ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Use ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½.com or the new ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ App to listen to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Episode details

World Service,07 Feb 2014,17 mins

Adolescence

The Why Factor

Available for over a year

In the West, teenagers are commonly perceived as being volatile, moody and often seen as being “troubleâ€. Why? Well, because they are teenagers. All that growing, all those changes. But in recent years scientists have discovered that changes to the brain, which occur during puberty, make young people less able to control their emotions and result in different attitudes towards risk as compared to adults. Can these changes to the brain explain why adolescence can be such a difficult period of our lives? Or is adolescence a manufactured cultural concept we’ve invented? (Image: Three teenagers smiling. Credit: Think Stock)

Programme Website
More episodes