We all know adulting is tough. From living on our own to paying our bills, cooking food, managing groceries, doing laundry and dishes and then giving our best at the workplace, everything takes a toll on us. This is when we realise how fun being a teenager was.
Well, if you are in your early 20’s, wishing to delay being an adult, seems like a group of researchers are here to help you.
A group of researchers with the Royal Children’s Hospital in Australia have suggested extending the span of adolescent years.
The researchers feel that ‘it might be time to change the span of years that define adolescence.’ Currently, a person in the age bracket of 10 to 19 is called an adolescent. But they propose to push the age of adolescence to 24. Which means, according to them, anyone below the age of 24 can be called a teenager.
The group offers arguments for their suggestion in their paper published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. In the paper, the researchers suggest that due to both physical and societal changes, it might be time to consider pushing the end of adolescence forward a few years.
According to the paper, adolescence encompasses elements of biological growth and major social role transitions, both of which have changed in the past century.
It further explains that due to the delay in role transitions, including completion of education, marriage, and parenthood which mark the shift to adulthood, the age bracket should also be moved further.
Prof Susan Sawyer, lead author and director of the centre for adolescent health at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, writes:
“Although many adult legal privileges start at age 18 years, the adoption of adult roles and responsibilities generally occurs later.”
While this research does point out certain facts that seem to be a reality in today’s day and age, we wonder if there is an age bracket that determines how mature a person is. But for now, I can gladly concur that 24-year-olds being classified as teenagers sure is the millennial dream! What say?