What makes teens behave so badly? Photo / Getty Images
What makes teens behave so badly? Photo / Getty Images
In the wake of a series of viral pranks, many are wondering why teens do such bad things. It’s not as simple as you think.
Two teens were arrested in Melbourne last month after horrific video footage of them pushing an unsuspecting elderly fisherman off a pier went viral.
The “prank” appeared to have been undertaken and filmed for the purpose of social media content. The man had to be rescued by good samaritans and the teens have been charged.
Soon after this, a schoolboy made headlines after being filmed on a footbridge pouring a whole bottle of milk on women enjoying a boat ride on Melbourne’s Yarra River.
It is easy to explain away this behaviour as poor parenting, problem children or simply as “kids will be kids”. But we can better explain human behaviour by considering biological, psychological and social influences.
Invisible risks, invisible consequences
Perhaps the most important factor to consider is the development of a young person’s brain. The evidence is clear that the brain does not fully mature until people are well into their 20s.
The prefrontal cortex is the last part of the brain to develop fully. Its function is higher-order tasks such as decision-making and emotional regulation. Importantly, it’s the part of the brain that considers information that is not immediately obvious.
So when a child rides a bike on a footpath, the adult behind them might tell them to slow down in case a car reverses from a driveway. But the child doesn’t foresee this risk because there is no car to be seen. The potential risk is clear to the adult but, as it isn’t immediately identifiable, it is invisible to the child.
Children don’t foresee risks because they're not immediately identifiable. Photo / 123rf
Humans have a self-preservation instinct: when we understand the risk of death, we avoid it. When a usually sensible young man drives his car too fast, he is not consciously taking a risk. He is simply enjoying the rush of going fast. The risk is not tangible or visible and therefore not present in his decision-making.
For the teenage boys in the viral videos, they’re in the same prank-like mindset of an annoying older brother. It is not that they are choosing to ignore potential consequences, it’s just that not all the consequences are visible to them. They might be driven by the immediate attention of laughs or internet notoriety, but harm to others, police charges and potential school expulsion are probably not in their thought process.
Personalities formed through nature and nurture
Some people have a larger appetite for risk. One child will dive head-first into an ocean and another won’t get their feet wet.
This is likely due to a combination of environmental and biological factors: some people are more comfortable with the feeling of fear, whereas some may have had parents who were overprotective, or perhaps an early life experience of trouble near water that has left a legacy.
These factors all contribute to a person’s psychology. A person who is risk-averse is more likely to be “scared” of pranks or unsafe behaviour. This is not necessarily because they are cognitively more able to think through the potential outcomes, but because they are acting on their fear of new or unknown environments. A new situation elicits fear and, in turn, cautionary behaviour.
A young person who is less fearful will be less reluctant in new environments. So it’s not a coincidence that the “good” child who appears not to make “reckless” decisions is often the same child who struggles more with adapting to life changes, such as starting school. Similarly, the “naughty” toddler or the “class clown” might be the most adaptable and open to new environments.
The urge to fit in
Finally, our behaviour is influenced by those around us. When we are in a group, we behave differently from when we are alone. We are all driven by a desire to fit in, to be liked, and sometimes we might do things we would not normally do to be included.
For young people today, this is amplified through social media. Their audience is not only those right near them but those in their wider digital circle. There is an instant reinforcement of a behaviour when there is a large, online audience.
The desire to fit in is amplified through social media. Photo / 123rf
Frequently, we see prankster behaviour when young people are on school holidays. They are bored and looking for entertainment.
Few spaces are welcoming for groups of teenagers to simply “hang out”, and many are actively hostile to groups of youths. Move-on laws, for example, were designed to prohibit young people from gathering.
Finally, a crucial factor is the construction of gender, where boys’ larrikinism can be seen as hyper-masculine and cool, making these types of behaviours more likely to be socially endorsed.
What can be done?
Unfortunately, not a lot. You cannot expedite the development of a brain and you can’t do much about someone’s psychology. School programmes might be understood by some young people but not by others and are expensive to deliver. Nationwide organisations such as Life Education, which offers health education to primary school students, and Elephant Ed, which is increasingly used by schools to deliver sex education, are provided at cost to the school.
However, social influences can be changed, albeit slowly.
If we can provide young people with social places where they are engaged, they will be less bored. The Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (an intervention developed to reduce “antisocial” behaviours by connecting people to their communities) is based on the premise that behaviour change shouldn’t be focused on stopping a problem behaviour.
Instead, it should provide young people with opportunities for positive “prosocial activity”. So, for example, offering more access to free basketball courts for young people gives them a positive way to spend their time.
When we continue to see young people as wild criminals who have no respect, we create a greater divide between young people and ourselves.
