25歲新的成年分界點？你還青春着！

New guidance for psychologists will acknowledge that adolescence now effectively runs up until the age of 25 for the purposes of treating young people. So is this the new cut-off point for adulthood?
心理學家新指南中指出，在治療年輕人時，青春期的劃分截止到25歲結束。這是否意味着25歲是成年的新分界點呢？

"The idea that suddenly at 18 you're an adult just doesn't quite ring true," says child psychologist Laverne Antrobus, who works at London's Tavistock Clinic.“
“認爲滿18歲就進入成年其實是不恰當的。”倫敦塔維斯托克診所的兒童心理學家拉弗-安特羅伯斯表示。

"My experience of young people is that they still need quite a considerable amount of support and help beyond that age."
“從我和年輕人接觸的經歷來看，18歲以上的年輕人仍然需要很多支持與幫助。”

"We are becoming much more aware and appreciating development beyond [the age of 18] and I think it's a really good initiative," says Antrobus, who believes we often rush through childhood, wanting our youngsters to achieve key milestones very quickly.
“我們也越來越關注18歲以上年輕人的成長，我覺得這是一個很棒的創舉。”安特羅伯斯說。在她看來，人們太急於擺脫童年，巴不得在青年時期就成就大業。

The new guidance is to help ensure that when young people reach the age of 18 they do not fall through the gaps in the health and education system. The change follows developments in our understanding of emotional maturity, hormonal development and particularly brain activity.
新指南旨在幫助年滿18歲的年輕人跨過健康與教育這道坎。此次變更重在強調對情感成熟、荷爾蒙發展、尤其是大腦活動的理解。

"Neuroscience has made these massive advances where we now don't think that things just stop at a certain age, that actually there's evidence of brain development well into early twenties and that actually the time at which things stop is much later than we first thought," says Antrobus.“
“神經科學已經取得重大進步。現在看來，有些問題並不是到了某個年齡就會自動停止的；事實表明，在二十出頭的年紀，大腦還處於成長狀態，定型時期遠比人們原先認爲的晚。”安特羅伯斯說。

There are three stages of adolescence - early adolescence from 12-14 years, middle adolescence from 15-17 years and late adolescence from 18 years and over.
青春期有三個階段：12-14歲爲早期，15-17歲爲中期，18歲以上爲後期。

Neuroscience has shown that a young person's cognitive development continues into this later stage and that their emotional maturity, self-image and judgement will be affected until the prefrontal cortex of the brain has fully developed.
神經科學表明，年輕人的認知發展會一直持續到後期階段，而在大腦前額皮層完全發育前，他們的情感成熟、自我形象和判斷都會受到影響。

Alongside brain development, hormonal activity is also continuing well into the early twenties says Antrobus.
安特羅伯斯還說，除了大腦發展，荷爾蒙代謝也會一直持續到二十出頭的年紀。

"A number of children and young people I encounter between the age of 16 and 18, the flurry of hormonal activity in them is so great that to imagine that's going to settle down by the time they get to 18 really is a misconception," says Antrobus.“
“許多我見過的16-18歲年輕人的荷爾蒙代謝都異常活躍，如果認爲他們滿18歲就會自動安穩消停，那可大錯特錯 了。”安特羅伯斯說。

She says that some adolescents may want to stay longer with their families because they need more support during these formative years and that it is important for parents to realise that all young people do not develop at the same pace.
她還說，有些青少年希望能多跟家人呆在一起，那是因爲在成長定型階段，他們需要更多支持；所以父母應該明白，青春期成長是因 人而異的。But is there any danger we could be breeding a nation of young people reluctant to leave adolescence behind? TV sitcoms are littered with such comic stereotypes of juvenile adults
但是，如果下一代都遲遲不願離開青春期，那會有什麼樣的弊端呢？情景喜劇中到處都能看到這種詼諧的長不大的人。

Then there are those characters who want to break away from their overbearing or protective parents or guardians and reach adulthood, but struggle to cut the family ties.
當然，也有年輕人渴望擺脫過於約束或寵溺的父母或監護人，希望儘快跨入成年，可也只能選擇脫離家庭關係。

Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Kent, says we have infantilized young people and this has led to a growing number of young men and women in their late 20s still living at home.
弗蘭克-福瑞迪是肯特大學的社會學教授，他說：人們總是把年輕人當孩子看待，結果造成很多年輕人到了20大幾歲還住在父母家裏。

"Often it's claimed it's for economic reasons, but actually it's not really for that," says Furedi. "There is a loss of the aspiration for independence and striking out on your own. When I went to university it would have been a social death to have been seen with your parents, whereas now it's the norm.
“通常藉口總是經濟原因，但其實並非如此，” 福瑞迪說，“對獨立自主、自立生活的渴望大大削弱。我上大學那會兒，要是還跟父母住一起會被人恥笑，但現在這種情況已經屢見不鮮了。”

"So you have this kind of cultural shift which basically means that adolescence extends into your late twenties and that can hamper you in all kinds of ways, and I think what psychology does is it inadvertently reinforces that kind of passivity and powerlessness and immaturity and normalises that."
“所以纔會出現這種文化轉變——青春期甚至延長到了二十大幾歲，而這有可能妨礙個人成長。我認爲心理學無形中強化了這種被動、無助和不成熟，並且使這種現象普遍化。”

Furedi says that this infantilised culture has intensified a sense of "passive dependence" which can lead to difficulties in conducting mature adult relationships. There's evidence of this culture even in our viewing preferences.
福瑞迪還說，這種“孩子化”的文化加劇了“被動依賴”風氣，給進入成熟成年期造成了困難。從人們的影視喜好上就能看出這種文化的盛行。

He does not agree that the modern world is far more difficult for young people to navigate.
福瑞迪並不認爲現代社會已經艱難到讓年輕人無法自立生存。

"I think that what it is, is not that the world has become crueller, it's just that we hold our children back from a very early age. When they're 11, 12, 13 we don't let them out on their own. When they're 14, 15, we hover all over them and insulate them from real-life experience. We treat university students the way we used to treat school pupils, so I think it's that type of cumulative effect of infantilisation which is responsible for this."
“我覺得問題並不是世界變得越來越殘酷，而是我們從小就把孩子呵護得太緊。小孩到了11、12歲時還不敢放開讓他們獨自外出；到了14、15歲時，我們更是嚴加防範，把他們與現實生活隔離開來。我們現在對待大學生的方式就像以前對待小學生一樣。所以在我看來，這就是‘孩子化’風氣的癥結所在。”