Parents today think that their children are growing up faster than before. With the advent of mobile usage and the internet, children have already got access to these. General views though believe that our children are growing up too fast, many studies are now showing a different viewpoint. While children are savvier than their parents, they are not growing at the rate at which their parents grew. 

Fashion, trends, looks, and social media are dictating how teenagers should look and behave. This brings to mind the idea of physical changes and puberty years being impacted by this technology onslaught. 

Yet though many worry that kids may seem to be growing up too quickly, there’s also evidence that they could be maturing more slowly. Gen Z is consistently reaching traditional markers of adulthood such as finishing education and leaving home later than previous generations, and studies have shown that teenagers are engaging in ‘adult’ activities such as having sex, dating, drinking alcohol, going out without their parents and driving much later than previous generations. 

(Source: BBC Kids)

The perspective we need to have here is that age norms vary from one country to another and from one society to another. While in Japan the age of 20 is said to be an adult, as against the prevailing numbers elsewhere to be 18 years. In Iran, a child of 8 or 9 years old is also considered an adult. 

“There’s been quite a bit of discussion especially in recent years, about children’s lives becoming more institutionalised and controlled,” says William Corsaro, a professor emeritus of sociology at Indiana University. He points to hovering parents and children’s involvement in extracurricular activities and lessons outside school, and to “overstated” fears about children’s safety and lower birth rates (meaning fewer at-home playmates) as factors that make children mature more slowly.

This theory is echoed by Jean Twenge in her 2017 book iGen. Based on a survey of 11 million US-based young people, Twenge argued that kids born after 1995 are, contrary to much popular wisdom, growing up more slowly, engaging in milestones traditionally considered “adult” far later than their older counterparts.

This is, in part, because smartphones allow children to socialise from their own home, making them less likely to engage in activities such as drinking with peers or sex, but she also points to an evolutionary idea known as ‘life history theory’, which classifies maturation of species into “slow” and “fast” strategies – the safer the environment, the more slowly they have to mature. 

Today, in an age of low birth-rates and high life-expectancies, children tend to be closer to their parents and grow up in a safer environment, and thus can mature more slowly. This means that they aren’t pushed towards independence in the same way that children growing up in a fast maturation environment – what previous generations experienced – might be.

(Source: BBC.Com)

So when all these researches are put together, we come to realise that these are not just one factor that determines the maturation age. Each factor when put with others gets us closer to understanding the children and their growth stages.