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Pediatrician Offers Advice on the Thrilling Ride That is Adolescence

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Pediatrician Ron Dahl talked about the inner and physical life of teenagers at several talks at Duke's Center for Child and Family Policy. Photo by Kara Bonneau.

While much attention has been paid to the problems and vulnerabilities of adolescence, it is also a time of tremendous physical, intellectual and emotional growth, when motivations develop that can help shape the course of a life, pediatrician Ronald E. Dahl said during talks on campus Tuesday and Wednesday

"Adolescence is a time of igniting passions," Dahl said. "It's a time when kids fall in love for the first time. It's also a time when kids become passionate about goals, ideas, and ideals."

Researchers should collaborate across disciplines to unpack the subtleties of adolescent behavior, Dahl said. Careful research can overturn common beliefs about teenagers. For instance, he said, adolescents don't lack fear, as commonly believed. Instead, unlike adults, they experience fear as thrilling.

"It's not that they're fearless. If the roller coaster wasn't scary they wouldn't get on it, and if the horror movie wasn't scary they wouldn't go see it."

Dahl also had a message for those dealing with the stress of finals by pulling all-nighters:  Pull up the covers and turn out the lights.

"We have high school kids who are suffering chronic sleep deprivation, and who deal with that on the weekend by sleeping in. Then they've got jet lag trying to get up for school on Monday. Yet there's growing evidence that sleep plays a key role in learning, memory and brain development. You need sleep for recalibration and neural growth."

Dahl teaches in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. His visit was part of the Sulzberger Distinguished Lecture series, presented by the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy.