Why You Should Care About Extended Adolescence
2 Comments Published by Terrace Crawford on 9/28/11 at 7:34 AM.
Adolescence in America is mutating at an impressive rate. The experience of being a teenager has similarities to whatever your experience and mine were, of course; but there are plenty of dissimilarities. Many of these shifts are things we’re all aware of, if we stop to think about them: increased pressure and stress, constant access to and bombardment of information, instant everything (including an expectation of instant, no-presence-required communication). Each of these interwoven shifts (and others) have an impact on the spiritual lives of teenagers, of course, and we youth workers need to be thoughtful about where we pander or acquiesce, and where we take counter-cultural stands, helping teenagers know and embrace what I like to call a “truthier truth.” (I suppose “truer truth” would be more grammatically correct, but I like the former, so deal with it.)But perhaps the biggest shift in American adolescence is the duration.
Adolescence is now, on average, an almost 20-year trek, lasting all the way through the 20s. Of course, there are 20somethings who are fully living as adults long before they reach the ‘used to be the marker of entering middle age’: 30. But then, there are plenty of young 30somethings still living in an extended adolescence.
There are hundreds of questions we could ask about this, and thousands we could ask about the implications. But I want to zero in on one:
What impact does extended adolescence have on the faith formation of teenagers? Ok, a second question: How should we respond?
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Labels: churches, Hot Topics, Issues, Resources, Youth Pastors, Youth workers
Interesting thoughts on Adolescence. This is certainly a growing study, but I believe it is extending due to cultural issues surrounding the way kids are growing up today. Identity, Autonomy and Belonging are critical for the psychosocial development of every student. We need to surround them with a strong group of caring adults. Thanks for posting TC.
Thanks for posting. This will certainly be an ongoing dialog in years to come. We need to surround kids with a caring group of Christ-following adults as their identity, autonomy and belonging is critical to their developmental needs. Thanks TC