The age of adolescence is defined according to two criteria: the physiological development of the organism and the brain, and the psyche. In a study published in the journal “The Lancet”, the age of puberty would drop to 10 years, thanks to the improvement of nutrition and living conditions, and the age of late adolescence would increase because of changes in the sociological environment, and in particular the duration of studies. 10 – 24 years old, the new standard!
If we believe one study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, adolescence would last from 10 years to 24 years. This is not good news for many parents, who are sometimes bored with teenagers who are struggling to gain independence. The Tanguy will flourish again …
For the lowering of the age of onset of adolescence, it is the improvement of the standard of living and the nutrition which are in question, by acting on the physiology and by causing an earlier puberty everywhere in the world. developed. This is confirmed by INSERM, which notes “a particularly significant reduction in the age of first menstruation observed in most Western countries. Interindividual variability can reach 4-5 years and depends on genetic and environmental factors and probably on interactions between these two types of factors “. Which perfectly explains this new standard of entry into the 10-year-old adolescence.
The change in the exit age is even more dramatic. We would now be adults only at 24, 25, or even 29 years old. In question, sociology: studies lengthen and delay the passage to adulthood and at the same time, marriage and the arrival of the first child.
It is also the wealth of society that allows teenagers who want to take their time and mature, to take a “sabbatical” to consider a world tour, a cool trip to Australia or do humanitarian work. … Before entering the “tunnel” of professional life. In addition, for the experts, it is certain that the brain continues its development after the age of 20 years.
Brain age varies little
But let’s go back to the beginning of the story, with one of the best specialists in evolution, Professor Bernard Sablonnière, professor of biology at Lille. According to him, real “conscious” life begins with what he calls the neurological “Big bang”: at 28e embryo day! Recent imaging methods have shown, from the end of the 4e week of conception, the creation of millions of neurons (3000 neurons per second) and the start of their interconnection.
This explosion remains a little anarchic in the mother’s womb, but on the 6the months, we reach billions of connections! About 60 billion, available to the network organization which will continue for 20 years. We can consider that, during all these years, the neuronal capital is sorted, studied then eliminated, to keep only the useful circuits.
Birth marks a second evolutionary age, which is estimated to last up to 10 to 12 years. This is the period during which our brain is extremely malleable, which allows all the learning of life.
The following period is that of adolescence, the estimates of which vary the most. Today it is said that from 12 to 29 years of age the progression continues. 29 years old, the age at which the brain is supposed to be at its peak. This would be the theoretical limit of adolescence, which promises us a new standard in the future. But then we stop, because there is a certainty: from 30 to 65 years, the capacities decrease slowly, a slope in fact quite gentle and which can be slowed down, because the brain’s adaptation capacities are almost infinite, although still little known and especially dependent on what we eat. Not to mention the toxic substances that are imposed on him or difficult living conditions, such as poor sleep.
However, from the age of 65, even if it is not yet linear, old age takes its course and connections are less efficient.
Psychic and sociological age
Psychic age, on the other hand, is very sensitive to the environment and to the living conditions that we impose on our neurons. Until 19e century, life expectancy was mediocre, the confrontation with the world of adults more rapid and it would be difficult to say that Bonaparte at the Pont d’Arcole was a teenager … Or that the mathematician considered one of the most brilliant that humanity has known, Évariste Gallois, had died at less than 20 years old in a teenage duel!
Yet this is what the scientific journal The Lancet would like to explain to us by calculating that today, adolescence lasts until 24 years, even 29! It is moreover rather curious, because if this is true, 2 ages defined previously would be found … confused.
No quantified medical data, but just an appreciation of the age of final departure from the family unit, that of marriage or, more eloquently, that of the first maternity which today is well after 30 years.
Traditionally, adolescence was short, from 13 to 19 years old. Specialists today prefer to speak of a period that they no longer really call adolescence but which resembles it and which would begin around 10 or 11 years old – the influence of the Internet on the acquisition of knowledge – and would last at least up to 24 years old, because the outside world is no longer as reassuring as it used to be.
This would only have consequences for the adepts of the marketing, if the adaptation of the psychic age to the physical age were not a real problem. For example, at age 11, the new teenager has not really entered puberty, and the age of the first period, if it has advanced a little, has not been in the same proportions as the psychic age.
On the other hand, for the end age, it is an element to be taken into account for the company.
The SNCF understood this well, by raising the ceiling of the youth card from 27 to 29 years old!
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