Jasmine Savage

English 1202

Work Cited

28 October 2019

Differences in Teenagers Around the World

Teenagers all over the world have traits and characteristics that set them apart from each

other. They do things differently from each other and it creates diversity at its finest. When one

teenager meets another, that are from separate parts of the world, they can change and become

more similar to their new acquaintance. It’s amazing that the world can hold so many people that

act, look, and feel differently from each other, and that these differences create a range of new

ways of living all over the world. Knowing how people in other countries operate and live can

improve your knowledge and maturity about the world and its diverse cultures. Teenagers around

the world act and look differently, and the laws that restrict one country are not the same for the

other, causing diverse and different cultures and ways of living.

There are many significant different styles of dress for female teenagers around the world

and between Europe and the United States, there are a few that stand out. In the United States, it

is becoming more and more common to see female teens in workout pants, sweatpants, long ill-

fitted shirts, and tennis shoes. It’s not unusual to for one to wear leggings, a sweatshirt, hat, and

tennis shoes out to the mall or a movie. Most female teens only dress nicely if they are out on a

date or a dinner. It’s classic for a fall and wintertime outfit to be leggings or skinny jeans, a cute

long sleeve or sweater, a scarf, boots, and a full face of makeup when one dresses up nice in the

United States. In Europe, there’s a couple things that are different.

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According to “The Savvy Backpacker”, females in Europe dress in clothes that fit well,

and if something doesn’t fit, they’ll get it tailored. Most teenage females in the United States do

not get their clothing tailored, even if they don’t fit. European females keep their wardrobe

simple and classy, and will wear contrasting pieces together, while adding a bright accessory.

Jeans are a popular choice of bottoms, as are above the knee skirts with tights, mostly dark or

grey jeans, with a very small amount of distress, which is unlike those in the United States who

wear very distressed jeans and not many skirts. European teenagers keep their hair looking

effortlessly natural, but still classy, avoiding dying their hair the multitude of colors that females

in the United States do. Females in Europe live in high heels and wedges, with a few pair of

boots, strappy sandals, and casual sneakers, most females in the U.S. don’t wear heels often, but

rather tennis shoes or sandals, with the occasional pair of boots. Trench coats, cute bags,

designer shades, and natural makeup are popular as well in Europe. Female teenagers in the U.S.

usually wear no makeup or a full face, going for a natural look is rare, but they do like their

designer shades and cute bags. It’s unusual to see European women walking around in sweats or

running shoes, they’re always dressed elegantly and classy, unlike those in the U.S. who do wear

sweats and running shoes daily.

Males usually wear shirts made from cotton and linen, as well as synthetic-blend shirts

that are wrinkle-resistant and can dry overnight. They wear nice button-down shirts and layer

their clothing with lightweight fleece or sweater. Males in the United States tend to wear normal

t-shirts or workout shirts and sweatshirts. Occasionally, they will dress up in a nice polo. Dark

denim and other dark colors are best for jeans and dress pants and males in Europe usually don’t

wear shorts very often. A nice pair of sturdy, comfortable shoes are pairs with their outfits.
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Teenagers in other countries also have different fashion tastes. Females in Islamic

countries wear burqas, chadors, boshiyas, and niqabs. Females in India wear saris worn with

choli tops in the north and east; a long skirt called a lehenga or pavada worn with choli and a

dupatta scarf, or salwar kameez suits. Males wear traditional clothing, such as the

achkan/sherwani and bandhgala, and now pants and shirts have been accepted as popular wear.

In Africa, males wear the kanzu, the traditional dress worn by Swahili speaking men, and

females wear the kanga and gomesi. In Southern Africa, distinctive shirts are worn, like the long

dresses they wear. Teenagers all over the world have different ways to dress, depending on

where they live and what their culture is.

There are many cultural differences between teenagers as well. Meeting places, work,

free time, and sports all have different components to them depending on where you are. In

Africa, teenagers usually don’t have a job, not for the lack of wanting one, but because there are

none. Forty-three percent of South Africa is unemployed (Lomas). Work is different for Italian

teenagers than it is for American teenagers. Italian teens don’t work odd jobs throughout high

school and college like American teens, at fast food chains or grocery stores. Their cultural

attitude leans more towards “work when you’re an adult and have fun when you’re young”.

Meeting places for Italian teens are usually on the streets of their cities or towns, which is not

common in the United States. They meet like this due to the configuration of their towns, where

central piazzas and areas were built around historical sites (De Filippo).

The mall is one of the biggest meeting places for teens in the United States, as are set

destinations like a house or bowling alley. Both sets of teens do spend their free time similarly

though by listening to music, watching movies, hanging out, practicing sports, and surfing the

internet. They go out to the club or get something to eat, similar to American teenagers, but
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Italian teens are also able to go out to a pub, which is like a bar in the United States. Teenagers

here are not old enough to go to one and drink like those in Italy. Italian schools don’t have the

time or facilities for sports in school but will often enroll in dance or swimming on their own

time (De Filippo). This is a lot different in the United States, where most schools have various

different sports year-round for the students. One last difference is that, between Italian and

American teenagers, Italians don’t leave home they’re well into their 30s, unless they get

married. American teenagers typically leave when they go to college.

Different cultures also shape personalities in different ways. Samuel Putnam and Masha

A. Garstein wrote an article about how parenting styles affect children’s personalities and how

where you’re from also explains certain behaviors ingrained in cultures. For example, Italians

use their hands when they talk, Dutch children are more easygoing than most children, and

Russians rarely smile in public. Psychologists who were fascinated by these differences and

decided to study them. In the past two decades, these researchers have shown how culture shapes

personality. Psychologist Robert McCrae and his colleagues documented pronounced personality

differences of people living in different parts of the world and were able to trace some of the

differences to how children were/are parented. Findings of Dutch social psychologist Geert

Hofstede (1970s) correlated to the findings of current psychologists, which shows that “cultural

values are relatively enduring and effect how kids develop over time” (Hofstede). Culture shapes

how teenagers act, how it affects their personal, family, school, and social life.

An article by Martha Holden about the effects on teenagers from cultural differences says

that “A teen who understands cultural diversity is better able to relate to people who think and

act in a different way that he does.” Families that grew up in a different family culture have to

perform a balancing act with the American one. Many first-generation American teenagers want
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to maintain their original culture, but usually do it at home and portray an American one in

public. School can be difficult if you practice more than one culture because it’s where teens

experience the most cultural diversity and can suffer the effects of being different. Different

cultures have numerous ways to learn and express themselves, and those trying to adopt the

American culture may have a hard time. Peer relationships and personal image are both affected

by cultural differences and make fitting in hard. Teenagers may try to change themselves to fit in

or be misunderstand because of how their body language is interpreted in the American culture.

Driving is different almost everywhere you go, from the signs to the way the roads are

designed to side of the road you have to drive on. Being able to drive while still being a teenager

is a luxury that not everyone in every state or country has. In the United States, the legal age to

drive is 16, with certain rules that has to be met before one can obtain their license, such as

getting a learner’s permit and taking driver education classes before taking a written and driving

exam. The rules vary from state to state in the United States, some with more rules and some

with less.

Most other countries have the legal driving age set to 18 (Nutt). Some of these include

Canada (recently changed from 16), Russia, China, India, Japan, Cyprus, and Europe (the UK is

17, but considering an increase to 18). Ethiopia is just 14 and New Zealand is 15. Australia is the

only one that doesn’t really have a consistent driving age. Depending on where one is located in

Australia, the legal age for driving changes. In New South Wales and the Northern Territory, the

legal age is 17. South Australia is 16 and Victoria is 18. Tasmania, Western Australia, and

Queensland are all 17 as well. The excitement to get a driver’s license and drive usually wear off

after about 6 months, but when it’s still fresh, it’s a symbol of freedom. Where at one point one

was once volunteering to drive to the store, now they dread it.
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Laws regarding how old minors need to be in order to work and what kind of work they

can do are different across the world. In some countries like Italy, teenagers typically don’t work,

as discussed previously, or in South Africa, finding a job is very difficult. “International child

labor standards set the minimum age for light work at 13 years and general employment at 15.

The minimum age for hazardous work is 18, although it can be lowered to 16 under strict

conditions” (Smith). In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets 14 as the

minimum age for most non-agricultural work. Jobs like delivering newspapers, perform in

movies or theatrical productions, and babysitting are allowed by young people of any age if the

business is owned by their parents. Child labor laws are active in the States and some of them

have a minimum age for employment that is higher than FLSA, but the higher minimum standard

must always be obeyed.

In Australia, rules vary between states and territories, where generally the minimum age

is 13, but there is no minimum age for working in a family business or entertainment industry

(Smith). There isn’t a general minimum age for employment in New Zealand, but there are rules

around the times teenagers can work and what types of work they can do. Some of these rules are

that people under the age of 16 can’t work before 6am and after 10pm, they’re legally required to

attend school and work must not interfere with attendance, and people under the age of 15 can’t

work in a factory or work involving machinery (Smith). These laws are similar to those in the

United States for teenagers wanting to work (YouthRules). In the U.S., you are required to obtain

a work permit if you are still in school, but in other countries, most don’t require that. The lowest

employment ages internationally start at 10 in Sri Lanka and go up to 21in the United Arab

Emirates, so teenagers looking for jobs will have to wait until they are the appropriate age.
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The legal age to drink varies depending on where you go. It’s a confrontational subject in

a lot of places because of research conducted where it was discovered alcohol can damage an

adolescent’s underdeveloped brain. According to an article called WorldAtlas, published by John

Miaschi, most countries have a set MLDA (minimum legal drinking age) at 18 or 19 years old.

The United States, except for Puerto Rico and Virginia’s Island, and 19 other countries,

especially Asian countries, have the highest set MLDA (Miaschi). In some countries, alcohol is

completely banned, like in Muslim countries. Sixteen is considered the youngest drinking age,

with at least eight countries and regions having a set MLDA at 16 years, such as the British

Virginia Islands, Barbados, Cuba, Luxemburg, Panama, Serbia, and Zimbabwe (Miaschi).

There are many regulations and laws behind MLDAs, one of which is the effect alcohol

has on the brain of adolescents. A large share of teenagers drink alcohol and a lot engage in high-

risk consumption, such as binge drinking. Sarah W. Feldstein Ewing conducted a study using 11

fMRIs (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and 10 MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) to

show the effects of alcohol on a brain in alcohol- using youth of teenagers age 19 and under.

This study helps explain why laws should be changed world-wide to at least 21, to avoid damage

and changing brain function. The study ended up concluding that consuming alcohol when a

person is not fully done growing and developed is associated with significant differences in

structure and function in the human brain human brain.

People used think that the brain was fully developed by very early teenagerhood. This

explains why, in the history books, people are always drinking at gatherings and with their meals

once they were considered adults in that time period. As time went on and further research was

conducted, scientists now realize the brain doesn’t stop developing until early 20s to early 30s.
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The damage to the brain is more severe in adolescents because it’s still developing and can

happen with smaller amounts of alcohol than with adults (Stepping Stone).

Teenagers experience greater loss of cognitive functions from its effects on the cerebral

cortex, and it effects the brains frontal lobes, which control decision-making skills, ability

to form ideas and inhibitions. This makes teenagers more vulnerable to impulsive actions,

such as violent outburst, and can also inhibit their ability to plan and think ahead. The

hippocampus is also affected by alcohol, which governs memory retention. A lot of

drinking can damage a teenager’s short-term memory, as well as long-term. The

cerebrum can also damage the cerebellum, causing problems with balance and damage to

the hypothalamus can cause the need to urinate more and lower the heart rate. Alcohol

also causes the body’s temperature to lower, which is regulated by the medulla, and

excessive consumption of alcohol also kills brain cells. The more one drinks, the higher

the results of these problems become permanent and the amount that causes permanent

damage is much lower for teenagers than it is adults (Stepping Stone).

Figure 1. This figure shows

that the countries with

lower drinking ages have

more adolescent drinking,

showing that teenagers in

other countries are more

likely to contract illnesses

related to alcohol use

(RecoveryBrands).
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All the countries that have low drinking ages have a higher risk for the teenagers living

there to have permanent damage to multiple parts of the brain. The United States’ legal age for

drinking alcohol is 21, but most countries haven’t raised their age. As the effects of alcohol

become more widely known, some countries are considering raising their legal age to drink,

while others are not. Other countries believe that being exposed to alcohol early on lowers

alcohol abuse and create healthier attitudes towards it, which is why they don’t see the point in

raising the age. Countries like those believe that telling teenagers to wait until they are older,

even though it’s legal for them to vote and go off to war, is what causes alcohol abuse and

permanent damage because they want to be treated as adults in all categories.

The legal age to smoke is changing. Countries are raising the law to 21 and it includes the

sale and purchase of tobacco products to those under 21 and having and using tobacco products

under 21 (Wong, Straits Times). Singapore (within Southeast Asia), Honduras (Central

America), Kuwait (Middle East), Samoa (Oceania), Sri Lanka (South Asia), and Uganda (East

Africa) are some of the countries who have set their legal smoking age to 21 in their respective

regions. In the United States, the situation becomes a bit messy. Some states and even cities have

different legal smoking ages.

The legal purchase of tobacco in a majority of countries is 18, but it doesn’t cover the

use and possession of tobacco products. They need someone who is 21 to buy it for them. These

countries include Australia, China, India, Russia, and South-east Asian neighbors Malaysia and

Indonesia (Wong). In Ukraine. It’s legal to for teenagers to smoke at 14, but they must be 18 and

above to purchase tobacco products. Iraq, Palestine, and Egypt are some of the countries with the

lowest age limit at 14 and in Antigua and Babuda, Belize, and Gambia, there is no age limit at all
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(Wong). There is only one country, which is often called the happiest country, where smoking is

illegal regardless of how old you are. Teenagers have a lot of different laws that they have to

become familiar with, depending on where they live and travel, about whether they can smoke or

not.

The legal age is being raised due to health concerns of adolescents 18-21. A study was

done by Dr. Rice and other colleagues to determine the effects of smoking on the respiratory

and/or physical health problems. Results showed that coughs were more often associated with

smoking, as well as wheezing, difficulty breathing, and less ability to exercise without shortness

of breath. Smoking for a long period of time, starting at in teenage years, has been connected to

cardiovascular diseases, malignant and nonmalignant lung diseases, cancers, and perinatal risks.

The legal smoking ages in places all over the world have been put into place without a

grandfather clause, due to the rising concerns of the health risks being associated to smoking.

While some countries have not changed their laws, even after arguments have been made,

because they do not thinking it’s necessary (since it’s been that way for so long), a lot have so

teenagers can avoid the health effects until their bodies are more mature and done growing and

developing.

In conclusion, there are a vast majority of differences in teenagers throughout the world,

depending on where they live, their culture, how they are raised, and the laws of their country.

Knowing these differences helps teenagers to better understand people who move from one

country to their country, the differences also helps to explain why they act differently from U.S.

teenagers and that it’s important to remember not to judge them but accept them for who they

are. It’s not easy being different and it’s important to make teenagers feel welcome in schools

and the community if they move to the United States and, if teenagers from here travel, it is
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beneficial to know and understand how teenagers in other countries live, dress, and act, and the

laws that are in place there.

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Work Cited

Feldstein Ewing, Sarah W., et al. “The Effect of Alcohol Consumption on the Adolescent Brain:

A Systematic Review of MRI and FMRI Studies of Alcohol-Using Youth.” NeuroImage:

Clinical, vol. 5, Jan. 2014, pp. 420–437. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2014.06.011.

Filippo, Anna De. Italian and American Youth: Some Cultural Differences. 14 May 2018,

https://www.lifeinitaly.com/potpourri/italian-and-american-youth-some-cultural-

differences. Accessed 14 October 2019.

Holden, Martha. How Cultural Differences Affect Teenagers. N.d.

https://living.thebump.com/culture-differences-affect-teenagers-9246.html. Accessed 21

October 2019.

Lomas, Yvonne C. Life as a Teen in South Africa. Ambassador Youth, n.d. Accessed 31 October
2019.

Miaschi, John. “Drinking Ages Around the World” WorldAtlas, 7 January 2019,

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/drinking-ages-around-the-world.html. Accessed 14

October 19.

Nutt, Amy. Street Directory. 2019,

https://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/49004/cars/is_the_legal_driving_age_the_s

ame_for_all_countries.html. Accessed 21 October 2019.

Putnum, Samuel and Masha A. Gartstein. “How Different Cultures Shape Childrens’

Personalities in Different Ways.” Washington Post 12 January 2019,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-different-cultures-shape-

childrens-personalities-in-different-ways/2019/01/11/1c059a92-f7de-11e8-8d64-

4e79db33382f_story.html. Accessed 21 October 2019.

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RecoveryBrands. Prevalence of Alcohol Use During Past Year Among All Adults (15-64). 2018,

https://recoverybrands.com/drugs-in-america-vs-europe/. Accessed 4 November 2019.

Rice, Virginia Hill, et al. “Health Effects Reported by Adolescent Water Pipe and/or Cigarette

Smokers Compared to Nonsmokers.” Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 64, no. 3, Mar.

2019, pp. 333–339. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.08.027.

Smith, Janie. Human Resources Director. 5 May 2014,

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around-the-world/155912. Accessed 31 October 2019.

Stepping Stone. Stepping Stone Center for Recovery. N.d. https://www.steppingstonecenter.com.

Accessed 14 November 2019.

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Wong, Lester. "21, 18, or 14: A Look at the Legal Age for Smoking Around the World." The

Straits Times 3 October 2017, https://www.straitstimes.com/world/21-18-or-14-a-look-at-

the-legal-age-for-smoking-around-the-world. Accessed 31 October 2019.

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Accessed 14 October 2019.