expected to show up every day with no excuses). On the other hand, if teenagers want to have a little independence, suddenly the trust disappears. A child is trusted to work and have a job in which they are managing themselves, but if they want to go to a party or hang out with their friends then rules and restrictions must be placed and they cannot go alone anymore. Any situation which calls for a greater degree of independence for the child is frowned upon and requires a lot of consideration from the parents; however, they do not realize teenagers have been managing themselves their whole lives and have been successful. This is definitely a circumstantial topic; however, as the level of trust between parent and child ranges from family to family, which is why it is important to listen to your child and try to understand their point of view. Teachers at school also expect their students to act maturely at all times through completing work, paying attention, forming meaningful relationships at school and participating in class, but when students try to explain their “bad” behaviour then they are shut down. The constant switching of attitudes is exhausting for teenagers, as they constantly have to meet the standards of others and manage themselves, but aren’t independent enough to go out alone. Adults and teenagers are at different maturity levels and depend on one another to make families work (for example); however, giving a teenager more responsibilities only changes the overall dynamic of a house and also changes the expectations and maturity levels of that individual, which is not always a good thing — as it can lead to greater mental health stress and issues. This aligns with the sociological perspective of Functionalism, where everyone has their rightful place in society, but there is still a dependence for those around you. By expecting more from teenagers, one would be disrupting the values behind Functionalism.
Furthermore, to prove how stressed teenagers already are, over 35% of teenagers have committed suicide due to stress. Quoting TeenInk Magazine “Not only does this stress cause fatigue and irritability, but it also causes a lack of appetite. A distinct 67% of teens have experienced this, and 25% of these teens say that they rarely have time to eat. Barely getting enough sleep and lying awake at night restlessly has become the norm for 35% of us. 42% feel like their stress is getting worse throughout the year” (KatieEm, 2015). Treating teenagers like adults only adds more responsibilities and stress, which is harmful towards the teenager. This also leads to an imbalance of social norms and everyone’s roles in society. Based on the statistics presented above it is clear that teenagers’ lives are already so stressful and overwhelming; adding more pressures would do no good and would only make the misfortunes written above more likely to happen. Furthermore, a TIME magazine article noted, “But in actuality, the brains of teens are still developing…they can’t adequately handle the same pressures and demands that mature adults can (Steinberg et al., 2016)”. Therefore my claim stands true, as even science supports the fact that teenagers should not be treated the same way adults are.
Society seems to have an evident love-hate relationship with younger people who are extremely successful in their field and skilled, despite their lack of experience or age. Being young and achieving big things is often glorified in society’s norms, as it displays talent and never fails to amaze the public. This success is often advertised and expressed widely as one hopes to have a greater positive impact and inspire others, whether they have the same goals or not. However, the result of this advertising is that more pressure is placed on these succeeding individuals, which negatively impacts those young achievers. When one becomes jealous of another’s fame, it causes them to treat that individual with more maturity as they now expect more out of them and their standards have risen. That teenager or young adult can no longer make excuses for themselves, as they have already accomplished so much at a young age. These double standards are harmful to society as now these young achievers are not given the credit or respect they deserve, but they are also expected to live up to the high standards others set for them, without fail or any excuses. They can no longer use the “I’m still young and learning” excuse, as society has begun to look at only their achievements rather than their age when taking their successes into account. These achievements would usually occur much later in life. So society has begun to relate age with success, which is why there is so much spotlight or media coverage over those who manage to “cheat” the system. This is wrong because at the end of the day these individuals are still young and are finding their way and should be allowed to make mistakes without being criticized by society, regardless of how much they have achieved it does not add years of experience which being older does. Therefore proving why teenagers should not be treated as adults.
The jealousy an elder individual feels could be unpacked into many different sociological theories and bigger ideas, such as the idea that maybe the older generations are threatened by the sudden success of the younger generations and fear that they will look outdated or incompetent, in comparison to them. These young individuals are hitting milestones much sooner than they did in the past, and they are receiving a lot of attention for doing so, but with attention comes criticism. The success of young people could be interpreted through the mindset that this kind of success is authentic intelligence, whereas people who work hard are seen as boring or have a “lack of intelligence”. This situation would correlate completely with the question at hand, as those who are younger and achieve so much are often looked at as they lack intelligence or experience, even though they have accomplished so much. Society does not give them the credit they deserve but yet continue to place enormous amounts of pressure on them. Conflict Theory, which states that “society is in a state of perpetual conflict because of competition for limited resources. Conflict theory holds that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather than by consensus and conformity”. This is displayed in this situation as we all feel we compete with one another when in reality we are all leading our own lives. There should be no competition between teenagers and adults, as they are each their own and separate part of society, and treating one group older than they should be treated will not be beneficial for anyone. As stated in an article in the New York Times “We do not become better when others fail, and we do not become worse when others succeed. Bench-marking yourself against prodigies is unhelpful. “It makes more sense to apply a clear-cut criterion of what you want to achieve and focus on your personal progress (Hickok, 2021)”. Furthermore, the people who are young and talented hold the power and dominate those who are less successful or have worked over years and are much older, as these young individuals did not conform to the norms or regular life trajectory which society created for them. The same article explains: “Because media platforms are youth-oriented, achievements of younger people can be propelled and celebrated; this perpetuates a cycle that under-represents the success of older people…Beyond jealousy, negative emotions toward young achievers could be due to feeling that your own accomplishments are underappreciated by comparison (Hickok, 2021)”. This, therefore, expresses how society seems to correlate young success (younger but extremely successful person) with less work put in, and makes an excuse like “he was gifted”, when in reality that individual had to work twice as hard as you did. By celebrating younger people achievements, one may become insecure of their own and begin to question their own skills, which in reality does not affect their self-worth in any way. Society is extremely competitive and ruthless, which is why it can sometimes be difficult to be happy for each other; clearly demonstrating Conflict Theory. The facts presented above clearly outline why teenagers and adults should not be compared or in competition with one another in any way, as it is only harmful to both parties involved.
Now, something we need to consider is that teenagers and young adults are not the same things. A teenager is anyone from 13–17 years old, however, a young adult is 18–22 years old. According to the New York Times, “For example, research indicates that a hypersensitivity to reward causes teenagers to focus on the short-term consequences of their actions and assign less importance to the future, which often inclines them toward impetuous and risky activity (such as crime). We know of no evidence indicating that the same is true with regard to young adults (Steinberg et al., 2016).” This, therefore, means that these young adults are in a category on their own, and they can be responsible for slightly higher tasks or standards set and should be expected to meet them; however, teenagers are not a part of this category for the reasons explained above.
Considering all of the points above, it is clear that teenagers should not be treated as adults as they are two separate groups in society, which fall under the values of Functionalism as they each have their own roles and responsibilities. Teenagers and adults are at different stages of their lives, therefore their brain chemistry varies as to how much stress or pressure they can handle, which is why it is important to take ones mental health into account. Finally, ones success should not affect how one is treated and all age groups should celebrate one another’s achievements (achieving more at a younger age does not mean that individual is “more mature” or can “handle more pressure”. It also does not mean that their achievements are invalid because they are so young, they should still be treated with respect. I believe that teenagers and adults both hold their own importance in society and should treat each other thoughtfully.
CITATIONS:
Brizio, A., Gabbatore, I., Tirassa, M., & Bosco, F. M. (2015). “No more a child, not yet an adult”: studying social cognition in adolescence. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 1011. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01011
Em, K. (n.d.). Teenagers should not be treated like adults . Teen Ink. https://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/807153/Teenagers-Should-Not-Be-Treated-Like-Adults.
Hickok, H. (2021, February 16). Why our relationship with young achievers is so complicated. BBC Worklife. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210211-why-our-relationship-with-young-achievers-is-so-complicated.
Pardi , E. (2018, May 16). Why we need to stop pressuring teens to act like adults. Aleteia. https://aleteia.org/2018/05/16/why-we-need-to-stop-pressuring-teens-to-act-like-adults/.
Steinberg, L., Grisso, T., Scott, E. S., & Bonnie, R. J. (2016, April 29). Don’t Treat Young Adults as Teenagers. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/opinion/sunday/dont-treat-young-adults-as-teenagers.html.
