Kennedy: Teens Form Identity by Overshooting Separation and Rejecting Rules
Dr. Becky Kennedy · Dr. Becky Kennedy: The One Thing You Can Say That Changes Everything · Feb 6, 2024 · at 20:04
Clinical psychologist Dr. Becky Kennedy explains adolescent development to host Shane Parrish, describing why teenagers reflexively reject parental boundaries.
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“The way you start to form your identity when you're a teen is actually through a lot of separation from your parents. That's actually, though, your job. Your job is actually to start to separate from them, and a lot of teens, most teens, they overshoot, just like we did, but you have to kind of overshoot distance to be like, I am nothing like my parent, and if my parent tells me your rule, the quickest way to figure out my own person is to just, like, reject it, even if it makes sense for me.”
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