For the John Templeton Foundation, I wrote about reshaping perceptions of adolescence.
There are many problems that today’s teenagers can face — school troubles, bullying, peer pressure, depression, body issues, and navigating sex, just to name a few — but being a teenager is not itself a problem. As a physician and expert in adolescent social development, Ken Ginsburg of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is well-versed in the myriad challenges adolescents and their parents face. But he doesn’t like the notion — prevalent in modern media — that adolescence itself is part of the problem. “It’s an idea rooted in all sorts of myths and understandings about adolescence,” he says, “Today the dominant conversation about adolescence is that it’s a time to be gotten past.” In Ginsburg’s experience, these negative views of adolescence can have real, negative consequences. “If you believe that adolescents think they’re invincible, then all you’re going to do is protect them from themselves — you’re not going to develop them. If you believe that adolescents don’t care what adults think, you’re not going to jump in and give them your guidance,” he says.
Over the past three years, Ginsburg and his colleagues have developed and launched the Center for Parent and Teen Communication (CPTC), a resource for parents and teens designed to advocate for a more positive approach to the teenage years — one rooted in love, acceptance, and the idea that adolescence is more than just avoiding the negatives. The center’s award-winning website, parentandteen.com, offers a large and growing set of videos, articles, and explainers designed to help spur effective parent-teen communication — not just when problems arise, but as a baseline for a more positive way of experiencing adolescence.