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    The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults
    The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults
    The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults

    Written by Frances E. Jensen and Amy Ellis Nutt

    Narrated by Frances E. Jensen and Tavia Gilbert

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A New York Times Bestseller

    Renowned neurologist Dr. Frances E. Jensen offers a revolutionary look at the brains of teenagers, dispelling myths and offering practical advice for teens, parents and teachers.

    Dr. Frances E. Jensen is chair of the department of neurology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. As a mother, teacher, researcher, clinician, and frequent lecturer to parents and teens, she is in a unique position to explain to readers the workings of the teen brain. In The Teenage Brain, Dr. Jensen brings to readers the astonishing findings that previously remained buried in academic journals.

    The root myth scientists believed for years was that the adolescent brain was essentially an adult one, only with fewer miles on it. Over the last decade, however, the scientific community has learned that the teen years encompass vitally important stages of brain development.  Samples of some of the most recent findings include:

    • Teens are better learners than adults because their brain cells more readily ""build"" memories. But this heightened adaptability can be hijacked by addiction, and the adolescent brain can become addicted more strongly and for a longer duration than the adult brain.
    • Studies show that girls' brains are a full two years more mature than boys' brains in the mid-teens, possibly explaining differences seen in the classroom and in social behavior.
    • Adolescents may not be as resilient to the effects of drugs as we thought. Recent experimental and human studies show that the occasional use of marijuana, for instance, can cause lingering memory problems even days after smoking, and that long-term use of pot impacts later adulthood IQ.
    • Multi-tasking causes divided attention and has been shown to reduce learning ability in the teenage brain. Multi-tasking also has some addictive qualities, which may result in habitual short attention in teenagers.
    • Emotionally stressful situations may impact the adolescent more than it would affect the adult: stress can have permanent effects on mental health and can to lead to higher risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression.

    Dr. Jensen gathers what we’ve discovered about adolescent brain function, wiring, and capacity and explains the science in the contexts of everyday learning and multitasking, stress and memory, sleep, addiction, and decision-making.  In this groundbreaking yet accessible book, these findings also yield practical suggestions that will help adults and teenagers negotiate the mysterious world of adolescent development.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 3, 2015
    ISBN9780062414861
    Author

    Frances E. Jensen

    Frances E. Jensen, MD, is a professor of neurology and the chair of the neurology department at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. She was formerly a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, the director of translational neuroscience and the director of epilepsy research at Boston Children's Hospital, and a senior neurologist at Boston Children's Hospital and the Brigham and Women's Hospital. She is also an advocate for awareness of brain research and has delivered many public lectures and media contributions, including a TEDMED talk; many of these are related to adolescent brain development, its unique strengths and vulnerabilities, and their effects on medical, social, and educational issues unique to teenagers and young adults.

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    Reviews for The Teenage Brain

    4.5/5

    49 ratings8 reviews

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    • 5/5
      If you educate, coach, manage, or live with a teenager or young adult, you need to read this book. The reason for much of young people’s behavior that has mystified you will become understandable. Teens and young adults should read this book to better understand and manage themselves. Frances Jensen is a neuroscientist who provides clear and science-backed explanations of teen behavior. She explains how much of that behavior is a result of the brain’s development process during the teenage years. Jensen covers a long list of important topics as they relate to teen development—learning, sleep, risk-taking, smoking, alcohol, drugs, stress, mental illness, use of digital devices, gender differences, sports, crime, and more. Throughout the book, Jensen provides recommendations for interacting with teens more effectively and ways to help them to develop into functional adults. The writing is clear and many examples are provided to illustrate points made. A valuable contribution to the literature on adolescent development written for the lay reader.

      3 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This should be required reading for anyone who parents or teaches a teenager – and for teenagers themselves to better understand the “science” behind their decision making processes. I like that author is both a neuroscientist who understands brain development, and a parent who has experienced the sometimes perplexing behaviours of teenagers.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I wish I could have liked it a bit more, and the beginning was good, but some chapters just didn't apply to me and my children, such as drug usage, concussion, etc. There are parts of the books that I wanted to skip forward, but I wasn't sure if I may miss something important among the long stories to make her point. Not bad, but could have been better.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Outdated. No parent will read to learn medical terms. We all want to understand but also to get proper advice. But the fact that in 2022 it does not cover the real issues we parents have plus considering the new values of gender equality, this book turned to be a complete waist of time. Sorry author. You might want to work on updated version.
    • 5/5
      Very informative and well narrated. I wish I’d listened to it before my daughter entered her challenging teenage years but still helpful at this stage.
    • 3/5
      neuroscience (teen brains). I think I wanted more of a direct: This is what you should know, this is how you should approach this. I think that info is probably in here somewhere, but the writing style is more of a conversational, this is why I decided I would write this book, etc. and this is the basic crash course in neuroscience, etc. and I didn't have patience to get to the rest.
    • 1/5
      Great information re how our brain develops through the teens and adolescent period. However, the author focuses too much on scarcity (how kids died if all sorts of overdose and how their brains damaged for life etc...) rather than giving the advises we parents are looking out for. On top of that, she finishes the book by saying, there will need to be more research to be done on the advise given.

      I was hopeful as the first part was so informative and well documented but when it comes to what we are excited which is on how to navigate with teens, it is really disappointing.

      If youre parents and trying to find some answers onto how to understand your teens better or how to live with them with less stress, this isnt the book for you.
    • 5/5
      Great book about the development of the teenage brain, why teenagers behave the way they do because of their brain and how not to discourage them to live but provide encouraging paths to positive experiences.

      My son is 15 and although he has surpassed the earliest of teen years, there is definitely more to come and this booked helped me to understand his potential way of thinking in the future in turn helping me to respond appropriately to him. This way I can be more of a help than an added burden to his already heavy load of thinking.