Not Responsible Because of an Underdeveloped Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex

Parents of teenagers describe a jekyl-hyde pattern in their child’s behavior. One minute they can be very responsible and the next they are wrecking the family’s car, or setting a buddy on fire at the fire station.

Allstate Insurance initiated a teen driving program that identifies social pressure and brain development as the two primary factors in the auto crash rate. http://www.allstate.com/citizenship/foundation/teen-driving/chronic-report.aspx

Allstate notes that:

16 year olds have crash rates three times higher than 17 year olds and five times higher than 18 year olds. Car crashes injure about 300,000 teens a year and kill nearly 6000.

When bright, mature teenagers do something stupid, it may not be their fault. The dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex part of the adolescent brain is underdeveloped. This part of the brain plays a critical role in decision making, problem solving and understanding future consequences of today’s actions.

Read more about it here: http://www.allstate.com/content/refresh-attachments/chronic_pages_15_28.pdf

FossilMedic sees the same behavior when dealing with on-campus freshmen. Some of them must be missing their dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex. Social pressure and underdeveloped dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex are contributing factors to the hazing incident that burned an out-of-town teenager living at the Riverdale VFD. Dave Statter has been covering this incident and provides the details in an October 22 update: http://www.wusa9.com/news/columnist/blogs/2007/10/new-details-on-riverdale-burning.html

It is not unusual for active members in a suburban volunteer fire company to be comprised mostly of high schoolers and 20-somethings. FossilMedic realized this when he was teaching EMT to high school juniors and seniors as part of a vocational training program in a rural Virginia county. The summer daytime response from both the rescue squad and fire department looks like a boy band in a reality TV show.

Temple University Psychology Professor Laurence Steinberg writes in the Allstate report that “By the age of 15 or 16, for example, most teenagers’ logical reasoning skills are the same as adult’s. Their emotional and social development a this age, however, is still relatively immature.” This explains the relatively tight high school behavioral rules and regulations.

Colleges and universities struggle with this issue when it comes to freshman and sophomore behavior, at one time the University of Maryland suggested moving freshman and sophomore students to regional schools or community colleges, restricting on-campus housing at the College Park campus to juniors, seniors and graduate students. Like the Allstate car crash research, there is a significant decline in damages and “stupid college tricks” once the students get into their 20’s.

Colleges and universities act “in loco parentis.” This refers to the legal responsibility of a person or organization to take on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent. Originally derived from British common law, it is applied as a broad provision allowing such institutions to act in the best interests of the students as they see fit, allowing what would otherwise be considered violations of the students’ civil liberties.

Fire departments need to assume some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent if that are allowing teenagers participate in departmental activities, including emergency response. Even for the younger members old enough to drink alcohol, there still is a need to provide structure or boundaries for the underdeveloped dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex.

In a later column we will look at the issue of the 30 and 40 something firefighters who continue to make poor decisions and do not understand the future consequences of today’s actions. Their ex-spouses say it is the firefighter shift-work lifestyle. Maybe it is the diesel exhaust in the station.

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