Your Teen’s Brain Is Wired for Risky Behavior

Teenage brains are actually wired to engage in risky behaviors.

Researchers looked at more than 5,000 teens and young adults from 11 countries to reach their conclusions. They found that the desire to seek thrills usually peaks around 19 years old, and then declines with age. Young adults’ ability to self-regulate or deny their impulses climbs until the age of 23 or 24 when it fully develops.

The study also showed that risky behaviors such as unsafe sex, alcohol and drug use, and dangerous driving, varies greatly depending on the country they live in.

For example – in Indonesia, only 2 percent of teenagers reported having tried alcohol in the last month compared to about half of the teens in Argentina.