Parents who feel they can relax once their children finish secondary school need to look at the results of this new study.

A team of researchers took lab pictures of 250 Australian youths aged 12 to 20 using functionaly magnetic resonance imaging. They found accelerated growth in the pre-frontal cortex of children whose mothers showed positive, reinforcing parenting with them.

According to Sarah Whittle, senior research fellow at the Melbourne Neurospsychiatry Centre, the pre-frontal cortex, involved with social interaction and self awareness and checks risk-taking behaviour, is a part of the brain that changes most dynamically during adolescence.

This seems to suggest that because radical changes still occurs into early adulthood i.e. mid-20s, responsible parenting should extend to this period as well.

Ian Hickie a professor at the University of Sydney’s brain and mind research institute, suggests that youth independence should not start at 18 but instead should begin at the age of 21.

According to him:

Brain maturation is a ”very complicated, complex and dynamic process that goes through adolescence from puberty right through to the early 20s.”

 

”It is not the time to simply abandon your kids and leave them to their friends and think everything will be fine.”

 

”The idea that they will grow out of it, that everything will be fine, may not be right. You can significantly enhance or cause harm throughout this period.”

 

”Parents need to really think about what sort of kid do you have.”

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

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