Teenagers and Foreign Travel

Many people believe that allowing teens to travel to a foreign country provides them with a wonderful opportunity and with experiences they could otherwise never have, and there is no doubt that's true. Still, there are considerations that are often overlooked and shouldn't be.

When it comes to parents who favor allowing their teen to travel to foreign countries it appears there could be two general catagories - parents who see that their son or daughter is a mature, sensible, serious, teen who can be trusted; and parents who see their teen son or daughter as pretty much grown-up. There can be overlap between parents from the two categories when it comes to a sincere wish not to hold back their son or daughter from valuable life experience, independence, and maturing.

Whether one views his or her child as a trustworthy teen or a grown-up, though, there is a reality that makes teens more vulnerable to getting into situations that could have serious and unfortunate consequences: The teenager brain is not fully mature. The prefrontal cortex is not fully mature until the early- to mid- twenties, and the mental processes affected by this lack of maturity include judgment, ability to correctly interpret the words and actions of others, and mood. The teen who crosses an ocean and enters a foreign country is very likely more prone to getting himself or herself into some difficulty related to this particular type of immaturity, and the teen who finds himself in difficulty in a foreign country usually doesn't have the benefit of parents who can show up in person to try to straighten out any "misunderstandings". Life is made up of "snap-shot" moments, in which judgment can make a big difference in consequences. The teen, with his or her immature brain, is more likely to make a quick and incorrect judgment when faced with a snap-shot moment or situation.

To further raise the potentially serious situation in which a teen may find himself is the very real and youthful thinking that "it can't happen to me". Teens are at a higher risk for trouble and difficulties whether they're in their own town or across an ocean, but the potential may be higher when a teen is in a foreign country and does not have a good understanding of laws, the culture, the more dangerous parts of a city, the language, or any number of the other things that could increase the possibility of misunderstandings and difficulties. When a teen gets in trouble in a foreign country it isn't easy for parents to get their family attorney to run down and handle the matter. Further, when a teen has been victimized (or worse, may become missing) investigations may not be to the parents' satisfaction, but even when the best efforts are put forth by authorities in the other country there can be additional complications.

Aside from whether a teen is known to be "the most conscientious and trustful young person there could be", there is also the risk that the young person could be seen as a target by people out to take advantage of young, naive, foreignors. While there is the chance they could be targeted for a crime as "minor" as wallet-snatching there is also the very sobering reality that young, attractive, naive-seeming, Americans in a foreign country could be target for crimes that are far more serious. While there may be some degree of safety in numbers when teens travel with a group there is also the reality that chaperones often overestimate the maturity of young people and may allow some freedoms that could result in the group's breaking up and a few kids' getting themselves into a situation where something that "seemed like a good idea at the time" under group thinking results in serious problems for individual kids. By virtue of their lack of experience in living teens lack a certain type of wisdom when it comes to the world and to human nature. Trusting when they shouldn't and not trusting when they should and beliving it can't happen to them can make for a bad outcome in any number of circumstances.

There is risk every time someone decides to do anything in life, and when a person who has the benefit of a fully matured brain decides to take whatever risks may be involved to do something that's one thing. Teenagers, however, don't have the benefit of a fully matured brain and are always - to one degree or another - at a higher risk of getting into trouble or problems. When a person of any age takes a risk and finds himself in trouble of either minor or tragic proportions there is always knowing the issue of whether that person made the decision to take a risk that was based on informed and mature thinking. Regardless of how grown-up they look and act and seem, teens are not capable of making a sufficiently informed and mature decision when it comes to taking risks.

Any time a teacher or group leader raises the possibility of the opportunity to trave overseas most teens will find that idea exciting and something they'd like to do. They see all the fun and interesting parts of such a trip without seeing the potential risks, and that's where their parents' mature judment comes in. Teachers and group leaders are for thinking up things that may provide "an educational experience", and parents are for weighing whether such an experience is, in fact, an experience worth taking certain risks for and one which could not possibly be of equal quality or even better quality when the teen is older, may have more money, and will likely have more sense and wisdom.

One thing that teens have that older folks don't is that they have their whole lives ahead of them. Requiring them to wait another few years before seeking experiences overseas could be what makes the difference between a wonderful and less-than-wonderful experience. Few teens get to have all the educational and social experiences available to them in their own country. There may be some sense in aiming to provide more of those experiences to our teens while leaving the foreign travel to wiser, more educated, more mature, young adults who will enter a foreign country with more wisdom, social skills, and good sense than they ever could have as teenagers.