Summit Middle School made national headlines last week for an incident of students “smoking” the candy Smarties – a strange, non-flammable exercise that could be a sign these kids are bridging themselves toward adulthood.
“They’re trying new behaviors out so they’ll be ready for adulthood when it comes,” said Tina Pittman-Wagers, a psychology instructor University of Colorado at Boulder.
She said recent research shows that between ages 13 and 25, the human brain is constantly growing, but impulse control and “telling oneself ‘no'” are functions that are often “pruned back” until later.
Puffing ground-up Smarties can lead to infection or maggots in the nose.
But adolescents are known to engage in far riskier activities, such as inhaling toxic household chemicals or drinking a bottle of cough syrup.
Pittman-Wagers has two kids, 14 and 11. She said she recommends that parents with kids who want to try risky activities take them to “go have some adventures.”
“Let them try new things in ways that are going to be adaptive and fun and healthy and not self-destructive,” she said, suggesting mountain biking and other outdoor activities.
Some parents tend to “squash and keep kids doing things they were doing when they were 11- and 14-year-olds,” she said.
She said it’s important to let them grow but toward healthy lifestyles.
“It requires that we kind of ramp-up efforts with our adolescents and help them do some things that are thrilling and adventurous and new while still maintaining some healthy parameters for them,” Pittman-Wagers said.
She showed her 11-year-old a video of a kid smoking Smarties on and the kid “thought it was stupid.”
Another possible reason for kids wanting to smoke Smarties is if their parents tell them not to do so.
“Maybe also grown-ups have swatted their arms and said, ‘You can’t do that,'” she said. “When (it’s) subversive or oppositional there’s a whole new energy to it.”
Peer pressure may impact the spread of the odd fad as well.
“We look to the ‘high-status’ people for behaviors that we then often imitate even if the behaviors are stupid and don’t make any sense,” Pittman-Wagers said. “We want to be identified.”
She said impulsive behavior is normal for the age group, which recently was extended from 18 to 25.
“We used to think adolescence ended at 18, but people who devote their professional careers looking at” neuro-development see it otherwise, she said.
