The Teen Temperament

This article raises awareness about the controversy over teenagers’ ability to make rational voting decisions. It’s easy to dismiss teenagers as impulsive risk takers who don’t have their executive functions in place and are too readily influenced by their peers.

In fact, teenagers are more impulsive than adults only when they are amped up and the lure of temptation is hard to resist. Likewise, they typically make more questionable decisions than adults only when they decide the rush of the reward is worth the risk.

Whether or not it’s prudent for younger teens to vote, these commonly echoed issues don’t apply to a voting context, which involves deliberate action and planning.

Also, while it’s true that adolescents are vulnerable to being influenced by their peers, why is it assumed that this influence is always negative?

Teenagers have enviable vitality, idealism and concern for the future — strengths that give them an advantage when it comes to innovation and positive change. And because the adolescent brain is drawn to novelty and primed to absorb new information, teenagers can be smarter than adults at times.

It seems to me that the more conspicuous problem lately in our political climate is with adults failing to resist being negatively influenced by their peers, making unsound decisions and being dubious role models for our youth.

Lynn Margolies
Newton, Mass.

The writer is a clinical psychologist working with teenagers and parents of teenagers.