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Tenåringshjernen : hjerneforskerens overlevelsesguide til livet med ungdom by Frances E. Jensen
effortlessly_uncool's review against another edition
Just not terribly helpful. "Distractions are problematic for teens." No shit! Same for grown ass adults! I looked through it and most of the book is some obvious shit.
bookph1le's review against another edition
5.0
Extremely interesting, but a bit repetitive at times. More complete review to come.
Full review:
For several years now, I've been aware of research showing that teenagers' brains are wired differently than adult brains. This research shows that teenagers don't process risk the same way adult brains do, and that teenagers' sleep cycles work differently. As a former teacher, I found this information important, a means of better understanding my students. As a parent I find it critical. Better understanding what's going on in my kids' heads will help me to respond in a more effective manner--and that's the crux of the matter, for me.
Despite this evidence, little has changed about the way we treat teenagers, to the detriment of everyone. Since teenagers are our future leaders, it's imperative that we use what we've learned about brain functioning to better provide the tools teenagers need to be successful. We have enormous respect for child development studies and use them to inform many of our views and policies, yet we ignore what we've learned about adolescent development. If you're a parent looking for a place to start, this book is an excellent resource.
My one real critique of this book is that it's repetitive at times, and the author tends to be more emphatic than is strictly necessary. The information she provides is eye-opening without needing to be repeated. It's also a pretty dense book. That was okay for me as I'm interested in the hard science behind studies. I wouldn't say the book is incomprehensible to a layperson like me, but I can see how it would be a bit thick if someone was just looking for some explanation and advice without wanting to dive into the complicated science of the brain.
That aside, this book is one that anyone who deals with teenagers would benefit from reading. If I can summarize in one sentence, it would be this: the actions of teenagers often seem so inexplicable to adults because they are--teenagers don't think the way adults do. Instead of blaming this on their hormones, we need to understand that it's due to the way their brains work, as Jensen points out. I don't mean to suggest that teenagers shouldn't be held accountable for their actions, and I didn't get the impression this is what Jensen is saying either, but it is important to understand that we tend to blame them for things that are physically beyond their control. How can you penalize someone for failing to assess risk when their brain function makes it extremely difficult for them to assess that risk? Punishing teenagers as we punish adults simply doesn't make sense because we're dealing with two distinctly different situations. Jensen doesn't get a lot into the law side of things, but she does point out that legal standards are different for people with mental impairments, yet teenagers, whose brains are different from adult brains, are expected to behave as a responsible and law-abiding adult would. It's not a realistic expectation.
Jensen also delves into the topic of sleep, something I think doesn't get nearly enough attention. Because of the changes adolescents undergo as they transition from childhood, their sleep cycles become vastly different from those of children or adults. This is why teenagers tend to stay up so late. The science behind it, Jensen explains, has to do with brain chemistry. Melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone, isn't released in a teenager's brain until two hours later than in an adult's brain, and it lasts longer, making it harder for teenagers to wake up.
I've long been interested in this research because, as a former high school teacher, I was a first-hand witness to how difficult it was for my students to stay awake during those early classes. I can't overstate the effect this has on education. The CDC recommends that teenagers get 8.5 to 9 hours of sleep a night, but they can't get to sleep until late. Then they're forced to rise sometime around 6 to prepare for the typical American school day. This means that American teens are suffering from chronic sleep deprivation. As Jensen says, only about 15 percent of teens get the amount of sleep they need each night. Sleep is essential to learning because the brain uses that time to strengthen memories and to organize them in order of emotional performance. Jensen cites experiments in Minnesota, where pushing the start time of the school day back by 70 minutes led to a statistically significant effect on grades. In Jessamine County, Kentucky, moving the start of the school day back by an hour improved attendance and standardized test scores. In this day and age, when we're so obsessed with student performance and test scores, altering the school day seems like a no-brainer (pun intended), and yet there continues to be stubborn resistance to the idea.
Especially scary for me, as a parents, were the sections in which Jensen delves into why risky sexual behaviors and the use of alcohol and drugs are particularly appealing and dangerous for teenagers. Again, it has to do with brain chemistry and the effects addictive substances have on a teenager's brain. Early use of alcohol and drugs has been linked with a quicker descent into addiction and life-long brain effects. Since a teenager's brain is wired in such a way that makes the effects of these substances stronger on them, their use of drugs and alcohol is far different from an adult's use. Jensen also cites studies that show that these substances may rewire a teenager's brain, permanently altering its pathways. Obviously it's not a good thing for a person of any age to become a substance abuser, but I think it's important for people to understand how much more pernicious the effects are on teenagers.
I would recommend this book to any parent because it will help you to become both more informed and better prepared to help your child through the struggles of the teenage years. Educators would definitely benefit from reading it as well, along with anyone who has regular contact with teenagers. I think Jensen has done a great thing by publishing this book. Hopefully, as more and more scientists speak out and raise public awareness, we'll start looking at adolescence as a distinct developmental age, just as we do with childhood.
Full review:
For several years now, I've been aware of research showing that teenagers' brains are wired differently than adult brains. This research shows that teenagers don't process risk the same way adult brains do, and that teenagers' sleep cycles work differently. As a former teacher, I found this information important, a means of better understanding my students. As a parent I find it critical. Better understanding what's going on in my kids' heads will help me to respond in a more effective manner--and that's the crux of the matter, for me.
Despite this evidence, little has changed about the way we treat teenagers, to the detriment of everyone. Since teenagers are our future leaders, it's imperative that we use what we've learned about brain functioning to better provide the tools teenagers need to be successful. We have enormous respect for child development studies and use them to inform many of our views and policies, yet we ignore what we've learned about adolescent development. If you're a parent looking for a place to start, this book is an excellent resource.
My one real critique of this book is that it's repetitive at times, and the author tends to be more emphatic than is strictly necessary. The information she provides is eye-opening without needing to be repeated. It's also a pretty dense book. That was okay for me as I'm interested in the hard science behind studies. I wouldn't say the book is incomprehensible to a layperson like me, but I can see how it would be a bit thick if someone was just looking for some explanation and advice without wanting to dive into the complicated science of the brain.
That aside, this book is one that anyone who deals with teenagers would benefit from reading. If I can summarize in one sentence, it would be this: the actions of teenagers often seem so inexplicable to adults because they are--teenagers don't think the way adults do. Instead of blaming this on their hormones, we need to understand that it's due to the way their brains work, as Jensen points out. I don't mean to suggest that teenagers shouldn't be held accountable for their actions, and I didn't get the impression this is what Jensen is saying either, but it is important to understand that we tend to blame them for things that are physically beyond their control. How can you penalize someone for failing to assess risk when their brain function makes it extremely difficult for them to assess that risk? Punishing teenagers as we punish adults simply doesn't make sense because we're dealing with two distinctly different situations. Jensen doesn't get a lot into the law side of things, but she does point out that legal standards are different for people with mental impairments, yet teenagers, whose brains are different from adult brains, are expected to behave as a responsible and law-abiding adult would. It's not a realistic expectation.
Jensen also delves into the topic of sleep, something I think doesn't get nearly enough attention. Because of the changes adolescents undergo as they transition from childhood, their sleep cycles become vastly different from those of children or adults. This is why teenagers tend to stay up so late. The science behind it, Jensen explains, has to do with brain chemistry. Melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone, isn't released in a teenager's brain until two hours later than in an adult's brain, and it lasts longer, making it harder for teenagers to wake up.
I've long been interested in this research because, as a former high school teacher, I was a first-hand witness to how difficult it was for my students to stay awake during those early classes. I can't overstate the effect this has on education. The CDC recommends that teenagers get 8.5 to 9 hours of sleep a night, but they can't get to sleep until late. Then they're forced to rise sometime around 6 to prepare for the typical American school day. This means that American teens are suffering from chronic sleep deprivation. As Jensen says, only about 15 percent of teens get the amount of sleep they need each night. Sleep is essential to learning because the brain uses that time to strengthen memories and to organize them in order of emotional performance. Jensen cites experiments in Minnesota, where pushing the start time of the school day back by 70 minutes led to a statistically significant effect on grades. In Jessamine County, Kentucky, moving the start of the school day back by an hour improved attendance and standardized test scores. In this day and age, when we're so obsessed with student performance and test scores, altering the school day seems like a no-brainer (pun intended), and yet there continues to be stubborn resistance to the idea.
Especially scary for me, as a parents, were the sections in which Jensen delves into why risky sexual behaviors and the use of alcohol and drugs are particularly appealing and dangerous for teenagers. Again, it has to do with brain chemistry and the effects addictive substances have on a teenager's brain. Early use of alcohol and drugs has been linked with a quicker descent into addiction and life-long brain effects. Since a teenager's brain is wired in such a way that makes the effects of these substances stronger on them, their use of drugs and alcohol is far different from an adult's use. Jensen also cites studies that show that these substances may rewire a teenager's brain, permanently altering its pathways. Obviously it's not a good thing for a person of any age to become a substance abuser, but I think it's important for people to understand how much more pernicious the effects are on teenagers.
I would recommend this book to any parent because it will help you to become both more informed and better prepared to help your child through the struggles of the teenage years. Educators would definitely benefit from reading it as well, along with anyone who has regular contact with teenagers. I think Jensen has done a great thing by publishing this book. Hopefully, as more and more scientists speak out and raise public awareness, we'll start looking at adolescence as a distinct developmental age, just as we do with childhood.
jennrocca's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars? I had some stretches of boredom - especially when the talk became too exclusively neuro-sciency without getting to the real world impact of the brain science. BUT - it was illuminating and interesting. Worth reading but I didn't mind that it was an audio book and I could occasionally let my mind wander until it got to an interesting part again.
alicebme's review against another edition
4.0
So many things to come back to. So helpful. Will buy and keep for reference.
katieinca's review against another edition
2.0
You could learn a lot about brain function and development with this book, but given the "survival guide" subtitle I was expecting more "and so here's a way to talk to your teen" stuff. But that's not her area, and she didn't partner with a counselor, so her practical advice involves a lot of anecdotal stuff about her own kids. If you've got the patience and the for the brain science you might really dig this, but I didn't.
tonyleachsf's review against another edition
2.0
More scary headlines than neuroscience. Little insight beyond 'here's everything that's scary.' More of a pop parenting book than a science book.
antonio_buehler's review against another edition
1.0
This is perhaps the worst parenting book I've ever read. This book is not just bad; this book is dangerous. It is dangerous because it is filled with terrible advice misleadingly wrapped up in the cloak of scientific certainty. While Jensen may be a brilliant neuroscientist this book is filled with meaningless anecdotes intended to scare parents, wildly misguided parenting advice that is not based on neuroscience or any science (except maybe reductive behaviorism), and an unhealthy focus on making kids successful in hyper-competitive academic environments instead of helping kids develop a strong moral fiber and a healthy approach to life.
Throughout the book she keeps using correlations (and occasionally causal arguments) to exaggerate risks of various threats (listed by chapter) to justify micromanaging and controlling behavior over teens. Only at the end of chapter 16, despite the writing in much of the book, she finally acknowledges that “Making judgments, even scientific judgments, based on what is available and known is at best foolhardy and at worst dangerous. That is certainly the case when it comes to pointing to objective evidence for a causal relationship between neuromaturity and real-world activity, especially criminal behavior.” She (correctly) does so in reference to the aggressive approach to trying and sentencing young people in the criminal justice system.
Later, on the same page (p. 276), she quotes Jay Giedd, “Behavior in adolescence, and across the lifespan, is a function of multiple interactive influences including experience, parenting, socioeconomic status, individual agency and self-efficacy, nutrition, culture, psychological well-being, the physical and built environments, and social relationships and interactions.”
Her willingness to acknowledge the circular and reinforcing impacts of environmental influences coupled with the developing brain and mind when it comes to criminal justice considerations; while being hyperfocused on direct correlation (hinting at causation) when it comes to the topics of other chapters and the impact on the brain (or IQ or school performance); leads me to believe that she knew that she was employing dishonest and disingenuous scare tactics throughout the book for the sake of selling books.
And it worked. It was a New York Times best seller. And it got stellar reviews. I guess a bunch of graphs of brain activity and scary stories, coupled with an author who is a neuroscientist who sent her kids to a $53k per child tuition private school, with one getting into a MD-PhD program and the other one getting into Harvard College, is enough to convince lots of people that this is somehow a great parenting book.
If I could give this book zero stars I would.
Throughout the book she keeps using correlations (and occasionally causal arguments) to exaggerate risks of various threats (listed by chapter) to justify micromanaging and controlling behavior over teens. Only at the end of chapter 16, despite the writing in much of the book, she finally acknowledges that “Making judgments, even scientific judgments, based on what is available and known is at best foolhardy and at worst dangerous. That is certainly the case when it comes to pointing to objective evidence for a causal relationship between neuromaturity and real-world activity, especially criminal behavior.” She (correctly) does so in reference to the aggressive approach to trying and sentencing young people in the criminal justice system.
Later, on the same page (p. 276), she quotes Jay Giedd, “Behavior in adolescence, and across the lifespan, is a function of multiple interactive influences including experience, parenting, socioeconomic status, individual agency and self-efficacy, nutrition, culture, psychological well-being, the physical and built environments, and social relationships and interactions.”
Her willingness to acknowledge the circular and reinforcing impacts of environmental influences coupled with the developing brain and mind when it comes to criminal justice considerations; while being hyperfocused on direct correlation (hinting at causation) when it comes to the topics of other chapters and the impact on the brain (or IQ or school performance); leads me to believe that she knew that she was employing dishonest and disingenuous scare tactics throughout the book for the sake of selling books.
And it worked. It was a New York Times best seller. And it got stellar reviews. I guess a bunch of graphs of brain activity and scary stories, coupled with an author who is a neuroscientist who sent her kids to a $53k per child tuition private school, with one getting into a MD-PhD program and the other one getting into Harvard College, is enough to convince lots of people that this is somehow a great parenting book.
If I could give this book zero stars I would.
leontyna's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.0
I disliked this book, though I was sure I would love it. It says a bit about teenage brain but it's a tiny portion in comparison to the scary stories about adolescents (brain damage from sports, descriptions of suicides, stories about drug and alcohol abuse and horrific crimes) and weird parenting advice. I don't think that treating correlations and stats as causation and a reason to micromanage your kids is a good or scientific approach. Examples of such advice include forcing your teens to give over all their passwords. The author also took part in some criminal proceedings of teenagers guilty of serious crimes and basically testified "it's their brains your honour, they can't forsee the consequences". It was mentioned just after her retelling of a story of a teen who robbed an old lady and then threw her off a bridge to drown. I don't see how this can be explained by immature brain, it's ridiculous. Also using your kids attending Harvard as proof of your methods is just delusional.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Suicide
Moderate: Murder
stevenyenzer's review against another edition
2.0
Although she sets out to provide a science-based, holistic view of adolescent brain development, The Teenage Brain is irritatingly heavy on person opinions and fear. Most of the book is dedicated to exploring all of the awful things that can screw up teenagers for life, from witnessing a single traumatic event to smoking pot (NOT EVEN ONCE!).
Jensen's approach to marijuana is illustrative. She begins her chapter on pot by relating an anecdote (always great for scientists) in which a young man tells her that, after having smoked heavily as a teenager, his brain is now so screwed up that he can't carry on a conversation and doesn't trust himself to drive a car. As a neurologist, Jensen surely has the clinical knowledge to understand that there's no way even chronic marijuana use could cause this kind of brain disability, but her credulity is indicative of a larger problem -- she clearly thinks weed is the Devil.
She also makes a couple of references to the continued debate over whether marijuana is a gateway drug. The National Institute on Drug Abuse withholds judgment, but Jensen doesn't -- she spoke to "at least one" scientist who said it was. "At least one" -- so, two? Three?
Although I was bothered specifically by Jensen's unscientific opinion of marijuana, the book as a whole was so alarmist and terrifying that I would not recommend it to any parent. It seems there is almost nothing that cannot permanently screw up a teenager. It seemed like every other paragraph contained a horrific anecdote about a teenager who drowned, committed suicide, or died an otherwise tragic death, all because... Well, I'm not really sure why!
Jensen's approach to marijuana is illustrative. She begins her chapter on pot by relating an anecdote (always great for scientists) in which a young man tells her that, after having smoked heavily as a teenager, his brain is now so screwed up that he can't carry on a conversation and doesn't trust himself to drive a car. As a neurologist, Jensen surely has the clinical knowledge to understand that there's no way even chronic marijuana use could cause this kind of brain disability, but her credulity is indicative of a larger problem -- she clearly thinks weed is the Devil.
She also makes a couple of references to the continued debate over whether marijuana is a gateway drug. The National Institute on Drug Abuse withholds judgment, but Jensen doesn't -- she spoke to "at least one" scientist who said it was. "At least one" -- so, two? Three?
Although I was bothered specifically by Jensen's unscientific opinion of marijuana, the book as a whole was so alarmist and terrifying that I would not recommend it to any parent. It seems there is almost nothing that cannot permanently screw up a teenager. It seemed like every other paragraph contained a horrific anecdote about a teenager who drowned, committed suicide, or died an otherwise tragic death, all because... Well, I'm not really sure why!