Skip to content Font Size  Teenagers: Why Do They Rebel?  WebMD
Feature  By Jeanie Lerche Davis   Recommended Related to
Children  Tyrosine Hydroxylase Deficiency   Read the Tyrosine
Hydroxylase Deficiency article > >  All teens go through similar
phases -- the need for independence, a separate identity,
testing authority. It's part of growing up; it's also linked to
developmental changes in the brain that will eventually help
them become analytical adults.  But today's teens get an extra
whammy -- social pressures come earlier than in previous
generations.  To understand this complex picture, WebMD turned
to two of the nation's experts.  David Elkind, PhD, is the
author of All Grown Up and No Place to Go, and is a professor of
child development at Tufts University School of Medicine in
Boston. Amy Bobrow, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and
professor in the Child Study Center at New York University
School of Medicine in Manhattan.  Brain: Under Construction
During the teenage years, the area of the brain ca