What is a teenager?

Describe a teenager. What comes to your mind when you hear this?

Maybe the question seems unfair – all teenagers are unique, and perhaps the traits that come to mind describe specific teenagers we know, rather than the whole lot.

You might have thought about how you differed as a teenager compared with the Gen Z (or soon Gen A) teenagers you work with. Certainly, the generation one is born into will impact general personality traits in significant ways.

Maybe you also thought about how teenagers you have met in different countries exhibit varying behaviours. Does it matter if you spent your teenage years mostly studying at a desk or tending crops on a multigenerational farm, for instance?

Personality, generation and environment certainly play a role in influencing one’s character. However, simply being an adolescent does, too, no matter where you come from.

Given that the key population counsellors work with are adolescents, we probably observe these qualities every day. Identifying what developmental psychology has already uncovered can further help us be more mindful practitioners.

Here are some key traits of adolescence, according to developmental psychology, which may be helpful for us to keep in mind as college counsellors.

1. Adolescents are learning to think more abstractly

Psychological research:

You may have heard of Jean Piaget. The father of developmental psychology, Piaget delineated cognitive developments that children go through. The adolescent stage is the last one and is termed “formal operational thought”, which allows the individual to think hypothetically and abstractly, beyond the concrete visible events that occupy children’s thoughts.

Implications for your job:

Can you imagine giving the Common App essay to an 11- or 13-year-old? It makes sense that this is a fitting task for the 16- or 17-year-old you’re likely to be working with.

The depth of abstract thinking required of an adolescent is mirrored in the complexity of the higher-level classes in the curriculum and the degree of reflection in university applications. If you want to see hallmarks of adolescent hypothetical thinking taken to the furthest degree, check out the U Chicago supplemental essays).

2. Adolescents are still developing their executive functions, such as inhibitions

Psychological research:

Did you know that the brain reaches maturation by the mid-20s? This means that part of the teenage brain hasn’t reached full maturity.

What might this part be? This is the prefrontal cortex, which houses a set of cognitive skills known as executive functions – the processes that enable us to plan, organise, manage time, prioritise tasks, exhibit self-control and solve problems effectively.

Implications for your job:

If your students aren’t good at the above-mentioned skills, or make impulsive decisions, don’t necessarily chalk it up to laziness or personality. Remember that their brains are still developing.

 3. Peer relations are important to adolescents

Psychological research:

Adolescents are learning to navigate a social world as independent beings. Naturally, peer relations become increasingly important, and this is baked in to the brain. For instance, simply believing that one is being observed by a peer is enough to make the nervous system react more strongly. And when making a decision involving risk, the opinions of other teenagers will matter more than the opinions of an adult.

Implications for your job:

If your students want to go to the same university as their friends or to aim for the university that looks cool, understand that this is a stage where the observations of their peers matter more than adults might think is rational.

But also keep in mind that they’re perfectly capable of abstract thinking and reasoning (see point one above) so make your case with various rationales over time.

4. Adolescents are developing their identities

Psychological research:

Adolescents are experimenting with and developing their identities and roles – such as appearance, career aspirations, education, relationships, world views, personality or interests – according to Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development.

Implications for your job:

It may sometimes be frustrating that adolescents don’t know what they want. But, actually, that’s normal. Association with a university can seem like a vital way to shape their identity, so university admissions may mean a great deal.

You can guide them in making strategic university choices but also hint that universities aren’t the be all and end all; life and identity are – and should be – more expansive than one’s university choice.

5. Adolescents are egocentric

Psychological research:

Adolescent egocentrism means that teenagers have difficulty differentiating between their perceptions of others’ thoughts about them and what people actually think. They may think that society is paying the same degree of attention to their actions as they are to themselves.

Implications for your job:

Harness the heightened self-awareness and introspection for personal essays. The intense focus on personal experience alongside a natural need to explore identities can be great fodder for college-application essays (especially Common App ones).

And if you create a supportive, listening environment offering affirmation and valuable feedback, adolescents will be able to open up and dive deep within themselves to create an authentic application.

6. Adolescents are affected by the environment – and affect it

Psychological research:

Contemporary research in developmental psychology (developmental systems theory) proposes that the developing individual is being influenced by their complex and changing context – and is also influencing it.

The personality, generation and cultural factors cited earlier are indeed very important in development.

Implications for your job:

You may have students pulling off amazing feats and indeed shaping the environment they are in. But the supportive environment you create in your office whenever a student walks in to chat about their future will also shape them, in a positive way.

Being a teenager – a rapidly developing human – is a complex experience. It is a privilege to work with such a population so closely – so we should be aware of their unique traits and learn to not dismiss them but to respect them accordingly.