Parents everywhere are no doubt

puzzling over recent high profile displays of horrific adolescent behavior,

fearing for their own children and wondering what in the world is going

on. Let's take a look:

Northbrook, Ill.: Fueled by

alcohol, a gang of twelth grade girls lead a violent, demeaning hazing

of their eleventh grade classmates, punching and kicking them, covering

them with feces and forcing them to eat dirt and pig intestines.

Sarasota, Fla.: Influenced

a condominium building aiming for the pool. Two make it. One hits the

side, fracturing both legs and an arm and cracking his pelvis.

Red Lion, Penn.: Brandishing

his stepfather's 44-caliber magnum, an eighth grade boy stands up in his

school's cafeteria and shoots the principal in the chest, killing him.

He then uses a 22-caliber weapon to kill himself.

Kingston, Mass.: Cheered on

grade boy on the school bus.

Just as figuring out the implausible

seems all the more impossible, information is emerging about some serious

neurological rewiring taking place during adolescence. In her new book,

"The Primal Teen," Barbara Strauch illuminates startling advances

in science that may help to explain teen behavior heretofore chalked up

simply to immaturity, hormones or hobgoblins.

Recent research at UCLA's Lab

of Neuro Imaging suggests that, during adolescence, boys and girls undergo

significant neuronal transformation, affecting such functions as self-control,

emotional regulation, organization and planning.

This research, in tandem with

studies performed at the National Institute of Mental Health and at McLean

Hospital in Massachusetts, challenges traditional thinking that brain

development is complete by age 8 or 10. Now, some quixotic adolescent

behaviors are being linked to a natural, even predictable, neurochemical

process.

Of course, this doesn't mean

that teens are scientifically destined to make poor choices. But it may

mean that they are even more predisposed to do so than previously thought.

Why? Because the massive reorganization

of gray matter at puberty seems to impact areas of the brain most closely

associated with judgment. And judgment shades choices.

Understanding the antecedents

of those choices, be they biological, chemical or social, underscores

the value of parental involvement in teen decision-making and best positions

adults to short circuit destructive teen behavior, or at least to try

their hand at persuasion.

A calm, clear voice of reason

can go a long way toward slowing speeding synapse-driven impulsions if

not, at least occasionally, substituting adult judgment for adolescent

enterprise.

Perhaps most important in helping

young people identify sensible solutions to life's challenges is defining

the potential short-term and long-term consequences of behaviors, consequences

their still-evolving brains may not yet fully embrace or even slow down

long enough to notice.

This can be especially the

case when the behavior includes alcohol and other drugs. After all, the

flip side of the effects of neurological development on teen behavior

is the effect of teen behavior on neurological development. It's not too

hard to imagine the impact of substance use and abuse, not to mention

scores of other unhealthy experiences, on a transforming cerebral cortex.

While that impact may be hard

to see, there are other more immediate, and more identifiable, ramifications

of alcohol and drug use. Both have been repeatedly linked to increased

rates of automobile crash deaths, risky sexual behavior, sexual assaults,

depression, suicide and declining school performance.

Try as we might, we will never

successfully transform teen thoughts and actions into those that mirror

our own. Nature has a different plan (something Strauch calls "crazy

brain and psyche seeking to understand what drives their decisions and

what influencers can be brought to bear to keep them safe and alive. And

there's no time like the present.

According to original Teens

Today research conducted by SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions/Students

Against Driving Drunk) and Liberty Mutual Group:

A majority of teens (63 percent)

say they drink, including 16 percent of sixth graders, 41 percent of eighth

graders and 75 percent of eleventh graders;

More than one-third of teens

(35 percent) say they use drugs, including 34 percent of ninth graders

and 42 percent of tenth graders;

More than one-half of teens

(58 percent) say they have engaged in sexual activity, including 35 percent

of seventh graders and 78 percent of twelfth graders.

Still, most young people want

to make good decisions. And, believe it or not, they welcome, and respond

to, parents who help them translate illogical thought into responsible

action. The Teens Today research revealed that adolescents want parents

to offer their opinions; say it is important to them to live up to their

parents' expectations regarding drinking, drug use, and sex; and are much

less likely to engage in destructive behavior when they share a close,

open relationship with their parents.

Recent events around the country

make clear that our work is cut out for us. As one of the pool-plunging

Sarasota teens told the Associated Press, "It's adolescent independence

and taking risks, like kids taking drugs or doing pot. Adolescence comes

with stupidity and arrogance." At least now we're closer to knowing

why.

[Stephen Wallace is a psychologist

and the national chairman and chief executive officer of SADD, Inc. SADD

sponsors school-based education and prevention programs nationwide and

makes available at no charge the SADD Contract for Life and the Opening

Lifesaving Lines brochure, both designed to facilitate effective parent-child

communication. Toll-free: 877-SADD-INC. For more information on the SADD/Liberty

Mutual Teens Today research, visit https://www.saddonline.com or https://www.libertymutualinsurance.com.]