Adolescents have long been stereotyped in literature and science as being impulsive and emotional. One aspect of their unique communication style has attracted attention in popular culture: ‘teensplaining’. Similar to mansplaining, when a man condescendingly explains things to a woman regardless of her expertise, it involves youths assuming they know more than adults do (often, parents and teachers) and teensplaining things in a disrespectful tone.
This rather dismissive, although sometimes humorous, term resonates with the usual scientific view of adolescents, which focuses on shortcomings.
By contrast, supported by the growing science of adolescent development, we argue that teensplaining reflects potential adaptive roles as teenagers mature.
However, a search for ‘teensplaining’ in scientific articles using the Web of Science platform produced no hits, whereas searching for ‘mansplaining’ produced hundreds. We wish to encourage multidisciplinary teams (including linguists, psychologists, psychiatrists, paediatricians, educationalists, neuroscientists and communication scientists) to study teensplaining and what it can teach us about the learning, thoughts, emotions, motivations, identity and language development of adolescents as they transition into adulthood.
Authors
- Ivy Defoe
- Dan Romer
