Study: Sex Makes Teens Feel Older

The life of a teenager is all about youth, discovery, and living the moment up. According to Live Science, a slew of factors influence the perspective that teens perceive themselves as older than their peers. These variables range from dating older people, to having sex, using drugs, and drinking alcohol.

According to recent studies, teens feel closer to adulthood the more they engage in activities that are more common among grown-ups. The trend of perceiving oneself has the shape of a bell. Teens perceive themselves as slightly older than they actually are, but then once they reach their mid-20s, they feel as if they are younger than they really are.

To test this trend, Kelly Arbeau, a psychology doctoral student at the University of Alberta in Canada, and her colleagues at the University of Victoria surveyed 664 teens ages 12 to 19 on this subject matter. Arbeau and her colleagues asked several questions relevant to the perception of adulthood, such as dating, sexual experiences, smoking, drinking, and drug use.

Their findings, published in the June issue of the Journal of Adolescence, found that teens did indeed feel older than their actual age when they participated in "adult activities." The differentiation between girls and boys were found among the studies, with girls feeling older than the boys. A possibility behind this outcome is because naturally, girls reach puberty sooner than boys. Surprisingly, teens with the biggest variation between their reported age, and their biological age, had a higher chance of dating someone older than themselves, and to have had engaged in sexual activity before.

According to Arbeau, "Sexual experience is undoubtedly the edge of adult behavior. When teens are having sex, it gives them a sense of maturity and experience, unlike their other peers that aren't engaging in sexual activity."

Along with the teen sexual finding, Arbeau and her team of researchers discovered from their findings that teens that drank and used drugs also felt older in a sense. The only anomaly to the data was that smoking did not have an effect on how old girls perceived themselves to be. This may perhaps stem from the societal acceptance that girls perceive smoking as an undesirable trait.

Though this study has shed light on the subject, Arbeau and her colleagues state that the relationship between adult activities and teens' perceived age is still not fully understood.

Melinda Wenner. "Sex Makes Teens Feel Older." Live Science. http://www.livescience.com/health/070620_teens_older.html