dfa2c4a2-344a-448b-adea-ed0d9d5ad6a7-image.png
What is a teenager?
-
GG:
I agree that they are developing earlier. What I am questioning is the reasons they are developing earlier and the study’s procedures that you referenced. I am not saying that you or the study are wrong, I am just trying to get the information past the “bull sh*t” detectors and running into issues that I am pointing out so you can either acknowledge them as valid issues, or show me the information I need to quell my unease.
Let me just sum them up (and you can see the previous post of mine to see why they are issues)
First Set of Issues:
1) The study cut off their ages at 3 Years Old and 12 Years Old. Since the average age a girl enters puberty, that I was told in “health” class during my tenure as a student at public school, is between 11 and 13 years old, it seems they did not extend the study far enough to determine if the number of girls who are developing later in life counter balance the girls developing earlier in life.
2) Perhaps ages 13, 14 and 15 are not relevant, but I don’t see anything stating that those ages are not relevant or insignificant.
3) Why are they including girls aged 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7? Is not 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 enough? Were they seriously expecting girls as young as 3 to have breasts?
4) Are they actually seeing “breasts” or are they seeing fat? (think Man-Boobs.)
Second Set of Issues:
1) 354 girls out of about 19 million girls seems like an insufficient sample set. (19 million is a guesstimate, see above for how I got to that number. I am not claiming that number as fact, it’s just a guess as to the estimation of the number of girls aged 3 to 12 in the United States of America.)
2) Why 354 girls? Why not 300 or 400? Did they have to disqualify a lot of their sample set because they did not like the data they got from them? 354 just seems like a very odd number to choose, the human mind prefers “round numbers” like 10’s and 5’s.
3) They only selected 10 cities around the United States. Just off the top of my head I can think of more than ten different major metropolitan areas in the United States: Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Washington DC, Saint Louis, Lexington (KY), Seattle, San Fransciso, Los Angeles, New York, Philidelphia, Boston, Birmingham (AL), Jacksonville (FL), Tampa, etc, etc, etc. That’s 15 major metropolitan areas populated by millions of people. How did they chose 10?
4) What 10 cities did they chose? The diet of an average citizen in Chicago is most certainly significantly different than the average diet of a citizen in Bradley, IL (near where the Chicago Bears go to practice football before the football season starts.) Even more so, the diet of a child in Cairo, IL is no where near the diet of a child in Evanston, IL. (Cairo is near the southern tip of Illinois and is pronounced KAI-roh. Evanston is north of Chicago.) The former is going to have much more whole grains in their diet, the later is going to have more chemicals from processed foods in their diet.
Lastly, why did the study seem to not mention anything about improved medical and dental resources in current generations than in previous as well as a significantly improved source of nutrients needed to develop healthy bodies? I’m not saying that this data is significantly increasing development, but it would be nice if they told us why it was not significant.
I am not saying you are wrong, I am not saying the study is wrong. I am just attempting to raise valid questions that I need answered in order to understand how valid the study is, or, to maybe convince you that the study is not valid.
-
I have come to realize that teenagers don’t get the kind of support they need in the current society. There is a biological need for teenagers to become their own person, seperate from their parents. They don’t understand this, and their parents don’t understand this either. They act on this need by defying their parents, which often means indulging in risky or unhealthy behavior. Often parents shove money at them and tell them to go have a good time with their friends. They become facilitators of their youths bad behavior. I think we (parents) need to recognize our children need us to teach them to assume the responsibility of becoming an adult. We need to prepare them. I believe if we do this, we would see less (not none) bad behavior since they would see they are nearing that imaginary line where they become adults and will enjoy the privilages of that position. So few understand the responsibilities, especially the financial ones, but that largely comes with experience.
-
I think those are all valid issues Jen, I would have done it differently myself. Personally I would have used first period as the qualifier. That’s why I said I was searching out other studies that might have better parameters…
GG
-
Oky-doky. We’ll just go with “it’s flawed, but we have nothing better to use at this time.” :)
-
I just was searching for a different study. Out of curiosity are you playing the devil’s advocate?
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/children/03/31/early.puberty.wmd/
find the mistakes in this study and lets talk about it.
Herman-Giddens, ME, Slora, EJ, Wasserman, RC, et al., Secondary Sexual Characteristics and Menses in Young Girls Seen in Office Practice: A Study from the Pediatric Research in Office Settings Network, Pediatrics, 1997; 99: 505-512.
GG
-
Best way I’ve seen teens (like me) discribed. So so true
-
What is the best way?
GG
-
A person who can’t remember to walk the dog, but never forgets a phone number.
A weight watcher who goes on a diet by giving up candy bars before breakfast.
A youngster who receives his/her allowance on Monday, spends it on Tuesday, and borrows from his/her best friend on Wednesday.
Someone who can hear a song by Madonna played three blocks away but not his mother calling from the next room.
A whiz who can operate the latest computer without a lesson but cannot make a bed.
A student who will spend 12 minutes studying for her history exam, and 12 hours for her driver’s license.
A youngster who is well informed about anything he doesn’t have to study.
An enthusiast who has the energy to ride a bike for miles, but is usually too tired to dry the dishes.
A connoisseur of two kinds of fine music: loud and VERY LOUD
A young woman who loves the cat and tolerates her brother.
A person who is always late for dinner but always on time for a “raid” in Warcraft
A romantic who never falls in love more than once a week.
A budding beauty who never smiles until her braces come off.
A boy who can sleep until noon on any Saturday when he suspects the lawn needs mowing.
-
Ah the original quote. The only one I am iffy on in that quote would be the one about Madonna…
GG
-
Kick them out of the house while they still know everything.
-
I read in some magazines that Teen is a modern invented age between childhood and adult (Apparently, there were no teenager during the Middle-Age for example)
-
A teenager is someone whose age in numbers ends with teen ( 13-19 ) so it has always existed. Maybe nobody coined the term until modern times, but they always existed.
-
I think before, there was childhood and adult. Once the child was ready, he became an adult with all the responsibilities.
Nowadays, we have the teenagers. They have more responsibilities than child, but do not have the power of the adults. Isn’t this problematic? -
I think teen is 11-21.
-
I think before, there was childhood and adult. Once the child was ready, he became an adult with all the responsibilities.
Nowadays, we have the teenagers. They have more responsibilities than child, but do not have the power of the adults. Isn’t this problematic?Okay then, when does the child become an adult?
-
I never said I had the answer, I was just pointing out that in ancient societies, something called teenager did not exist
My guesses would be :
Girl become woman when marriedFor the boy???
In some Jew society (maybe a real Jew could enlighten me) : the passage from boy to man comes from a special initiation.
In Canada or USA, for example, a child/teen becomes adult when he reaches 18/21 (age for drinking, to vote) Why 18? No particular reason, which is the flaw of such system. Something based on education would be much better (we can’t use the old marriage system, we could use something in the line of an initiation. When one reaches the minimum education, he is considered ready for life in society. I suppose this minimum of education could include knowledge of society, of its judicial system, of philosophy as well as standard studies from sciences/history/literature/culture. Could be after high school, thus making all those who skip high school not citizens, which in turn could motivate the so called “teen” to finish high school.)
I just fail to see the use of teenager. If its only used to describe the person between 11-19 (or whatever the numbers are), sure I have no problem with this. But there is an entire industry around this moment of teenager. Ideally, one could only hope that industry exist to prepare the teenager for adult age, which is not the case in our modern societies. Magazines about stars, how to do sex, sex tips etc.
-
But there is an entire industry around this moment of teenager. Ideally, one could only hope that industry exist to prepare the teenager for adult age, which is not the case in our modern societies. Magazines about stars, how to do sex, sex tips etc.
This industry is only concerned with what sells. They are in business to make money.
-
héhé, than i’m partly at teenager ;)
15… -
@Frontovik:
héhé, than i’m partly at teenager ;)
15…If you are 15, then you are 100% teenager.
-
I read in some magazines that Teen is a modern invented age between childhood and adult (Apparently, there were no teenagers during the Middle-Age for example)
Very true. The term, “teenager” is less than 100 years old. People were considered “young men” and "“young women” or “young adults”.
I think before, there was childhood and adult. Once the child was ready, he became an adult with all the responsibilities.
Nowadays, we have the teenagers. They have more responsibilities than child, but do not have the power of the adults. Isn’t this problematic?Absolutely. This is quite problematic.
Suggested Topics
