Concerning the Development of an Adolescent

Regarding the first portion of the article- I believe that although it provides scientific evidence, it does not fulfill an argument that may be extracted from it. The author states that this explains "why teenagers can be especially impulsive, moody and not very good at responsible decision-making". However, I have one mere question. Why is it that not every child is impulsive or horrible at decision-making? I feel as though there should be more to this article, stating that not every child develops the same or at the same rate and the reasoning behind it- whether it is genetic or coming from their environment, such as parents or siblings.

As like Jennifer Jenkins who wrote "On Punishment and Teen Killers", I also question why, for example, crime rates committed by juveniles are not equal around the world. She states "If brain development were the reason, then teens would kill at roughly the same rate all over the world. They do not". I believe that this article should address this issue as to why it is disparate all over the world.

Moreover, one could also argue that a child's parent or parents have an enormous influence on the child that would affect their development. I believe that parenting is vital and plays a key role in the development of children. For an example- if a child's parent makes rash decisions, such as drinking alcohol or doing drugs, the child presumably has a higher risk of doing these things as well, seeing as though they saw it throughout their childhood and they were not aware of the consequences at hand. That is not to say that peers also have an influence as well.

My question in regards to this article is why do children develop differently and/or at different rates? Why are some children extremely mature at a young age, and why are others still immature at the same age? What causes this? In addition to that, I am curious if anybody else thought of this question while reading or listening to the article, as it is what I immediately first thought of.